Ah, manscaping, the one topic so delicate that it’s almost impossible to not give too much information. Well, I’m here to give it a go.
First of all, there are a few rules here that start at the neck and don’t apply to cycling specifically:
1. Trim the neck beard – once a week whether you like it or not. Nothing is nastier than a fella whose neck hair is two inches longer than the hair on his melon. Have your wife knock that jungle down with a weed whacker if you must. If you don’t have a wife who will do you the favor of shaving your neck, a large handheld mirror will allow you to see what you’re doing without cutting yourself bad enough to bleed out.
2. Trim the nose hairs once a week. Don’t use sharp pointed scissors, and be careful. Also hit the uni-brow while you’re at it (and have your hair stylist trim your eyebrows every time you get your hair cut).
3. Use clippers to knock down the ear hair once every other week.
These must be done on a regular basis, period. If you’re ok with random, long, curly hair flailing about your face, that’s all good. You’re the one that has to live with it…unless you’re married, in which case try this one time and see what she says.
Ok, that’s good for the rated G. Moving on to PG:
1. Unless you happen to be a relative of Chewbacca
, while your wife is working on your neck, ask her to kindly hit the tufts of hair below your shoulder blades (once every two or three weeks).
2. Arms and chest are optional. I hate having long arm and chest hair but I’m not vain enough to shave my arms and chest on a regular basis. A simple 10 minutes every other week (during winter, fall and spring – once a week in the summer) with trimmers and a guard (I use a #1 or #2) will get you looking sharp and tidy – and not like the big fella to the left.
3. Legs – now this is where it gets controversial. If you are a racer, it isn’t. You shave. We all get it. Of course, long arm hair and bald legs look silly, but I’ll leave well enough alone. Now I’m in a middle zone, between a real athlete and a fitness rider. Smooth legs will help me in the water, there’s no doubt, but really, do I gotta? Thankfully, I have the answer: Maybe. I have it on good authority that anyone at the State or Regional level will shave their legs – it helps with road rash and with a wet suit (I’m assuming – I’ve never worn one)/bare legged swim. On the other hand, depending on location, most sport or fitness riders won’t. Well that doesn’t exactly help either. There is a compromise thankfully, go to the trimmers and tame that jungle – you’ll be comfortably right smack dab in the middle, where your significant other won’t complain about stubble and you won’t have to hide the fact that you’re using her razor in the shower. Truth be told, I’ve read countless articles that suggest even noobs should be shaving their legs to go on a club ride lest they be derided for… uh, actually being a noob. (?) In any event, I’ve gotta be honest, I’ve been thinking many writers post this misinformation just to catch the noobs up, so they show up to their first club ride, legs glistening, while their more experienced counterparts laugh like Wookies that another noob fell for the shaving the legs bit. This will be a matter for the proprietor of your local bike shop – think of him as your Ben Kenobi, guiding you to the exhaust ports at the end of the trench as you’re about to blow up the Death Star. If you need your legs shaved to avoid being derided by the fellas he’ll let you know. How do I know this?
I asked. I just wish I’d thought of that before I shaved my legs. Figures. Sorry honey, I used your old razor.
As for the R and NC-17 stuff… You’ll have to go elsewhere for that.
Fit Recovery 
Its been about ten years since I shaved my legs for racing…Just had a knee replacement three weeks ago and as the nurses were shaving me up I decided what the heck might as well do it again rather than have a bare patch around my leg. Therapist and Doctors thought it was cheeky and so does the wife. Oh well with all the rubber band training I have been doing I’m glad I did! Great Post!!!
Yeah, now that I bit the bullet I’m trying to decide whether or not I just keep going with it… I’ll see what my wife says when she figures it out.
Thank you, by the way… I’m still winded enough from my ride to forget my manners.
This is awesome. There is such a big stink about shaving your body. I like to think about it like this, you get a haircut so your public hair looks neat….why not have your body match?
That’s the way I roll brother. 😀
I should not have been reading this while shopping with my kids. I was cracking up. Can we make this post go viral? A lot of men could learn something here! 🙂
Thanks for the kind words… It’s one of those topics that you just have to be funny about.
Welcome to my world. Like there is a question women have to shave?? Too funny. Great post!
Thank you!
[…] Manscaping 101. Posted by bgddyjim on April 1, 2012 Posted in: Cycling, Fitness, Humor, Mountain Biking, Running, Swimming, Triathlon, Uncategorized. Leave a Comment A few weeks ago I bought into the internet hype that all male cyclists, big and small, young and old, should shave their legs lest they be labeled a perpetual cycling noob for their egregious behavior in the eyes of their local club brethren. About two days after succumbing to said hype I emailed our local cycle shop owner with the intention of finding out if this label was real or just hype. God forbid, I’d hate to be labeled in perpetuity for a lack of respect for my newly beloved hobby. Ah, if I’d only sent that email before I’d bothered to shave my “guns”, for he absolved all cycling noobs by proclaiming that the only people, at least locally, who shave their legs are the racers who compete at a regional or state level. This certainly does not describe me, as I simply ride for enjoyment and fitness purposes – even if I do take this hobby of riding seriously. I wrote about it here. […]