I have lately come to believe that I can get a pretty outstanding shave from just about any product combination. This has spurred a certain arrogance and overconfidence that pushes me to ever deeper depths of potential shave nastiness. Today was such a day.  I had found my old tube of Cremo Cream and decided to do a quickie shave along with my vintage 1999 (last year of production) Schick injector. The injector, even in its last emasculated incarnation, is a pretty aggressive blade, and the brushless Cremo Cream is far from the most protective of shave creams – excellent for use with a Fusion – but not up to shielding the face from a classic single-blade. To add insult to injury I opted for Leisureguy’s two-pass method (one XTG and one ATG pass), followed by a spritz of Hydrolast Finishin Oil and a final gloss cut. It didn’t feel good from the first pass…and by the third my face was in agony. The alum block told the tale….a searing explosion of red bumps emerging from my face like a cattle-branding operation. Ouch!

There is a lesson here. Yin and Yang. Its important never to take anything for granted and to occasionally both plumb the depths, as well as reach for the heights of experience. Only in this way can we retain perspective on our craft, Grasshopper.