When it comes to How To ... shaving videos, this fine, upstanding gentleman - the legendary Geofatboy, owner of Shave Nation Shaving Supplies - is in a class of his own. His first video on how to shave with a safety razor - filmed as an instructional video for a friend of his - popped up on YouTube nine years ago and he hasn't looked back since. Barely a day goes by when I don't watch something from his vast back catalogue of reviews and tutorials. I say that as if they're separate things, but they're not. Straight razors, double-and-single-edge safety razors, shavettes, creams, soaps, brushes, bowls, vintage, modern - each review is actually also a tutorial. He talks you through his shaving process every single time and, weirdly, you could watch five of his videos, one after the other, and you wouldn't get bored. He talks you through his preparation, hydrating the face and lathering up. He suggests you 'clear the runways' - wiping shaving lather away from the sideburns so that you can keep them even whilst shaving - and, after wielding whichever shaving implement he's using, like an expert swordsman, at the end of each video he gives a genuine smile into the camera and says 'Have a great shave - have a great day.' If he didn't say it, you'd think there was something not quite right with the world.
Geofatboy makes it all look so easy, too. Give this man a butter knife and some handwash and he'd still be able to get a close shave - and then make a video that would make you believe that you could do it too*. Honestly - if you're new to wet shaving then watch Geofatboy. If only to see the moment when he boots and bats one of his Indestructibowls around his Shave Nation storage facility in an admirable effort to prove just how indestructible it is.
Thanks, Geo. You really are a legend**.
* I'm only half-joking about this. I actually think he probably could.
** I mean this in the true sense of the word - as in, an extremely famous person, especially in a particular field - not in the way that it's used in this day and age, where someone who passes someone a pen across the room is told 'you're a legend, mate'. No. No they're not.