{"id":351352,"date":"2021-04-06T14:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T21:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=351352"},"modified":"2021-04-06T16:54:38","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T23:54:38","slug":"is-shaving-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/is-shaving-worth-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Shaving Worth It? A Look at the Age-Old Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is Shaving Worth It? A Look at the Age-Old Process<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Mark McCluskey (From the Archive)<\/em><\/p>\n

You are sitting in your bathroom with shaving cream and a razor – maybe multiple razors, depending on how much hair you have on your body. You have your biggest race of the season tomorrow and need to make sure you are prepared in every way possible, but shaving your body just seems weird. This may be your first time shaving for a meet or it is your tenth time shaving, but no matter what, the question is there in the back of your head:<\/p>\n

Is shaving even worth it?<\/p>\n

There are many different strategies that are supposed to help a swimmer go their fastest when it counts. Wearing an expensive tech suit, getting the taper just right<\/em>, getting a lot of sleep, and more. Out of all of these, one of the most debated strategies for championship season is shaving<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Within the swimming community, it is pretty obvious that we believe that shaving makes a large difference. There are even rules about shaving in some swim leagues to the point that swimmers have been disqualified for shaving too close to the meet<\/a>. Every time the Olympics rolls around, we hear talks about how all the swimmers are shaving before their races. NBC Sports even went so far as to interview swimmers about the necessity of the process. Check out the video below to listen to Olympians\u2019 opinions on shaving, including Nathan Adrian<\/strong> and Matt Grevers\u2019<\/strong> trade-off for getting their backs shaved.<\/p>\n