I had gradually moved to coffee as my morning beverage, and then for the past two or three days skipped it for one reason or another. Then last night and into this morning I had a headache — not severe, but definitely noticeable and annoying (and, of course, painful) — and I was wracking my brain for a cause. I had taken care to drink water, since dehydration can cause headaches.
This morning it hit me: coffee withdrawal. I’ve been here before, the first time when I went cold-turkey to break a habit of probably a quart or two of coffee a day. (The place I worked had free coffee.) That headache was like what I’ve read of a full-grown migraine, so painful you become nauseated.
In the years hence, I have switched from coffee to tea and back again a few times, and when I quit coffee, the headache returns, its severity depending on the depth of habit. My coffee habit this time was not so bad, so the headache was not so bad — but still: who needs it.
So I’m off coffee again, that treacherous, jealous, vindictive friend, and back this morning with a pint mug of Murchie’s No. 10, a favorite tea. But in recognition of the pleasant side of coffee, my shave this morning celebrates the aroma.
Planet Java Hive, here in CK-6, has a honey+coffee fragrance that is very pleasant as a morning aroma, and the lather made by my Mühle Gen 2 synthetic was again first-rate. The Progress did a much better job than yesterday’s Gillette Aristocrat, which now holds a new Wilkinson Sword blade (and thanks for the tip, Larry). (In the search for the Wilkinson blade I discovered a box of 100 Personna Med Preps that I didn’t know I had. That was a pleasure.)
Three passes left my face smooth, and I carried forth the coffee theme with a splash of Phoenix Artisan’s excellent Spring-Heeled Jack, an aftershave with a coffee fragrance on first application that in drydown becomes more complex and interesting. PA no longer offers this, but I’m hoping it will return — a wonderful aftershave despite its scurrilous namesake.