Originally Posted by 79pmooney

But faster would be to leave a strip of stubble along the shinbone to trip the air coming in as laminar flow to turbulent. Yes turbulent flow has more drag but it also wraps further around obstacles before detaching. The width of the stagnant bubble between the right and left hand flows dictates the size of the low pressure zone behind which is a much bigger drag than the difference between laminar and turbulent flow.

Laminar, turbulent, Reynolds numbers. I lived for that stuff in a former life. Still have the well worn bible authored by Abbott and Von Doenhoff.

Edit: the hairless guys can stick narrow strips of stair tread tape on their shins and get the same effect. Like the sand model makers apply to the first half inch of a ship model for tank testing.