Hair Removal for Athletes: Reasons and Benefits
Sports fans will have noticed that swimmers, cyclists and bodybuilders have a definite lack of hair on their bodies. There are a lot of reasons why this happens and there are critics of the practice and supporters. The removal of hair from
an athlete’s body seems to be a fairly new phenomenon. In the olden days, male athletes could be seen with hair all over but these days especially with swimmers and bodybuilders not a single stray hair can be noticed. Female athletes have an easier time with
hair simply because their bodies do not have as much of it as men. The question remains though, for a strictly athletic purpose does having no hair actually increase performance?
The purpose of removing unwanted body hair can be seen most often in swimmers, bodybuilders and cyclists. Each have their own reason for doing it and each sport tries to get its own benefit from the practice. Over the last few years it seems that facial
hair among male athletes is closely following the trend of hairstyles and tattoos to become a symbol of style for them. But the growing trend of removing facial and body hair seems to have a different purpose for athletes trying to gain just that tiny extra
edge in their chosen field.
First we come to swimming; the sport regularly sees athletes who do not have a single hair anywhere on their bodies. There are a few reasons for this practice and some say the practice has benefits while others do not see the point. It seems over the years
swimmers have been trying to do anything and everything in order to increase their winning times. If they can do something or change one factor of their training, it leads to an increase in performance that is seen as being worth it.
If they can edge ever so slightly closer to breaking world records and beating the competition then they will do it. It is in this regard that swimmers remove their hair in its entirety. Swimmers feel that hair can create friction in the water and slow them
down. Even though studies have shown that the difference body hair causes is miniscule and might only change performance times by nanoseconds, competitive swimmers will do anything to gain those precious few nanoseconds. It could mean the difference between
winning and losing.
Cyclists also tend to remove their leg hair before competition. They use various methods, from waxing to laser removal to creams all in an order to get rid of unwanted follicles. A lot of cyclists do it in order for their Lycra shorts to fit better and for
a host of other reasons. Some do it to fit in with their cycling peers, some for aesthetic purposes, some because they feel it helps their legs heal faster and some do it because they think it makes them feel faster. There is very little consensus on how effective
the practice is among the sport of cycling and whether it actually does provide any benefit. It may simply provide a placebo type effect because if a cyclist believes he is going faster with no hair, he just might go faster at the end of the day. But the jury
is still out on the actual benefits for cyclists.
Coming to bodybuilders, almost every single professional bodybuilder, the ones that take part in competitions, do not have any body hair. This again is done for various reasons but the two biggest seems to be aesthetic and for massaging. Bodybuilding competitions
focus on an athlete’s body and they are judged on the definition, size and shape of their muscles. So every muscle has to be put on display for the judges to score. In this regard hair cannot cover up any of the muscles and so hair is removed to give the judges
a better view while judging. Also a lot of bodybuilders claim that having no hair helps in receiving massages to aid in tired and strained muscles.
More studies will have to be conducted over the years about hair removal and its effects on sports. If it is shown to be conclusively beneficial for athletes, it might become more prominent in sports such as running and many others. It is interesting because
who would have thought that something as simple as hair could make a difference in sports.
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