Training For Your First Bodybuilding Competition at Any Age : Grooming

Grooming :

During a bodybuilding competition, the audience and judges are looking at you while you are standing on stage wearing nothing more than a skimpy posing suit. You are trying to show off your physique and grooming is a very important part of your appearance. If you are not well-groomed, it will take away from your overall look. In the last section, I covered tanning. Here I will cover hair. In short, other than the hair on your head, you have to get rid of it. A male bodybuilder cannot have chest hair, underarm hair or leg hair. Women need to rid themselves of all underarm and leg hair. Unless your hair is very fine, you will also need to get rid of arm hair, toe hair, and hand and finger hair. And, where there is hair under your posing suit, it has to not show, period.

Start you final week of contest preparation by getting a good haircut or styling. You should do this before you begin your final tanning prep, since you will want to tan any area that was covered by hair before it was cut. For a Saturday contest, I recommend you cut your hair by Tuesday.

Removing the rest of your body hair can be tedious. There are several ways to remove hair. The most expensive and most permanent is laser hair removal. It can take several sessions and cost hundreds of dollars but it very effective if you want your hair removed permanently. More temporary and far less expensive is using hair removal products. Usually found in the women's products section of drug stores, the most popular are Nair and Sally Hansen. A bottle of lotion costs around $4.50 and is usually enough to take care of your contest needs. It takes about five minutes to apply, four minutes of waiting and then a shower to remove the lotion and hair. After drying, you should apply a light coating of moisturizing cream over the area where you removed the hair. Hair removal products usually keep the hair away for a week, plenty of time for your contest.

If you don't want to use a hair removal product, another way to remove hair is to shave it off. Use a fresh razor and plenty of soap or cream and go slowly to prevent nicks and cuts. Sometimes, shaving will leave a rash or stubs of hair that could show up under the bright lights on stage. If I am going to shave, I do it on Wednesday morning before my Saturday contest and on the other days, while I'm tanning, I go over the areas with an electric shaver to prevent cuts. I also use an electric shaver the morning of the contest, never a razor.

One of the best ways to remove hair is to apply tape-like strips to the desired area and then quickly rip off the strips, removing the hair with the tape. I have never tried this method and I don't think I will. It does work though and seems to last longer than lotions or shaving. But, man, it really hurts!

You always want to look your best on Saturday morning at the prejudging. If you take care of the little things early on in your preparation, you will be confident, look confident and show well.

 

👉 Deciding to Compete
👉 Competition Diet
👉 Supplements
👉 Training
👉 Posing
👉 Tanning
👉 Grooming
👉 The Final Two Weeks Of Contest Prep
👉 Choosing A Contest And Submitting Your Application
👉 Family Considerations