An approximate equation is derived for wall shear stress in unsteady laminar pipe flows in terms of the instantaneous section mean velocity and acceleration. The equation, which is exact for a constantly accelerating or decelerating flow, is applied to solve for two types of pressure gradient functions, a transient start-up flow and a linearly reversing pressure gradient. Comparison with exact analytical solutions verifies that the equation is adequate for the two types of transient flows investigated, and for low frequency oscillating flows.