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OPINION

To Shave or Not To Shave

Hair is strength

Rob at the forum writes:

Obviously its starting to get a little warmer now, and nearly time to break out the shorts. What are your feelings on whether to shave legs or not?

That many of us are already obliged to frustrate nature's wishes to satisfy the aesthetic preferences of our partners is reason enough to consider the enlargement of this mandate a depilation too far.

Although it's true that most Tour de France winners shave and manage to put in quite respectable times, you have to ask yourself how much faster they could go if they didn't traumatise their largest organ. (That would be their skin.) If Samson taught us anything, it's that hair is strength.


Samson in better times. After his haircut even LOLcats made him whimper like a little girl.

On the other hand, a clean-jowled James Bond shaved the world, or at least face, on numerous occasions.

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19 comments

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Actium | 11 years ago
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notfastenough replied to Actium | 11 years ago
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Actium wrote:

Careful with the Veet - please not the comments here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Veet-Men-Hair-Removal-Creme/dp/B000KKNQBK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367499229&sr=8-1&keywords=veet+for+men

Seen that before, those reviews are hilarious.

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Dr. Ko | 11 years ago
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I do it the hard way with a razor, very old style with tons of soap. ( http://innercitymobility.blogspot.de/2012/11/days-of-darkness-bassos-sha... ) Problem is the complexity of the knee cap. Now the good things working with models  3 is getting tips on topics like that: Veet creme. One of the products one wishes not to exchange with the booty creme  13

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yourpaceormine | 11 years ago
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How far North, absolutely. Just above the lycra line, and us hairier chaps will look like we're still wearing shorts when we take them off. I wondered where legs stop and other bits of anatomy begin. Went for the pants line defining end of legs and start of private bits.

Apparently Veet type creams work jsut as well and when it grows back it isn't as sharp/scratchy and spiky.

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badback | 11 years ago
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More a question of how far north do you go. Surely back, sack and crack is vanity rather than tradition.  39

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andyfla | 11 years ago
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You forgot leg warmers, I can only keep them up with shaved legs, when they are unshaven the leg warders slide down.

Oh and suntan lotion

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yourpaceormine | 11 years ago
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Now I'm a hairy fellow; in certain parts of Manchester City Centre I would be feted as a 'bear'. Normally I get the clippers out to keep everything tidy. (Really bushy legs and lycra does look wrong).

I was pruning the legs the other night and pruned a little too vigorously, ending up with a bald spot. So I thought, might as well go the whole hog and see what all the fuss is about.

Initially all was well, legs a little colder, trousers felt strange in a strange sort of way. 12 hours post shave and the trouble began. 5 o'clock shadow. Unpleasant. 36 hours later and I'm walking like John Wayne. Respect to all the ladies who shave every day!

Blimey! If you've never shaved, and are shave-curious. Stop. Think. And be prepared to either a)shave forever or b)be in considerable discomfort until it grows back!

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Leviathan replied to yourpaceormine | 11 years ago
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yourpaceormine wrote:

Now I'm a hairy fellow; in certain parts of Manchester City Centre I would be feted as a 'bear'. Normally I get the clippers out to keep everything tidy. (Really bushy legs and lycra does look wrong).

I was pruning the legs the other night and pruned a little too vigorously, ending up with a bald spot. So I thought, might as well go the whole hog and see what all the fuss is about.

Initially all was well, legs a little colder, trousers felt strange in a strange sort of way. 12 hours post shave and the trouble began. 5 o'clock shadow. Unpleasant. 36 hours later and I'm walking like John Wayne. Respect to all the ladies who shave every day!

Blimey! If you've never shaved, and are shave-curious. Stop. Think. And be prepared to either a)shave forever or b)be in considerable discomfort until it grows back!

Solution: No. 1 Clippers

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Yennings | 11 years ago
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See Guardian bike blog for a better debate on this topic. Coincidence that you guys have published a piece shortly after theirs?

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mad_scot_rider | 11 years ago
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Quote:

Do it or don't do it for your own reasons. Who cares what anyone else thinks? Yawn

+1 for that sentiment

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ColT | 11 years ago
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I can't believe people are still asking this question.

Do it or don't do it for your own reasons. Who cares what anyone else thinks?  37

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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You missed out the number one reason I would shave if I could be arsed - comfort in tights and the horrific 'furry lycra' look when it pokes through the material.

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Chuffy | 11 years ago
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Comedy gold!

(this post may contain traces of lie  44 )

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racingcondor | 11 years ago
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I'll fix that -

Three good reasons to shave in order of importance:
1. It looks like you know what you are doing on a bike even if you are c**p and in a 3/4 race, no-one will follow the hairy bloke in black shorts up the road making break away's even harder.
2. Easier to deal with road rash (on those rare occasions that it matters).
3. Less painful massage than with hairs in the way (for me, even rarer but it's a good reason).

It's got a hell of a lot more to do with fitting in than it has to do with speed.

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ianj replied to racingcondor | 11 years ago
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well at least the sun block got your approval

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racingcondor replied to ianj | 11 years ago
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Can't believe I missed the sun block  39 .

Surely sun block would get in the way of your shiny summer embrocation? (OK, now I'm kidding. Sort of  1 )

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ianj | 11 years ago
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Why is speed always mentioned with shaving ???!!!...for me three good reasons to shave in order of importance:
1. Damn sight easier to put on sun block evenly
2. Less painful massage than with hairs in the way,
3. Easier to deal with road rash...
Ok one more - it looks like you know what you are doing on a bike even if you are c**p  3

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Agony Guy replied to ianj | 11 years ago
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ianj wrote:

Why is speed always mentioned with shaving ???!!!

Because everything is about speed, even when it isn't… or is it? As has been logically explained by you and racingcondor:

Quote:

It looks like you know what you are doing on a bike even if you are c**p… no-one will follow the hairy bloke in black shorts up the road making break away's even harder.

So following the shaved bloke might have the effect of speeding things up.

Quote:

Easier to deal with road rash.

Easier usually translates to faster. You're back on the bike faster, thus speeding things up.

Quote:

Less painful massage than with hairs in the way.

The more pain you're in, the more likely the masseuse will have to slow down to deal with squirming. It sounds like having shaved legs might speed things up.

Quote:

It's got a hell of a lot more to do with fitting in than it has to do with speed.

The first Roman who looked around and said "Do as we do" was merely capitalising on human nature. Individual effort is the stuff of splashy inspirational feature stories, but working together as a team, that old esprit de corps, often makes all the difference between failure and success – which in races is defined as whoever has best succeeded in speeding things up.

Of course, the only way to accurately judge the pros and cons of shaving is to place two cyclists in a controlled scientific environment, such as the Large Hadron Collider. Have them race in separate directions until they smash into each other at fantastic speed. Then collate the data and publish in a peer reviewed journal.

As for protection from electromagnetic radiation given off by our nearest star,

//www.anothercyclingforum.com/AG/sunblock.jpg)
with a tip of the hat to bikeboy76

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Leviathan | 11 years ago
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Cybernetic organisms do not exhibit hairs, simply flesh bonded to a carbotanium endoskeleton.

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