There’s a good chance you’ve Googled ‘how to shave my balls’ at some point in your life. That might even be how you ended up here. And if you did, you’re not alone. So many modern metrosexual men used their neatly manicured fingers to type those words into the web that it became one of the top searches of 2016.

But unfortunately, guidance in this (relatively) new frontier of grooming is thin on the ground, making most men’s first forays into the realms of sack shaving a largely experimental affair.

Why oh why did they put Pythagoras’ theorem on the national curriculum instead of how to shave your testicles? It could have saved lives. (Probably.) But that’s the 21st-century educational system for you: short-sighted, impractical and completely unconcerned about the welfare of your balls.

Balancing precariously in the bathroom with one foot up on the porcelain, squinting at your scrotum in concentration as you take a razor to Harry and Sally is far from an ideal scenario and can wind up being a pretty steep learning curve of what not to do. But how else are we supposed to figure it out?

Sure, learning to shave your face with your dad is a rite of passage for most boys. One-on-one, father-son ball-shaving tutorials, on the other hand, are significantly less common and, let’s face it, very, very weird.

To sum up in a nut, er, shell, the right way to go about it; here’s everything you should know when it comes to taking a razor to those grapes of yours.

Should You Shave Your Balls?

A good place to start is to work out whether or not you should even shave your balls at all. Your significant other, if you’re lucky enough to have one, can act as a very handy tool to help you gauge this.

If they’re a fan of the seventies pornstar look, you’re in the clear. Feel free to step down from the toilet bowl and get that blade as far as possible away from your nether regions.