I ran an experiment a few years ago to see if leg hair really did make a difference. As one who had never shaved their legs before, but suffered from nasty cases of ski socks getting caught, folding over in the boot, etc, I believed I was the perfect candidate for a test study.
I left my right leg as a control. The left leg took about a full 30 minutes to completely shave, just due to the thickness of the hair. One inch of movement on a normal razor clogged it. I later switched to my electric, and cleaned up and got it close with the mach 3.
The results were disappointing. Earing pants felt very strange. Hair is a mighty good insulator, and without the protective coat, your legs get much more exposure to sensations of touch, most notably from pant legs and gusts of wind that make it up the cuff of your pant leg. Wholey strange and uncomfortable at first.
In actual skiing, changes between the test leg and the control were minimal. The ski socks still bunched and folded, causing uncomfortableness. After some observations, I believe that hair may in fact promote ski sock immobility, as a shaved leg is a slick surface.
To complete the test I shaved my other leg and trimmed the shag on the test leg. It was an awkward week having both legs shaved. It felt like having a secret you wanted to explain but was fully unexplainable to any normal person. I knew I would be rejected by my peers if I disclosed the silkiness beneath my denim. Thankfully, no permanent damage has been done, and leg hair is growing thickly and evenly on both legs.
