So i had my first shave with a straight earlier this week. Not the most comfortable shave but not terrible; certainly not the closest shave but hey, it was my first time and that was to be expected. I was left with 2 questions:

1) Lathering up: I am using an unscented puck soap from SRD and I'm not sure the best way to go about building a lather. The kit i bought came with a mug as well but i'm not sure if i was just supposed to build the lather in the soap jar or if i should put some soap on the brush (by swirling it in the soap jar) and then swirl it in the mug? I tried both ways but i couldn't get a very frothy lather going. (I tried keeping it to just the tip of the brush as per some advice i read on here). Any suggestions? Are my frothy expectations too high?

2) Shaving pressure: I've read over and over that i should try to use as little pressure on the blade as possible, so that's what i did. The question is this: by "pressure" is that strictly the downward pressure i use? or does that apply to the pressure of holding the blade close to my face as well? I ask because my shave was not smooth at all (i had to go over it with my cartridge to be presentable at work). should i be pressing it closer to my face?


Looking forward to round 2 with the straight tonight. Any help is appreciated.