Experimental

I've decided to run an experiment.
On my legs.

More specifically, I am only shaving one of them.
I could go on and on about how I regularly shaved my legs, and then decided to let one grow, but that would be a lie.

I actually just got super lazy over the winter, and stopped shaving my legs. A lot of us do that. You could rationalize it as insulation, but really- I just got lazy. Then it was Spring! And I WAS going to shave my legs- I even had a razor in my hand and was about to start the seasonal clean-up after I groomed my arm pits, but I suddenly imagined the razor clogging with one pass of the blade. So I thought to myself how I should just wax them anyway, before I enter shaving season and into a stubble issue (it's easier to wax hair that isn't stubbly / shaven). I imagined my silky-smooth getaway sticks of tomorrow, instead of the sticks I did have (get away!), and remained shaveless.

One Spring catastrophe after another, and I ended up suddenly without a need to shave my legs for any sort of hopeful reason. I hated people briefly, and wanted them all to go away. This depressed me. I remained hairy. April passed.

May was passing, and as my birthday approached I kept assessing the situation. Shave? Wax? Do I care? The answer was- not really.

And so it's June. Legs? I decided I may as well run an experiment. I shaved one.


Just to backtrack a bit before the big reveal, I decided to see what images would come up with a google search for "hairy legs."

The number one result actually specified ladies:

Girls with Hairy Legs [link]
Look at that ladyhair. Call me strange, but I don't find this appalling. I looked for more images of long leg-haired women, but the results when you add "girls" to a "hairy legs" search, require one to be over the age of 18 and in the mood for something a bit beyond what my intentions were set on.


A bit further into the cacophony of sexless, genderless "hairy legs" results was the following glorious image:

Mo'Nique at the Golden Globe Awards Ceremony [link]
I love her attitude, even if I don't love her legs. Brazen defiance of mores = awesome. But there is something rather satyr-like about long-haired legs in heels, and it just so happens that I am not a fan of "the look" of satyrs- they remind me of my ex.






But unshaven legs NOT in heels, that isn't so bad at all to me. Aesthetically speaking.

About those mores- as far as leg shaving goes, it's considered normal for us ladies in the USA. Part of the whole neotenous, borderline prepubescent fixation we have where youth = beauty. Wikipedia even has an article on leg shaving [link] that doesn't really get into the reasons behind our societal leg shaving. But lets face it, those of us who do not shave our legs are labeled as...hippies. Gah. To me, this is probably the strongest reason FOR shaving my legs that I can think of. Damn hippies.


All societal issues aside (as they frequently are for me), I actually like having leg hair. I can actually feel better with the hairy leg. For example, I am presently wearing jeans. If I flex and extend the ankle of my left (hairy) leg, I can actually feel the denim fabric moving against my leg: how heavy it is, its temperature and texture. The right (shaven) leg? I gather no temperature or texture data- my skin has already been in constant contact with the fabric. It's like being partially numb.

This must contribute to swimmers' reasoning for leg shaving. For while they DO shave their legs, they practice for the race with their legs covered and protected from the feel of the water. If your legs suddenly feel the water for the first time, it seems "increased sensitivity to the water makes competitive swimmers faster." Perhaps the sudden feel of water leads to a release of adrenaline? Wikipedia may be pulling my chain, but that's what I read at the leg-shaving link. It is mistakenly listed under the "Men" section, instead of being listed as a separate section about athletes in general (someone should edit that).



So.
Back to my legs.
The unshaven VS the shaven.

Comparison?


Yes, I know they are so pale, they would blind you at the beach. Aside from that, my shaven VS unshaven has little in common. Bulgy knees. Neither is particularly fantastic.

Contrasting the two, the shaven one definitely looks stereotypically more "feminine," clean, etc. But maybe that is because I am a brunette. I think if the hair were a little lighter, it wouldn't really stand out at all. And in the grand scheme of things, I guess my legs really are not that hairy. We're looking at months and months of hair growth, people. My ankle-area hair is probably the biggest issue.

So while I'm deciding which version of leg hair wins, I will leave you with the following link:
leg hair [link]