Leg shaving

Some women may only shave the hair below the knee – depending on the length of dress styles in fashion – while others shave the entire leg.[6] The frequency of shaving also varies, with some women shaving their legs every day, and others shaving only at the start of summer, in anticipation of the wearing of a swimsuit^{[citation needed]}. Special razors, different in shape from those used by men for face-shaving, are often used by women^{[citation needed]}.

Men

Among Western men, the shaving of legs is common in sporting situations and in fact has been taking place for longer than women shaving their legs.^{[citation needed]} Male leg hair removal in modern times was initially related to sports^{[citation needed]}, though it is now more frequently done for aesthetics.^{[citation needed]}

For sports such as cycling and swimming, men started shaving their legs around the turn of the 20th century.^{[citation needed]} Most male swimmers, bicycle racers, and some male non-racers shave their legs regularly.^{[citation needed]} The practice is most useful in long-distance swimming, where the effects of drag can cause a significant time difference in races over 400 meters. Other reasons cyclists shave include: faster healing and easier cleaning of road rash, less pain during leg massage^{[citation needed]}.

Seneca suggested that in ancient Rome it was considered an ostentatious bit of effeminacy, contrary to underarm hair removal: "One is, I believe, as faulty as the other: the one class are unreasonably elaborate, the other are unreasonably negligent; the former depilate the leg, the latter not even the armpit" (letter 114). Summers cites Ovid, A. A. i. 506 "Don't rub your legs smooth with the tight-scraping pumice stone."

Many athletes also shave their legs or bodies to facilitate therapeutic massage that is frequently a part of their training or post-race recovery programs^[