Alrighty then, I'm jumping in with both feet. Here we go!

Magnaminous_G said:
... I've decided now that I don't really like the steel shaving bowl. Maybe it's because I'm using a relatively large brush (Vulfix 2234), but there's not much room to swirl around in it, and the lather overflows past the lip. Plus it's just very light and doesn't hold heat. I think I want to get one of those large scuttles from one of the popular potteries: Georgetown, Dirty Bird, or Becker. I like the idea of filling a scuttle's inside chamber with hot water to keep lather warm....
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Done. Just ordered a G5 in Hamada pattern from Georgetown Pottery.
 
Magnaminous_G said:
I read a lot more on the forums these days, too, and I'm too tired to list it all, but suffice to say that I got better lather this time by using more shaving cream and whipping it better to make a thicker, peakier lather that was much slicker than my first 3 shaves.
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One thing that I noticed helps is squeezing out the lather in the brush after you've whipped some up. If you squeeze it back into the bowl and whip that up, the lather will be thicker.
 
You'll also find that you may experience skipping due to the angle of approach you're using. You still need to watch your angle with a DE just like you would with a straight. :)
 
Fifth shave:

Again, 2 passes WTG, same setup: Merkur Futur at 2.5 setting, Feather blade, Taylor of Old Bond Street "Lavender" cream. Rewatched some geofatboy and mantic59 videos on YouTube before shaving today. This one I found very useful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxeifm7ReKg. Got better lather this time, I think by using less water, more cream, and spending more time whipping it up in the bowl. I really want that scuttle now, heheh... Got three nice, slick passes with the improved lather today, I guess. No blade skipping this time. No irritation at all. With my passes, I concentrated a lot and went very light, moderately fast, and tried not to go over the same area more than a few times with each pass. That, plus the slick lather I think, caused a noticeable reduction in irritation. After the Witch Hazel and Nivea AFB, didn't feel any discomfort, at all. Getting smoother and closer to the skin with the shave too and no irritation at the neck. I think it really does work to lower my head and shave the neck skin "loose" as opposed to taut with the skin stretched.

Not perfect by any means, though. Still missed the hairs right at the corners of my mouth. Can't figure out how to shave there. Any tips? But to be honest, the hardest thing for me so far has not been getting the correct blade angle, it's not the pre-shave prep, and it's not the lathering... frankly, it's remembering to shave differently than I used to with the Mach3 (I used to use long, slow strokes, using pressure) and to just let the weight of the razor do the work. Trying to break a daily habit of more than a decade is hard...

Still don't trust myself to do XTG or ATG, but I might venture into XTG territory next week.
 
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Sixth shave:

For my sixth shave, I ventured into XTG territory and cut myself for the first time since starting wet shaving: a few small weepers on my mustache area and a few on my lower neck. As I’ve understood it, those areas tend to give people problems. After reflecting on it for a while, I think it was a technique issue. I think I probably used too much pressure and went too slow… again, falling back on my cartridge shaving bad habits, I think. It might also have been a blade issue, as I was using the same feather blade for the third time. From what other people have said, it seems like most people get a maximum of maybe three shave out of a feather blade… and most people only get two. Maybe I was pushing it with the blade while trying a new technique… and that’s what led to the cuts? Only time and experimentation/ observation will tell, I suppose. Anyway, the “My Nik Is Sealed” styptic pen worked. It stung like hell, but it stopped the bleeding immediately, just like advertised. They were very small weepers, anyway.
 
Seventh shave:

This time, my focus—quite naturally—was to rectify the issues from my sixth shave! So I used a fresh feather blade and really concentrated on using fast, short, ultra-light-touch strokes on the XTG pass. That worked. The result was a nice, close, comfortable shave. I got no cuts this time. I guess that’s one of the great things and the “bad” things about wet shaving: it requires your attention—a labor of love, I guess.

I think I’m also slowly figuring out what my “problem” areas are and what areas need special attention/technique to get a good shave: right under my chin, the sides of my mouth, the lower neck. I often miss those spots. Right under my chin and the sides of my mouth aren’t really a major problem though. I just need to carefully give them a good pass while shaving.

The lower neck, however, is a continuing problem. Even with a good XTG pass, the hair isn’t really cut there. Regardless of what I have tried so far (WTG, XTG in a few different angles), it’s a struggle to get a close, irritation-free shave there. I might not have found the right angles, yet. I suspect that’s what it is. Tomorrow, I’m going to try a different angle. It might also be a problem with how I am holding my head/skin in that area. Raise the head: the skin stretches taut. Lower the head: the skin loosens. I have to find the right shaving direction and skin-tightness, and then I think I’ll have it down. Still need a lot of practice, obviously.
 
I learned my technique with a mild/smooth blade and that seemed to help me a lot. I could have also been that you didn't reduce enough before going XTG. I never go XTG or ATG on my upper lip, and the hairs grow in so many different directions on my neck that what would seem like XTG can actually become ATG in less than half a stroke.
 
Magnaminous_G said:
It might also have been a blade issue, as I was using the same feather blade for the third time. From what other people have said, it seems like most people get a maximum of maybe three shave out of a feather blade… and most people only get two.
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I don't use Feather blades myself, but I always hear that the first shave is almost too sharp, the 2nd just right, and the 3rd degraded.

Whenever you're trying something new, do it when you're using a fresh blade.

