Shave Like An Egyptian

I haven't documented here all of my experiments regarding palm and plantar skin, but sometime around when I got the fancy Humphreys witch hazel (toner), I combined it with baking soda and jojoba oil in my hand. It was a bit of a scary moment as I immediately felt I had saponified my own skin, but I also felt that it was bringing instant death to deeply embedded microbes. Like hydrogen peroxide does to an open wound, but from within, leaving little vacuoles in my hand. The appearance of that was immediately reminiscent of athlete's foot, so I assumed the microbes in question were dermatophytes. This reaction is the main prong of my final assault on the yellow calluses that I believe are their stronghold. I can see the blood rushing to join the attack from below, flushing the skin with natural moisture. Then I use soaking and pumpkin juice to declamate the overly thick tissue and restore the acid mantle.

But these tactics may be counterproductive, because now that my skin is mostly free of fungus, saponification leaves the skin extremely hard. And that is when I remembered the Egyptians, their obsession with shaving, and their skin cleansing with natron and oil. What if the two were integrated? It isn't at all difficult for me to believe, at this point, that shavers thousands, or even tens of thousands of years ago, were way ahead of us.

1. Apply jojoba oil to shaving area, without wiping off, about a dime-sized pool for the beard area.

2. In palm, combine similar sized portions of baking soda and Witch Hazel (U.S.P), and spread over the oil.

3. Rub that in with wet palms, then wipe it all off with a cloth. Consider that the "pre-shave," then lather up and shave as usual.

I was using a Super Speed and a broken-in Personna Platinum Chrome, and I couldn't believe the efficiency. I thought about stopping after one pass, but of course had to test its resilience to the blade, which was excellent -- not one weeper. It might be the new "perfect shave," but there may be a bit of a problem with pH imbalance in the post-shave for those of you that don't have a pumpkin juice popsicle handy.