Shaving your legs may seem daunting the first time you think about it. However, the first time your hairless legs rub together, you’ll fall in love with the feeling. You do need to know a few things that will make your first time easier. It wouldn’t hurt to know where the pitfalls either 😉. Let’s jump into it then.
Preparing to Shave Your Legs
Before you begin, you will need more than just a razor. Shaving your legs the first time requires you to prepare your hair, and skin. Then, as you shave, you’ll need to lubricate your legs to avoid razor burn. After you finish, your legs need some serious care to ensure you can enjoy them. All that said, once you decide to shave, go to your favorite department store and pick up the following.
- Trimmer
- Loofa
- Moisturizing Body Wash
- Shaving Gel for Sensitive Skin
- Razor with four or more blades
- Baby Oil
- Moisturizing Lotion
Please note, Wal-Mart just happens to be my nearest store. I don’t honestly care for one over another. You should notice, though, I bought a name brand razor, as those seem to work best.
Preparing Your Legs For Shaving
Many years ago, I decided to take a Gillette Mach3 razor to my then extremely hairy legs. At first pass, it glided about two inches along my leg before it felt like I was just yanking on the hair. When I looked down, the razor appeared to have grown hairier than my leg. No matter how much I rinsed and attempted to clean, I had destroyed the razor. A few hours later, I felt like I’d done more damage to my skin than that.
Sample Preparations Schedule
Before you even think about ruining a razor and your legs, break it down into three days (I started on Friday).
Day 1: Exfoliate
Use your loofah and body wash to scrub all of the dead cells off of your legs. Then, add a couple of drops of baby oil to your loofah and scrub your legs again. Finish by rinsing off and going about your day as usual.
Day 2: Trim
After washing yourself with the loofah and body wash, trim your leg hairs down. They should be no longer than a grain of rice. Finish the process with a baby oil scrub again.
Day 3: Shaving
Repeat the loofah and body wash cleaning. We’ll cover shaving and after care in the next section.
Shaving Your Legs
After you’ve cleaned your legs, take about a half-dollar sized squeeze of shaving gel and rub your hands together to build up a good lather. Start rubbing the lather onto your leg from the ankle up towards about high mid-thigh. Rinse off your hands, and pick up the razor. Take small strokes, only about two to four inches at a time, upwards. Rinse the razor off after every single stroke.
Once you’ve cleared the hair from ankle to thigh, repeat the process with your opposite leg. Then, using your fingers as guides, feel your legs to see if you missed any patches, running the razor over it when you do. Finish the shave by rinsing off your legs, and doing a baby oil exfoliation.
Aftercare for Shaved Legs
Now that you’ve showered and shaved your legs for the first time, you get to start aftercare. 😒 This means, that as soon as you get out of the shower, use your towel to pat yourself dry instead of just rubbing it everywhere. Then, be certain you massage about a quarter-size dollop of moisturizing lotion on each quarter of your legs.
That should become your new normal every time you get out of the shower.
Some Final Notes
To avoid going through this process every time, all you have to do is maintain your shaved legs. Judge how often you need to shave by watching for when the hairs are almost as long as a grain of rice. If you choose to shave daily, or every other day, that’s up to you, and totally fine. After about a month, I went from about 45 minutes to 25 per shave. The more you practice, the easier it gets.
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