I also don't recommend doing XTG or ATG on your upper lip if you have sensitive skin. I almost always get an ingrown hair or some sort of irritation if I do XTG there with a blade older than 1 day.
 
I pretty much use Feathers exclusively.

My experience is that they last 5 shaves pretty reliably. Of course, YMMV.

Mag, just be patient, as a prominent poster here mentioned: Everyone from Nobel Prize winners to ditch diggers used to shave this way every day.

And even if you get a little nick, don't worry. It'll heal.
 
I bought a Futur (love it), a Futur-style brush (love it), a Merkur bowl, and a nice stand. It was expensive, $270 as I recall.

The last time I bought them, Sensor cartridges cost $30 for a package of five. I typically got six shaves from a Sensor cartridge. That is one dollar per shave.

Canned lather costs about four bucks per can and there's typically about twenty shaves per can. That's about 16-20 cents per shave.

Feather blades are the most expensive DE blades. Westcoastshaving sells them for $40 per hundred, 40 cents each. I reliably get four good shaves from each, so that is ten cents per shave.

I just finished a cake of DR Harris soap that cost $15 (yes, fifteen dollars for a cake of soap!). But, that cake of soap, pricey as it is, has 120 shaves in it, 12.5 cents per shave.

$1 + $0.16 = $1.16 per shave with cartridge and can

$0.10 + $0.125 = $0.225 per shave with deluxe DE

$1.16 - $0.225 = $0.935 savings per day, $341 per year.

So, my very top-of-the-line kit was paid for in about nine months and I made $70 the first year. Now, I make a real savings of $341 per year. The razor, bowl, and stand will, with minimal care, last for a lifetime. The brush will need to be re-knotted perhaps every ten years at a cost of about $50.

I want to emphasize that that $341 per year is real savings. It's hard to see it because it comes 93.5 cents per day. It is money you don't spend at the grocery store for cartridges and cans. Instead of spending four bucks every three weeks for another can and thirty more every month for cartridges (notice that they stagger those so you rarely buy both at the same time), all through the year, you will go to westcoastshaving and order a hundred blades for $40 (400 shaves) and three cakes of DR Harris soap for $45 (thus qualifying for free shipping) and you are set for the year.

And Bic blades are, in my opinion, 97% as good as Feathers for literally half the price and I get six good shaves from each of them. Redo the math with those and the savings is even better.

$341 will pay for three nights in a nice hotel near the Cobb Galeria Center in Atlanta, Georgia each year with a little left over for ground transportation and even meals.

And here's the other thing to consider. You can a nice razor for less than $20. A very nice brush can be had in the $50 range. I think a stand is nice to have, but you can get a nice one in the $20 range. And there are plenty of options for a bowl in the $5 range. So, you can get a great kit together for under $100 without much effort. Then, your payoff is in about three or four months.
 
8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th shave:

Guys, thank you very much for your encouragement and well wishes. I am indeed loving this so far, and I hope to get a BBS shave soon. With such kind words of encouragement and advice as you have shown, I’m sure that I—and all the other newbies here—will be BBS soon.

For my 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th shave, things have been fairly predictable… in a good way. I think I’ve more-or-less abandoned the old cartridge shaving habits, and I’m always consciously using a feather-light touch and not shaving over the same areas more than a couple times with each pass. I think I’m also getting the hang of my growth pattern and anticipating problem areas (lower neck, soul patch, upper lip are prone to nicks/irritation) and which areas will usually need touching-up (sides of the mouth, under the chin). Today, for my 11th shave, I got what I would describe as a pretty good shave: close and no irritation or cuts. The cold water splash and Witch Hazel after my shave were pleasant and uneventful.

I have to say that I really like the smell of the TOBS Lavender cream and the Thayer’s Witch Hazel. Man, these are great products! I just go, “Ahhhh,” when I smell them each day. That’s quite a contrast to the way I felt about the blue, aerosol Gillette goo-in-a-can… which was ambivalence at best, disgust at worst.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that I am really loving the feedback that the razor gives me during wet shaving. I can feel and hear the beard reduction—that distinctive scraping sound of a thin blade of razor-sharp steel on hundreds of short, wiry beard hairs—and it’s such a satisfying sound and feeling when you’re getting a close shave, removing that beard, but not harming your skin. Wow, what a feeling!

Today, I actually felt like I might be ready to try an ATG pass next time… no joke. I know that some people here have said to wait as long as three months before attempting an ATG pass. I’ll see how I feel, but I feel like I might be ready. I’m shaving now with the Futur dialed at 2.5, and I see no need to go more aggressive; it seems plenty aggressive at the moment for my WTG and XTG passes. I will dial it down to 1 and really try to go ultra-light with the touch on the ATG pass. After my shave today, I spent a good while in front of the mirror, mapping it out and planning how I would go about it. I felt pretty confident. Maybe for my 13th shave, when I put a new blade in, I’ll try the ATG pass. I’m not committed to it yet; I’ll just play it by ear.
 
As to when to begin ATG, it is generally discouraged for the first few shaves. But, if all else is going reasonably-well, I see no reason not to approach it.
 
Glad to hear you are progressing. We all learn a little everyday, I agree, the Taylor is very decent cream indeed. All of their creams are in my view, well worth it and highly effective. My favourites are: Lavender, Almond, St.James' . Eton College used to be superb, but then they put it in a dark blue tub and changed the smell completely, it works well but the smell frankly revolts me!
 
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