how Friday went (2 of 5) - full body shave and fashion show

I'd been thinking about this shave for weeks.

The first big question, of course, was "do I really want to do this?" For a lot of reasons. The guys at the gym. The folks at home. Would I really feel any different? How difficult would it be?

I'd asked a few folks about it (thank you LUSH Stories friends), I'd read up on how to do it (first use a trimmer to take it down, then a razor. And use gel, not foam.), and I'd bought moisturizer, which several people told me I would be glad I'd done.

I expressed my hesitation to Addie. She reassured me that it was my decision, nobody was pressuring me, nobody knew about it but us. I agreed.

I told her I was going to go for it. She said she'd be online when I finished. Her final warning was "this is going to take a lot longer than you might guess."

I went into the bathroom and stood in the tub.

The shaver I'd brought has a 1/8" guard. I started with my left leg and quickly realized that the guard was causing more trouble than helping. I took it off and turned the shaver over. That worked best. The hairs started piling up on the bottom of the tub. I finished the front of my leg, thigh to ankle, then realized I needed to reach the back. "How the hell do women do this?" I wondered. It was all guesswork!

I did my best and turned to look in the mirror. I'd got a lot but there were patches of hair here and there. I went back again, more slowly this time, and looked again.

I was/am so fucking pale! And each little freckle and mosquito bite shows up like a black dot on a piece of white paper.

But it felt good. I ran my hand down my leg and noticed it right away. The feeling was so incredibly different from touching my skin before.

I was committed now. With one leg done, there was no stopping. I went at the task, moving slowly upward, doing my chest, paying special attention to the hairs around the nipples (where do those come from??!) and belly button.

When I was finished, I scooped up all of the hair (less than I'd expected) and flushed it down the toilet. (Any guy who's had to snake a drain knows why I didn't just wash it down the tub.)

I went back over everything a second time with the gel and razor, then took a warm shower. The feeling was amazing. Everything was smooth and slick. There were hairs here and there I'd missed, I went back and touched up with the razor. I'm proud to say, I didn't have a single nick. I think the gel worked.

Drying off was a shock. Unlike running a towel over my normal hairy body, which I always felt left a film of water that had to air-dry after the fact, I was actually drying myself off.

I rubbed cream over everything, taking that advice from several websites, and finally returned to the laptpo.

Addie insisted on a picture right away, which I took and sent.

She was immediately excited and I was anxious to get on with showing off my purchases. But, she typed "don't you need to be somewhere?"

I checked the clock. It was nearly 9! It had taken me just under an hour to do the shave! To be fair, there were some plumbing problems, the drains were slow and I was nervous about leaving a mess, but still...

I decided on the spur of the moment that I had to do something bold and exciting, so I put on the lacy camisole and some satin tap pants. It felt naughty and risky ("what if I'm in a car crash???") and, yes, I guess 'sexy'.

Addie congratulated me on my boldness and told me to drive carefully but to get the heck out the door before I was late!