May 31, 2024 - I made a lot of mistakes
- Brush: Vintage Bristle, brand unknown
- Razor: Henson AL-13
- Blade: RK Stainless [5]
- Lather: Murphy and MacNeil BDLM3 - AON base (sample)
- Post Shave: Seaforth Heather Aftershave Toner
- Post Shave: Dr Jon's 8th Dimension AS splash
- Post Shave: Saponificio Varesino Pro Victis
At the eve of a big marathon, athletes tend to stick to very strict routines, partly to reduce variables that may go wrong, partly for sheer superstition.
Today is the eve of the Lather Games marathon. But I don't have an athlete's discipline. I am just a naive enthusiast who decided he couldn't wait to test the vintage boar brush he had just unearthed in his father's den.
Gentle bristle exfoliation my a$$! You could probably peel a potato with these bristles! Now I understand why my father switched from brush and soap wetshaving to canned foam: while on many levels he still seems to have been raised by Spartans who forced him to withstand all kinds of discomfort, I do understand why he jumped on the foam train as soon as he could, so to pursue a less punishing shaving experience!
Also, the revived brush shed five hairs during the FL, forcing me to double-check every time if there was any left before I made my razor passes - I mean, those adamantium hairs would've probably cut the Henson's aluminum as if it was made of warm butter.
About today's software and scents:
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as I feared, BDLM3 is not for me, at least not right now: while I found the scent off the puck to be very intriguing, during the shave I progressively became annoyed with the mint/rum accord.
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I then rushed to find an AS that could start from a shared "green" ground, and then lead me on a more comfortable post-shave olfactory journey. My first choice, Heather, felt trying to use a watercolor to cover a drawing you weren't happy with: nice, but too transparent. I waited a few minutes, then got impatient and frantically browsed again thru my AS, looking for a bolder option.
My hand passed next to B+M War, and a fleeting self-punishing thought went through my sorry brain. Then my survival instinct kicked in and I grabbed Dr Jon's 8th Dimension, which I hadn't been using for almost a year: it didn't really have much in common with the previous layers, but provided some of the "reset" effect I needed.
I no longer smell like an idiot who just splashed mojito on his face.
Now I smell like an overconfident 1980s smartass who does not care to smell like he had too much mojito. The AS menthol provided additional confidence, as my skin is now desensitized, and so is any self-conscious doubt.
Even if I still don't feel it, I saw in the mirror that I have a big red bump on my neck, close to my Adam's apple. I treated it with a bit of Pro Victis, the aptly named recovery cream from SV. Right after the shave I felt beaten, but the post-shave sequence restored some hope that I may not be vanquished (yet).