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Today I switched back to cream, after yet another stab at shaving with a hard soap to make the lather. I've been getting very comfortable, super close shaves with Classic Shaving's hard soap, but the mole on my upper lip (you can't see it in my photo at the top of this page -- it's hidden beneath a white strip of lather, and beneath TV makeup under that) has always been the most sensitive part of my face, and I've been nicking it something fierce with this soap. So it was time to go back to cream.

Actually, my mole's loss is your gain, if you don't happen to have any protruding freakish mutations on your face that spray blood everywhere if you lather with anything less lubricating than the finest, most moisturizing shaving creams. When my mole gets nicked, you know that whatever made the lather allows for an extra close shave, and I can tell you that the rest of my face got a shave that was noticeably closer than usual.

But me, I can't shave like this every day. I nicked my mole three days in a row, and I needed to give the poor little bugger time to heal so I could shave over it again without incident. And that meant going back to cream.

Specifically, Taylor's Avocado. The smoothest, thickest, creamiest, most soothing and moisturizing cream I know of. The cream that always hugs me to its bosom, kisses my forehead, and magically restores my skin in just a shave or two. I swear, this stuff is magic.

This time, it only took one shave to make it all right again. After a workout at the Y and nice relaxing break in the sauna where I overheard a pleasant conversation between two septuagenarians about the HBO series "Rome" and why couldn't they have lived during a time of such rampant free love, I caught a shower and then lathered up at a sink with the Avocado and my Vulfix #2233 badger brush that gets knocked around in my gym bag's dop kit without a protective case but somehow doesn't collapse inward like a white dwarf star from the overwhelming pressure.

I shaved in the usual way with my Featherjector, first down and then up. With a thick blanket of Taylor cream protecting it, the Feather Super Pro disposable straight razor blade -- the sharpest shaving blade on the market -- skied over my mole like it wasn't even there. I got an ungodly close shave with the Featherjector, and my skin felt incredible afterward -- smooth, clean, and perfectly moisturized. It was the kind of shave where the Trumper Skin Food at the end seemed like gilding the lily instead of a welcome post-shave poultice.

I've said it before about Taylor's Avocado shaving cream and I'll say it again -- I don't know why I shave with anything else. This is what my face and skin love most. It's like the official shaving cream of Ponce De Leon. I'm convinced that If I shaved with this stuff every day I'd start looking like a kid again.