Being an exchange student means experiencing lots of new things. For exchange students in the United States, it means hamburgers for breakfast, lunch and dinner, crazy socks and sandals and no judgement about how you look and what you wear; unless you haven’t shaved your legs.

Last August, when I was volunteering in Alabama, guys would come to girls and touch their legs. If they could feel the hair, they would make fun of the girl. Unshaved legs don’t look neat but I believe that it should be a personal choice as most of  teenagers are mature enough to understand how to behave. I feel like girls that respect themselves and want to make a good impression should shave their legs. But it’s very unfair to reject from society the ones that do not shave.

Before about 1940s women had no need to shave their legs. In the ‘20s the bottoms were cropped below the knee, but females were not concerned at all. The topic became moot when the ‘40s fashion brought short skirts, sheer stockings and revealing swimsuits.

Men started to shave the legs around the turn of the 20th century for sports such as cycling, swimming and bodybuilding. The thing is, shaved legs help to improve time taken in long distance swimming races because of the effects of drag. Speaking about bicycling, by shaving legs men become less wind resistant, more aerodynamic, which leads to speed increasing. According to the survey taken by “Men’s Health” on Oct. 11, 2015, 48.4% of men shave their legs on daily-basis at least partially. And I don’t think the statistics should scare you – it’s needed, and it’s happening.

I do think girls should shave their legs when wearing shorts, dresses, swimsuits or any other summer outfits. On one hand, it looks weird when you cannot distinguish whether the leg belongs to a male or female. On the other, shaving can hurt. It can dry out the skin and cause irritation. Girls can cut themselves while shaving. Today’s world is aspiring equality. So, why should girls shave their legs while guys do not?

In my homeland Ukraine and the whole Europe girls shave their legs and guys do not. We do not have sports at school, so if people want to join swim teams, they join separate clubs just for fun. Sports are less competitive, and that’s why guys have no physical need to shave their legs. Even when I go out with my best friends wearing a skirt or shorts, I will definitely shave my legs to show good attitude towards them and to avoid sarcastic comments about hairy legs.

My friend Anzhelika Korolova, who is spending her exchange year in Kalamazoo, joined the swimming team and their tradition is not to shave legs the week before the competition. She got irritated with the hair because of today’s beauty standards. She didn’t want to look less attractive and was afraid of her friends’ reaction. So Anzhelika pretended that her religion doesn’t allow unshaved legs. Nobody knew she is actually an Orthodox Christian. This is how the society is influencing people’s personal opinions.

Overall, a neat girl should shave her legs. But, it’s a personal choice for everyone. Girls with unshaved legs and guys with shaved have to be treated the same way as girls with shaved legs and guys with unshaved.

If you’re annoyed getting rid of the hair every other day – smile because autumn and winter are just for you. Every girl waits for cold weather because you can put long pants on and don’t have to  shave your legs for the whole season.