My first DE razor and shave experience...it was a pretty good shave!

I tried to take a few pics; but, I could not get them to upload. If I can get that worked out i will repost later.
I mentioned in my intro that I have been wet shaving with a cartridge for a couple years on a pretty sporadic basis primarily because the shaves really were not that much better.
Today, my Edwin Jagger DE89lbl arrived in the mail from Maggard along with an assortment of five blades. I immediately opened the razor box loaded a Derby and began running water.
The list of products used:
Razor and blade mentioned
AOS badger brush from the "kit"
Castle Forbes Cream Lavender scent
Pinaud Clubman Aftershave

First pass - WTG - cheeks, mustache, front of chin, and sides of neck went really well. Under my jaw line, and under my chin looked like I had mange! Haha it was terrible! I must have been dragging the cap over parts with using the blade. I felt like an ass.
Anyway, thanks to the hours of videos I'd watched, I kept hearing the mantra "don't try to remove everything at once!"
Second pass - ATG - everything is AT LEAST as good as a cartridge shave except for my neck! I left well enough alone. Hell yeah! I did it without a blood transfusion and/ or the need to look like a mummy coming out of the bathroom.

Couple interesting points and a question.
- I'm 45 so I thought that my "trouble" spots were permanent issues that I just had to deal with. Not so! Right side of my chin, under the corner of my bottom lip has NEVER been this closely shaved and completely free of irritation. Ever.
- my neck is usually pretty irritated and tender. It feels better tonight than it has since I started shaving. Amazing!

Question:
After each pass the cream residue on my face would feel dry. No possible way to touch up or go over a spot again. I had to splash water on my face to hydrate; and, it still did not feel super slick. I understand lathering again with the product still in the brush, I just thought my face would feel more "slicky poo" between lathers. Did I not build the lather correctly? Is that normal?

Thanks for reading. Glad to have a venue to share!

Brent

Congratulations,  Brent, you are off to an excellent start. First off, the area around the chin and jawline can be problematic for a lot of us. It is nothing unusual at all and, as you have already mentioned, as long as you don't try to remove everything in a single pass, you'll be fine. Your technique will build over several weeks and you will get to know what works best for you.

As for the residue left on your face, after each pass, I would rinse and relather. You have already used the lather on the first pass, even if there is some left on your face. Experiment with making your lather until you get it just right for you. That may involve using more or less water, taking more or less time to whip up the lather, or letting a puck of soap bloom for a few minutes before making your lather. Blooming is adding a "skin" of water onto the top of the puck and letting the puck soak in that for a couple of minutes. Soak your brush, drain the puck of water, and begin lathering.

There are many other techniques and I hope others will chime in. Again, you're off to a great start and you'll have the hang of it in no time.

Glad to hear that it went so well! Especially after coming to blade shaving from a cartridge where the requirements for a good shave are exactly opposite.

Residual lather will dry quickly, especially in a dry climate. If I build an ultralather all I need is a bit of water, droplets, to slick my face up, but I almost never just use water anymore to do that. I have plenty in my brush for re-lathering.

Properly made lather will be almost like whipped cream or yogurt. If it's also properly hydrated it will last for some minutes on the skin before drying. If it turns to nothingness in a short time it's too dry. I suggest to everyone (when I can) that they actually practice lather making. It's a critical skill for a great shave. When you practice, be sure to take the lather too far with hydration and watch what happens as it begins to approach to much water in the mix. It will lose the whipped cream microscopic bubble characteristic and begin to make large bubbles. Just a bit more water and it will completely break down. Too little water and it will dry out far to rapidly and turn into a "spider web" on your skin. When I was learning I'd use my arm as the test skin.

Too, if you have soft water don't fall into the trap of using an extremely small quantity of soap. Use a bit more than what's required and you'll find the lather much easier to make and it will simply be a better lather. If you do have suspected problems with lather there are few problems that more product won't cure, too dry a lather is the only one I know of that more soap won't fix.

You're doing good! Carry on!

Edit: I see Freddy beat me to it, but I swear I wasn't looking over his shoulder as I was typing.

What follows is not an indictment on you. I just want make sure you don't do it, and other eyes read these threads as well. I'm also writing this for those folks.

I forgot to add that you might be tempted to jump around and try different things early on in your blade shaving career. Yes, that can be done, but you'll learn almost nothing with the chaotic approach. Instead stick to most everything being the same for a time and change just one item in the shave, after you get the basics down. For now you should concentrate on lather because with bad lather you'll never get a good shave. It's OK to change blades when required, but stay with the same brand. Once you are comfortable with your lather, then change one thing and one thing only. Maybe a different brand of blade. Se how that affects your shave, and again, when comfortable with the change, change out something else. By that method you'll learn far faster than by using chaos.

