.

Shavegeeks of the world, move over. Your time in the sun is through. A new age is upon us, and it belongs to the rootbeergeeks.

Ah, root beer. It makes perfect sense. What's more important than root beer? Even those little root beer "barrel" candies are awesome. The only hard candy that tastes like what it's supposed to be. They put it the time to make it right, and why? Because root beer commands that kind of respect.

I grew up on the great root beers of the mighty Midwest -- Hires (we even collected the stamps and got the beach towel with the Hires bear on it), Frostie, Canfield's, Dad's, Faygo (to be fair, we drank as much of their Red as we did their root beer), and of course, A&W -- no family car trip across the states of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Milwaukee was complete without a stop or seventeen at an A&W's roadside restaurant (back in the days when they sold Papa Burgers, Mama Burgers, Teen Burgers, and Baby Burgers) (some hamstorians claim A&W served "Grandpa Burgers" but I honestly don't recall ever seeing them on the menu).

Nowadays I drink Dr. Brown's root beer, or especially IBC if I can find it. Even store brand root beer is pretty damned good. I've had 'em all -- Val-U King, President's Choice, Taint's, Quali-T, Food Club, My-T-Fine, Bi-Lo, Hi-Q, Mr. Fizz, Our Compliments, Vons, Piggly Wiggly, Shur Fine, and Family Dollar. Colas are never handled well by store brands, but root beers always come through in the clutch.

What root beer, you ask? What does root beer have to do with shaving? Well --

This.