The month of shaving my leg

{ This is not supposed to be anything similar to serious discussion of the subject }

Background

I have always had a kind of fascination with norms. Not the norms themselves, but their background and reasons. I often stop myself to ask: “how am i supposed to act in this situation, and why?”. I do feel that the ones related to behaviour (like why we always face the doors and don’t talk to anyone after entering an elevator) are quite easy to understand, if not from a social perspective, but from a biological one.

Among the norms of looks there are some that are easy to understand, and some that aren’t. I wouldn’t call it blatantly obvious, but I have always found the hair hate that is going on a bit weird. (“[...] that’s how you know you aren’t fucking a minor” – Dan Savage). You could argue that it has something to do with trying to look youthful, but unless you are actually a hebephile, that doesn’t really make sense to me.

I don’t really want to ponder these things, since it is not the scope of this post. I should however actually get to the point.

I have never really had any preference when it comes to flirts, one night stands and significant others. I have been together with girls that did not shave, and it didn’t bother me the least (statistically they are more than just a bit over-represented, so maybe I do have a preference, but that is once again way beyond the scope). I have never understood the phenomena, but that hasn’t stopped me from being intrigued by it. So, about a month ago I decided to try it out – I shaved my left leg.

So, Why exactly?

Why not? One day looked out through a small opening in the shower curtain and saw my shaving gel and my razor. It was more something i did in the heat of the moment than something I had actually been thinking about for a long time. I shouldn’t attribute to a burning interest what can be much more easily explained with boredom (I mean what else can be done in a shower???).

And to actually understand it, shouldn’t I at least try it out myself?

How?

As with so many things, the first time is the hardest. I thought it would just be to apply the shaving foam and shave away, but it proved to be pretty hairy business. The razor clogged and wasn’t effective at all, but I soon figured out that if i did a back and forth movement (shaving with the direction of the hair) it went like a charm. Afterwards, since i still had a slight stubble, so I shaved again but against the direction of the hair.

I found that I had to shave every other day to avoid getting a stubble, but after my first pioneering shave this wasn’t really a problem. It did however dry my skin out, so I had to go buy a lotion.

The good

Apart from the silky smoothness you mean? Well, nothing. The weather in Västerås hasn’t been cold enough for me to use long johns, but from those I usually get sore follicles from the hair laying in the wrong direction. I would guess shaving your legs helps out.

None of the people I asked for feedback gave a conclusive answer. Apparently it felt nice to touch, but “a man is supposed to have leg hair”, which didn’t make me any wiser, since it was those kind of statements I was trying to shed some light on. Personally i preferred my hairy leg to be caressed. The other one left something more to be desired. It felt a bit like bathing in rainwear.

The bad

Apart from the time it took I and that it dried my skin out I only have one real complaint. I recently started running, and after every time i trained some of the follicles on my left leg turned red (like blood read. at first i thought they were bleeding) and stayed like that for one or two days. I asked around a bit, and apparently that problem disappears with time.

Oh, and my jeans became itchy, but i would probably get used to it.

Conclusion

I am as non-understanding as ever. Neither I nor the ones that tried my leg out liked it shaved. It felt weird to touch (probably takes some getting used to), and it felt weird to have it touched. From what I can conclude, there isn’t any real practical reason for shaving, but rather (as i would have been stupid not to expect all along) it is more a normative thing.

For anyone actually interested in serious discussion and something not written in half an hour you could read: http://www.springerlink.com/content/x3v4321143554757/

Next month will be the month of shaving my armpit. Stay tuned.