Leg shaving

Woman shaving her legs

Leg shaving is the removal of leg hair using shaving. People use a razor or an electric shaver. Sometimes people use other techniques to remove their leg hair, such as waxing. Leg shaving is very common with women in the western world. They mainly do it for estethic reasons. Some men, mainly bodybuilders and sportspeople also do it.

Especially since the beginning of the 20th century, women have started shaving their legs more often. Since about the beginning of the First Word War, the hemlines of women's dresses have become shorter. Their swimsuits have also become more revealing. That way, usually all of the woman's legs are visible. Some women only shave the lower part of their legs, below the knee; other women also shave the part above. There are razors and electric shavers that are targeted at women; they have a slightly different design than those sold to men.

For men, leg shaving is most common among people doing sports, or bodybuilding. Seneca suggested that in ancient Rome it was considered as effeminacy, unlike underarm hair removal: "One is, I believe, as faulty as the other: the one class are unreasonably elaborate, the other are unreasonably negligent; the former depilate the leg, the latter not even the armpit" (letter 114). Summers cites Ovid, A. A. i. 506 "Don't rub your legs smooth with the tight-scraping pumice stone."