# Wordless POV procedure — rebuild sheet

A 72-second silent barbershop wax removal: one man reclined in a chair, a practitioner's hands working green wax off his face, no on-screen text and no cutaways for the entire runtime — 3,435,251 views, 42,245 likes, caption is four hashtags (`#artist #artist #wax #waxing`).

**Why it works**

There is nothing to read and nowhere to look but the face, so the only question the video poses is "how bad is the next pull going to be" — and it answers it repeatedly, which is why a 72-second clip with no hook line holds. The wax coming away in one visible connected mass is unfakeable proof the procedure is real, and the subject's involuntary flinch prices it.

**The beats**

| Time | What happens | On-screen text |
|---|---|---|
| 5.74s | High handheld angle down onto a man reclined in a barber chair — cream Adidas track jacket, pearl necklace. Green wax already spread across chin, jaw and upper lip. One hand braces his forehead, another steadies his chin. Eyes closed. Barbershop behind: chair backs, tiled wall, daylight from off-frame. | none |
| 17.22s | Camera lower and to his side. A hand presses flat along his cheek, fingers working the wax edge at the jaw. Head tilted back, mouth open, eyes closed. The wax now reads as a set slab. | none |
| 28.69s | Tighter. A forearm (white cuff, red thread bracelet) crosses frame gripping his head; the other hand pinches the wax at the chin and lifts — it stretches away from the skin in a string. His mouth opens, face pulls. | none |
| 40.17s | The closest beat. A hand clamps over his mouth and nose to hold him still while the wax hangs off the jaw as one thick green sheet, half-detached, webbing where it separates. Hard wince, eyes shut. | none |
| 51.65s | Wider, head-on. Hands press a fresh green mass back onto the chin and jaw. Face screwed up, brow raised, mouth open. | none |
| 63.12s | Hands at the chin pulling again, wax lifting off the jaw, one hand against his cheek as counter-tension. Full grimace. Same chair, same light — no location change anywhere on the sheet. | none |

**What carries the value**

The flinch at the moment of the pull, married to the green mass visibly coming away in one piece. The reaction is the evidence; the repetition is the retention. Not the product, not the result — the frames never show a finished face.

**Shoot it**

- **Camera:** phone, vertical, handheld, held close on the face and the working hands. High angle looking down at a reclined subject. It stays on the face for the whole runtime — no cutaway, no wide, no product shot. Movement is only drift to follow the pull.
- **Framing:** the hands enter from the top of frame; both of the practitioner's hands are visible in several beats, so a third person is holding the phone (or it is mounted) — this is not a literal POV.
- **Light:** plain daylight from a side window in a real room. No lighting kit, no colour, no fill. Skin is unretouched and the room is not tidied.
- **Wardrobe:** the subject wears an ordinary zip track jacket; the practitioner is bare-handed with everyday jewellery. Nothing is styled — the un-styling is what makes it read as documentation rather than an ad.
- **Performance:** none required. The subject does not speak, look at camera, or act — he reacts. This is why it is rebuildable without talent, but it does need a real procedure on a real person; a performed wince will not carry it.
- **Cadence:** pull, re-apply, pull again. The sampled beats alternate application and removal roughly every 11 seconds.

**What the frames do not show — do not invent these**

- No result or "after" shot anywhere in the six samples. The video may or may not end on one; the sheet cannot say.
- The wax is already applied at the first sample, so the before-state and the application are not evidenced.
- Whether the video is one unbroken take or cut is not determinable from six stills 11.5 seconds apart.
- Audio is not evidenced — there is no way to tell from the sheet whether it carries music, room sound, or the subject's voice.
- No text appears at any sampled beat, but text at an unsampled moment cannot be ruled out.
- The caption carries no claim, product, or line to reuse — only hashtags.

**Or generate it**

The single most important beat is the pull at 40.17s.

```
vertical 9:16 phone photograph, close high angle looking down at {SUBJECT} reclined
in a barber chair, head tilted back, wearing a plain zip track jacket, eyes shut and
face wincing; a practitioner's bare hands enter from the top of frame, one hand
braced flat against the cheek, the other pinching and lifting {PRODUCT} away from
the jaw so it stretches off the skin in one connected mass; real barbershop behind —
chair backs, tiled wall, mirror edge — plain daylight from a side window, no styling,
no retouching of the skin, slight grain, no on-screen text
```

**Motion:** handheld, held tight on the face and the hands for the whole beat, drifting only to follow the pull — no cut inside the shot, no zoom, no reframe away from the subject's reaction.

**Text overlay:** none in the source. If the rebuild needs a line, keep it to one small line pinned for the whole runtime, e.g. `{procedure} on {SUBJECT}` — the mechanic depends on nothing competing with the face, and the source proves it works with zero text.

**Reference:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DUxSG-dkWOH/
