Morning Wood And Williams

Lol, I'll never stop! (Unless someone from Combe, Inc. asks me to.) And it's a lie: I didn't get up before noon. But witch hazel is the distillate of a wood. I think I maimed the very same shrub in my yard this past Xmas, to make a wreath from the "winterbloom" and the lower boughs of the tree. It's a super-flexible little bugger, not nearly as easy to snap off as it appears. They say that's where the "witch" name comes from, like "switch."

The question for me today was, would its deep tenderizing of the collagen in my face make the shaving substrate so soft and pliable that it couldn't hold tension, or transmit cutting power? And I will answer immediately, no. I applied the standard Noxzema, oil, and Williams with no hair-softening serum, the Rimei with a now well-worn Personna blade, and got a very efficient shave, DFS in two passes.

But yesterday (I did not post), I used a prep of just PdP and the straight edge, for a very inefficient SAS in two passes. Late in the day, the witch hazel USP was reminding me of adolescence, with sebum flowing like it hasn't done in years and years. Like when I was fighting acne with salicylic acid/alcohol toner. My face also was taking on the "old bag" look.

So I began my experimenting with the combination of pumpkin juice and witch hazel USP, as a late night refresher. It didn't tighten too much, but it soothed, changing the feel of my beard to well-lubricated velvet. In other words, the pumpkin juice counteracted the overly-tenderized feeling.

Somewhat later, for bedtime cleansing I chose something very odd, for me: the 3-in-1 Lubricating moisturizer. For probably the first time since starting in this way of shaving, I actually felt the need for glycerin! And it worked, too, for a dry finish and the face-shrinking feeling as I hit the pillow.