BuddaKnuckle.
In surgery I can see the need to shave the area beforehand, based on what you describe about the bugs. In a cycling injury, would it not be the case though that the tissue damaged would have the more primary importance in dramatically enlarging the portal for infection to enter?
I mean, if I fell off and opened an area of my leg, then the potential for infection through the damaged area would be much more significantly enhanced than the bugs on the hair, because there is a greater area of damage, and usually quite deep as well.
For me, it comes back to the start of the thread. As I read it, shaving may reduce the
potential for infection, but shaving itself does not contribute to the
healing of the wound except to reduce the possibility of infection? There is the cause-and-effect of infection and healing, but healing and coagulation for example are independent of the infection - in all but some extreme circumstances, like haemophilia?
Right now, taing the viewpoint of where I lay on the ground with my leg damaged, I'd be more concerned about that than forgetting to have shaved that morning.
