The Leg Shave: A Ritual of the Tribe

My hat goes off to women everywhere who shave their legs.

Today, for the first time in about 40 years, my legs are hairless.

Before.

I crossed the leg-hair Rubicon after this morning's club ride. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision, but partly inspired by the photo I got from the KW race. The socks were bad enough, but the hairy legs just looked... wrong. On today's ride I felt downright self-conscious about it.

I didn't realize what I was getting into.
Good Lord, what a task.

Shaving your face is one thing, but there's not that much real estate to deal with. Doing two entire legs is like mowing a wheat field with a lawnmower. There's bloody acres of it.

It takes forever. There are all kinds of weird corners around kneecaps and tendons and so on. The razor clogs up like crazy and you have to keep pulling something that looks like a small rodent out of it. I was ready to quit after one leg. But that would have looked entirely too idiotic.

After. (Not exactly as shown)

Bear in mind that I'm an ironic gen-Xer with commitment issues (the idea of a tattoo just gives me the cringe) so this kind of body mod is a big leap. It means I'm serious. I couldn't really do it til I had raced, though. I had to prove to myself that I'm a real rider; that I had earned entry into one of the rituals of the tribe.

It was a bit of a frightening sight at first. But once I got used to it it looked pretty cool. Felt nice too. Once I get a bit of sun colour on them they will be less startling, I hope.

One thing is certain, however: this will make me faster.