4 Mistakes You Make Shaving Your Legs
What this video covers
This short clip comes from Season 5, Episode 169 of The Dr. Oz Show — “Inside the Chicken Industry: Is Something Foul?” — which aired July 8, 2014. The episode’s main segments investigated possible health hazards in chicken processing and the accuracy of at-home DNA disease-risk tests; the shaving segment was the show’s summer-beauty service piece, clipped for YouTube on July 29, 2014, where it has since drawn over two million views.
Joined by a guest dermatologist, Oz demonstrates the mistakes with three volunteers — and opens with the dermatologist’s cautionary story of a patient whose small shaving nick turned into a drug-resistant (MRSA) staph infection that put her in the hospital on IV antibiotics.
The mistakes demonstrated in the broadcast: (1) shaving the moment you get into the shower — hair is at its coarsest dry; the advice is to wait about five minutes so the hair softens; (2) dry shaving (one volunteer admits to shaving in the car) — the fix is a “cream shave” moisturizer-shave product available at any drugstore, or hair conditioner in a pinch; (3) shaving upward against the grain — Oz calls shaving downward instead “a revolution,” conceding a less close shave but fewer nicks and less razor burn. (The transcript of the clip covers these three in full; the fourth mistake is not audible in the transcript.)
The framing is pure daytime-service television: a countdown of everyday habits, quick demonstrations, and practical fixes aimed at viewers getting ready for summer.
It is a representative example of the show’s format in its middle seasons — a consumer-investigation episode anchored by a lighter, lifestyle “mistakes you make” segment that translated well to YouTube, where the channel routinely carved standalone clips out of full episodes.
Key points
- Oz demonstrates the shaving errors with volunteers, joined by a guest dermatologist — who opens with the story of a patient hospitalized on IV antibiotics after a shaving nick became a drug-resistant staph infection.
- The mistakes the transcript captures: shaving immediately upon entering the shower (wait ~5 minutes for hair to soften), dry shaving (use a cream shave, or hair conditioner in a pinch), and shaving upward against the grain (Oz advises shaving downward to avoid nicks and razor burn).
- The segment follows the show’s signature “mistakes” countdown format: everyday habits, quick demos, practical fixes.
- The clip was cut from S5E169 (“Inside the Chicken Industry: Is Something Foul?”), aired July 8, 2014 — the episode paired the segment with investigations of chicken-processing hazards and at-home DNA tests.
- With over 2 million views, it ranks among the channel’s most-watched beauty-service clips — a reminder of how much of Oz’s audience came for practical lifestyle segments, not just medical topics.