....the evil in-grown hair
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ted posted 4 years ago.
I've found that if I shave my legs moving DOWN my leg in the direction the hair grows I literally have ZERO problems with ingrown hair. It doesn't get as close as an upward direction but it removes most of the hair and on a day to day basis it's a lot easier on the skin to just shave down.
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Wakizashi posted 4 years ago.
interesting, ive been going up... maybe ill give it a shot next time.... kinda also wondering about other methods... aka chemical/etc (scary stuff to me)
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1665 days
annietrick posted 4 years ago.
as a girl, i am a pro at the shaving up for a smooth shave, but shaving down will definately cut down on the risk of ingrown hairs. also, there's a whole world of lovely creams and gels that make shaving more comfortable... physically i mean, i'm sure you'd hear about it in the army :) also, a guy friend of mine used to shave for bodybuilding and eventually he found this device that looked kind of like an electric razor, but it plucked the hairs instead. i think it just rolled right along, grabbing the hairs and yanking them out. he said it was pretty painful, but the results lasted for 1-2 weeks. i never tried it, but just thought i'd let you know that such things exist. good luck.
:) annie
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trainDaBrain posted 4 years ago.
that's one disgusting story. ;)
sorry that happened to you. to me, this is one more reason not to shave. but it really comes down to laziness for me. i used to shave regularly, but ever since i took my 10 year hiatus from racing, i just never picked up the razor again. except for my face. i do shave my face.
but it's nice to know how bad an in-grown hair can get.
happy training!
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1556 days
Wakizashi posted 4 years ago.
lol thks, the question is... does it work.... well without killing u :) ?
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blackstar posted 4 years ago.
is it daft to shave your legs if your a man? personally i find that after i've shaved my legs it gives me an extra little boost, it just makes me feel that bit more athletic.
anything that gives you a bit of a boost for training has to be a good thing in my book!
but that ingrowing hair sounds nasty, think i might switch to depilatory creams,
thanks for the warning...
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1614 days
ibgenaro posted 4 years ago.
I use nair on my chest and stomach area, I've never used it on my legs, well at least yet. I works on my chest (just don't get it on your nipples :eek: , it burns). It's a biggest pain in the butt to use nair as oppose to shaving, but I have not had to worry about any ingrown hairs.
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1489 days
alagalah posted 4 years ago.
I don't get it, why does one need to shave at all?
I used to swim competitively in Australia and didn't shave at all.
My Dad used to ride bicycles both road and velodrome when the velodromes were made of varnished wood. He only shaved for velodrome because the varnished wood would grab hairs and cause some pretty bad skin rips.
Does it make THAT much difference? I would hesitate a guess that if the time spent shaving was spent on some stroke correction work in the pool, the results would be better.
(Just my humble opinion, and definitely not hassling anyone who shaves, I just honestly don't get it)
EDITTED:
Ok, after Googling, I can only come to the conclusion that there is no good reason other than "it makes you feel better about yourself", and thats cool.
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trainDaBrain posted 4 years ago.
skin rips??? sheesh that's a disturbing visual. that thought alone makes me want to shave EVERYTHING.
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Wakizashi posted 4 years ago.
well i haven't shaved since the "incident" .... but thats more because im going to a military POW school..... and the chief objective there is to be "gray man" and not stand out for anything. But probably when i get back ill go back to it.... i guess alagalah is right about the mental factor.... thats probably the best way to describe in the water/bike.... for me, i feel abit more slippery in the water, if thats possible.
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blackstar posted 4 years ago.
i don't want to harp on about it, but, i read on a cycling website that the reason cyclists shave their legs is so that when they have an accident the wound is easier to dress when the legs are free of hair and also for massage purposes.
i have to say that when my girlfriened gives me a leg massage its far nicer and smoother than when they are hairy, and she can apply more pressuse without feeling like she's going to yank some hairs out.
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krbrownabq posted 4 years ago.
Try reading this:
http://www.trinewbies.com/Article.asp?ArticleID=20
Kelli
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1489 days
alagalah posted 4 years ago.
Yeah, that pretty much sums up what I thought.
As for the "hair in the wound" thing... I only ride twice a week but log about 5-6 hours in the saddle and typically ditch 2-3 times a year (seriously ditch, not a little polywoggle can't unclip in time and 'fall over' goofy mistake - which I do quite a bit because I am unco-ordinated) ... and have never had any problems with healing up.
But as I said before... if it makes you feel better ... c'est la vie.
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infinIT 1 posted 4 years ago.
I shave because my wife likes it. That is enough reason for me. :)
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TIM G posted 4 years ago.
it makes me feel better about myself as a triathlete and cyclist, and I don't want to be "THE GUY WITH THE HAIRY LEGS"
I have women ask me ALL the time how I make my legs look and feel better than their's...I luv it!!!
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1556 days
Wakizashi posted 4 years ago.
i remember there was a rumor back in the day that said, if you shave legs/chest.... it grows back with more hair.... any truth to that.... (just finished watching sienfeld episode on the subject)...
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trainDaBrain posted 4 years ago.
i don't shave because my wife doesn't like it. And that is reason enough for me too. :D
as for hair coming back, compared to when I didn't shave (which was around puberty), then when I did shave (during college), and now, when I don't shave, I have WAY more hair now. But it might also be hormones...
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infinIT 1 posted 4 years ago.
trainDaBrain wrote:
i don't shave because my wife doesn't like it. And that is reason enough for me too. :Das for hair coming back, compared to when I didn't shave (which was around puberty), then when I did shave (during college), and now, when I don't shave, I have WAY more hair now. But it might also be hormones...
Wait. That is a double negative...so that means that you do shave and your wife likes it....or you don't because your wife hates it...oh, my head hurts. :confused:
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1692 days
trainDaBrain posted 4 years ago.
No. My wife likes my hairy legs. Hence, I shave not. :D
hey all... here's a sad story for u
i started shaving my legs (i'm a guy :D 21) do to the benefits all around in the pool and on the saddle of the bike. Well everything had gone well for about a month, no problem... with the small exception of a few chuckles from my army cohortes.
well.... long behold.... i'm in briefing about a week ago and i feel something painful on my left thigh through my uniform. I come back latter that night and long behold it is now a rather larger red mass on my thigh.... which looks abit like a misqueto bite on steriods. Well, me being the hard tri / army fella i am, i ignore it. Skip forward two days, and that mass has grown to atleast a baseball and sum. Lucky for me.... i have some great great SF medics/doctors in my line of work... and i asked one about it.... and he directed me to the ER immediately.
turns out... a ingrown hair got infected somehow and blew up. Not a fun experience, had to get it cut open / drained / and a bunch of anti-bios. Thankfully i'm in the home stretch as the "oceans" are receding on the planet attached to my thigh.
....well.... the lesson for today i guess if your a guy.... be careful when shaving, especially when your not necessarily a pro at it.... or not even a rookie... in my case
.....kinda strange to.... because i used desposable blades once and i always tried to go super slow.
so this month has been a combined awesome one (1 large accidents + 1 large health concern)
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