Beat The Heat

I sort of expected the summer to bring some higher tolerance to my skin. I have previously noted how high-glycerin soap is excellent on perpetually moist body areas; I'd expect those areas to congeal into one, all-encompassing mass of summer sweat. But it's been quite the opposite. Since the week before Memorial Day, my fully activated skin seems more delicate than ever.

I wouldn't call it sunburned, though I've had a touch of color high on my forehead (Where the hair has abandoned ship?) Yet the solar-powered metabolism is colluding with exfoliation to make me a particularly thin-skinned individual. I'm finding it difficult to stay safe with the Rimei, as it baits me into a third pass that I don't really need, but it wants to compete with the Super Speed. And if I push any product, the skin seems to push back with a vigorous reaction of ooze or swelling. I tried leaving alum on the skin, and that seemed to set up a couple of bad shaves. Even dabbing jojoba oil postshave seems distressing.

For Hot Meat, Call Williams

Williams (or, more extremely, Ivory) is the known cure for metabolically overactive skin. If you need some tight and dry in your life, get thee to the drugstore. My puck is now just a thin wafer at the bottom of a Big Lots ceramic bowl. I use it a lot, but I can't seem to kill it. It really is a great value, even though it starts out smaller than most other pucks, because it's the closest to being pure soap.

Palm lathering is really ideal for me at this time, because whatever lather remains in my hand after loading the brush becomes the pre-shave. But there is one more thing you can add after rinsing.

Plant Pumpkins Now

Curcurbits don't transplant well, but the soil's nice and warm, so now's the time! Even if you're not a gardener, just take a hand spade, dig a circle in a sunny corner, mound it up a little with a cheap bag of potting soil, and put a few seeds in the middle. You didn't want to weed-whack that spot anyway, did you? I'd throw some leaf mulch down, let the vines run along a fence (if I had one).

I didn't even want to mess with baking soda today, and just applied the juice direct from the freezer before putting the lather on. Rarely do I notice my hair yielding easily to the edge, but it prompted me to slow my strokes and just let the hairs "pop."

Pumpkin juice shouldn't be worn into the sun, because it's loaded with vitamin A, but it's great aftercare in the evening. It can even cure a bad hair day!

Duru have any REAL cologne?

We think of cologne and even aftershave as primarily scent nowadays, but certain citrus waters make a distinctly soothing and refreshing rinse when it's hot and sticky. I like Florida Water, but you can't beat Duru limon for value. Pour it like champagne into a wet washcloth, and luxuriate in the equivalent of a full-body KFC wet-wipe!