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Shaving and waxing are common things in sports. Many players are more like stars and they have sponsors' money spent on them.
When it comes to basketball NBA players do shave
their legs. Just look at the legs of Michael Jordon, Stephen curry, Labron
James, and more. They have facial hairs and sometimes chest hair but more often
legs are shaven off.
Reasons basketball Players shave their legs:
Looks and Hygiene:
Shaved legs make a good shiny look and it keeps the
muscles more prominent. Just imagine a bushy hairy leg on camera. Watching a
major league and favorite sport's star doesn’t look good for the audience.
Basketball talent are tall players and the legs are
the most exposed part So, shaving them makes it more presentable to a national
audience
Hygiene:
Shaved legs just need less maintenance and look tidy
even not shower. Players can put lotion on their legs and it gets directly
absorbed through the exposed skin.
It prevents infection and other bacterial fungus so,
shaved legs are good for hygienic purposes.
Well display muscle definition
A good clean muscle definition is acquired through
shaving. Stars like tom cruise, and Chris Hemsworth all have shaved chest and leg
to get a good clean muscle definition.
Legs muscles are the most exposed area in basketball shorts it's a good choice to shave.
Prevent Infections:
When legs are shaved it's easier to put disinfectant
on them. A study published about Infection and hair removals suggests using
a Clipper makes less likelihood of infections rather than using a razor.
If you are looking to shave legs best is to use a
clipper.
Bandage removals:
Less hair on the legs will help easily put bandages on and off. Basketball is a competitive sport and injuries are common hair legs will make it hard to keep a bandage on and off due to hair getting tangled around.
Manscaping:
There is a trend out there called manscaping and men are grooming themselves more by
shaving or even waxing hair from chest, legs, and armpits.
Shaving legs hair is also due to cultural reasons as
there are many cosmetic products for men also. In past women were the main
focus of the cosmetic industry but as time goes on male grooming concept also
came to light.
Manscaping originated and it has compelled athletes, stars, and actors who are role models to a larger audience even basketball sports athletes to groom better and shave their legs, armpit, and chest hairs.
Avoiding skin disease :
A study on Infectious Disease in Contact Sports has
written there are a lot of infectious diseases including herpes, bacterial skin
infections, head lice, etc in contact sports which also include basketball.
These diseases are transmitted from one player to
the other during contact with the skin hence proper cleaning and hygiene are
necessary for athletes to be given by care providers.
Those that look after the health of basketball players make them shave legs and armpits hair to prevent the accumulation of bacteria due to sweating and continuous contact with other basketball players
Lowering blood lactate Levels :
A study published in The Journal
of swimming research concludes reduction of blood lactate levels in
shaved legs and armpits swimmers was significant compared to non shaved
swimmers athletes by 28% and 23% percent.
According to this research, athletes do shave legs
in order to reduce blood lactate levels and this is also followed in basketball
sports.
It might give basketball athletes a competitive advantage in the game as the lower level of lactate helps the athlete in the improvement of stamina and muscles get less tired.
Aerodynamic advantage :
Shaved legs give aerodynamic advantages to an
athlete. These help them to perform better.
A study conducted by Chester Kyle indicates a 7% reduction in drag caused by
air. Drag is formed when we move or run opposing the airflow.
Drag slows us down with friction while shaved legs
result in 7% frictionless which is not that much but in competitive sport every
inch counts.
Basketball players get this advantage and can help them become a faster players combined with less lactose accumulation as compared to an athlete with hairy legs.
Safest way basketball athletes can shave their legs:
As discussed previously using a Razor-blade can cause infection especially if your skin is light and sensitive.
Using a razor blade direct will cause infection and can injure your legs
The
following steps will guide you to safely shave your leg and armpit hair.
- Trim down
hair using a hair clipper so the remaining hair is small and should be
easily shaven off.
- Warm water,
not too much, or it can cause burn, wash your legs with warm water. This
helps the hair to be easily shaven off.
- Now apply
shaving cream to prevent infection through cuts or scratches.
- Now shave
off using a good-quality Razorblade.
- After the
legs are shaven off wash them thoroughly with regular water.
- For safety, you can apply anti-infective skin cream (Such as Polyfax® ) To prevent skin infection afterward.
Sometimes there are scratches left by the blade which can make bacteria penetrate through skin pores and cause infection So, anti-infective skin cream will definitely be an effective way to control that.
Final thoughts:
Don't
make this a win-or-lose situation and blame your poor game on shaved legs. This
is not a right or wrong thing. Many athletes are sports stars with advertisers
paying them money to look good.
These
NBA sports stars have to make their appearance look a certain way So, more
sponsors can put their pictures on the front of magazine covers and in
advertisements.
Mainly
shaving of legs, chest, and armpits hair is done for appearance purposes rather
than getting a competitive advantage or any sort of winning strategy.
If you lack skills in the game you must improve on that and work on making good dunks, defense, or shooting accurately. These will determine a pro player afterward you can work on the appearance part to make more sponsor money.
Become a top basketball athlete by improving dunks visit dunk training
Recapping all points:
Reasons basketball shave their legs:
- Looks and Hygiene
- Prevent Infections
- Manscaping
- Avoiding skin disease
- Lowering blood lactate Levels
- Aerodynamic advantage
- Safest way basketball athletes can shave their legs
