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Speed Is a Hairy Proposition for Swimmers

Being a member of the Woodland girl’s swim team has its positives and its negatives. Of course, there are many positives, but that comes along with the chlorine drying out our skin and ruining our hair, bruises from climbing out of the pool (or in my case slipping on the diving board and falling into the pool), foot and hamstring cramps, swimmer’s ear, and many more. Worst of all, for the entirety of the season, not shaving our legs.

The reasoning behind the swim girls not shaving their legs is simply science. Like every other sports team, swimming goes through its season and at the end the team competes at NVLs. This meet is the most important and requires some tricks. The reason the team grows their leg hair out is to create drag during the season.

Yes, drag makes you go slower and yes, the point is to go fast. The logic behind it is if the girls are used to swimming with drag during the season, then when it comes time to swim at NVls and our legs are shaved, then our times will drop.

Still, don’t understand?

The article Swimmers Shave Time By Not Shaving Legs it explains that ¨practicing and competing with the hair and dead skin cells on their bodies has made the swimmers grow accustomed to the natural drag that comes along with it. Jumping in the water for the first time after shaving their bodies is a completely different feeling and is looked forward to as if it were a holiday.¨

Yes, we know not shaving our legs until NVls did not make all the difference in the world, and it is a little extreme, but we do it together as a team. Of course, there is a good reason why we do not shave our legs, but that doesn’t change the embarrassment of walking through the halls in a dress or skirt for meet days, or even shorts because it was unusually hot this past fall. Some people may call it gross or unnecessary, and believe me most of us do not want to have to deal with it either, but in the end, it all paid off.

Spenser Burkowsky

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