Thanks for the replies, kind words, encouragement, and tips. I appreciate your input. I did rinse and relather between passes, skin just felt exceptionally dry with almost a powdery type residue prior to my rinse. I used a cream and not a soap thinking that would help me overcome poor lather technique during my first attempt. I'll keep at, hell, I have to practice at least 5 times a week anyway!
On the issue of consistency vs chaos approach. I have made a decision to stick with the EJ razor for AT LEAST a year before moving to other razors. I have been told to use an entire pack of five or ten blades before switching brands. My intent was to work through different combos that way. Each brand/ type of blade gets a full month of trial before moving to another. After twelve or so trials, view my notes of those tried and reorder the top contenders along with a few new trials. Is that still too much change?

Got a little too cocky this morning and got some weepers on my neck. Chin, cheeks, and upper lip are incredibly smooth and NO discomfort. I can't express how excited I am to have made this commitment. Im gonna be so much better for it and get so much enjoyment from it.
Take care and thanks again.

Brent

Brent, that's not too much change at all. As for the weepers, even the most experienced get a wee bit too cocky now and then and pay the price.

Dittos, that actually might hold back your progress. I wouldn't carve anything in stone just yet, but I'm glad to see that you already had in mind to go slowly. Don't be surprised if you catch on so quickly that you're changing things much sooner than expected right now, but I'm not suggesting that you should move faster either. Just honestly gauge your progress; you'll know when you're ready.

Sorry to hear that you took a step back with the latest shave, but that's to be expected. Persevere. You'll get it. The most difficult thing for a person moving from cartridges to blades to perfect is the idea of "no pressure". Cart's require pressure to work, and blades require so little that we call it "no pressure". I tell this story frequently so many people will have read it already. I have a friend who was ready for blades and began with decent gear. I'd ask him how he was doing and he'd lie to me and tell me "OK.". I could tell by the way he said it that he wasn't doing great. Each time I would tell him again in hopes of getting through to him, "Remember, no pressure.". Months went by and one Sunday he called me up to tell me that he'd just gotten the best shave of his life. He went on to tell me that he was about to give up with blades and go back to cart's but for this shave he actually was going to use no pressure. The resulting shave was phone call worthy. He finished his story with, "When you say no pressure that's exactly what you mean, don't you?". We do. It's counterintuitive, but that's the way they work best.

Great update and also tips from Brian and Freddy!

I would reiterate Brian's point re: loading your brush- more is better. I think many, even the experienced, don't load enough soap and the result is poor lather. Properly hydrated, you will be surprised at how much water a soap/lather can tolerate if you add GRADUALLY.

I used to just dip my brush tips but now use a "swipe" method in a fine stream from the faucet that another community member had recommended. I find that I have much greater control of the hydration and am getting fantastic shaves. An old dog can learn new tricks!

I am 50 and have a course beard. The chin and jawline are tricky to maintain blade angle but you will get the "feel" and the problems will disappear.

One final point, make sure you actually know what your beard pattern is. When I first started I assumed I knew what was ATG, XTG, WTG but in actuality I wasn't close, particularly on my neck. Once I knew the general growth patterns my shaves improved as I was actually going WTG first pass (I also prefer to go WTG as a second pass prior to ATG as my beard is a bugger and it makes it easier).

I think you are definitely on the right path!

Question:
After each pass the cream residue on my face would feel dry. No possible way to touch up or go over a spot again. I had to splash water on my face to hydrate; and, it still did not feel super slick. I understand lathering again with the product still in the brush, I just thought my face would feel more "slicky poo" between lathers. Did I not build the lather correctly?  Is that normal?

In my experience, it is sometimes the case that the cream or soap residue feels dry after a pass. I simply wet my face again, relather and go onto the next pass. If there are still rough spots after the last pass, I relather only the areas that need a little extra work. With other soaps or creams, there is enough residual slickness to do a little touch up before relathering for the next pass. Kiss My Face cream and Van Der Hagen Deluxe soap fall into the latter category.

It sounds like you are off to a great start, and it gets even better from here!

Thanks TBone. I appreciate your reply. I simply did not hydrate the cream enough when I made my lather. I have been practicing just making lather over the weekend and figured out what I did wrong. I kinda feel like a complete ass because I've had that Castle Forge Cream for a few years now; and, this weekend is the first time I've made a proper lather with it. At least I will enjoy the rest of it the way it was meant to be enjoyed!

Take care,

Brent