Tabula Rasa - 23. November 2025

• Prep: Urtekram Face Wash
• Brush: AP Shave Co. black & clear handle w/ 30 mm Tuxedo Fan knot
• Razor: Leaf Thorn
• Blade: Derby Premium (3)
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Valley of Ashes
• Post Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Valley of Ashes
  

  * Post Shave: Lavera Men Sensitive ASB

single pass head shave, great shave ; single pass on the face except moustache, soul patch and broader chin area - good shave

This sounds very stupid on my part, but now it was the shortest time I ever had a full goatee. What was supposed to just be a minor trim of the areas under my mouth directly to the sides of my soul patch turned into a full-blown re-styling and shave thanks to a mishap. Small PSA: if you’re using a trimmer, no matter for what area, make sure you have a) the right guard comb on it, b) any guard on if you’re not doing detailing/contouring. In my case, I had absolutely no guard on my zero gap trimmer and zing! one of the connection areas between moustache and chin fluff was erased. Well, shit happens - I trimmed the remaining hair into the shortest stubble possible with the 1.5 mm guard and went ahead with my shave - just with a bit more areas to cover with lather than originally planned 🤔

I’m still amazed how good VoA can smell if you get it just right. Today, while the trimmer luck had forsaken me, the wetshaving gods smiled at me and blessed me with a really great lather. Under all the dank leather and burnt rubber, I can get a little citrus/bergamot note and I simply stopped to be frustrated at my mistake. Like Bob Ross said, maybe it’s all just happy accidents. This soap can get really slick and it treated my skin well during the shave.

I was kinda impressed how well I managed to freehand style some kind of stubble anchor beard. The basic henriquatre shape was still noticeable in short form, but there was also a bit of longer scruff grown around it and I had to shave the previous “connection areas” right below the moustache and above the classic chin goatee part. Full disclosure, I didn’t do that with the 30 mm brush, but squeezed the remaining lather out and dabbed it there with my fingertips. It sure isn’t 100% symmetrical, but that’s barely noticeable at a stubble length anyways. Now I plan to give my facial hair time for regrowth; the good thing is that beard hair is a renewable resource as it simply grows back.

However, even though it resulted from a frustrating mistake, I had gotten such a good to great shave out of it that I can’t be angry about it. Things will happen and sometimes I just need to adapt on the go. Hope y’all had a great weekend and a very relaxing Sunday ✌🏻