So, I just had my second shave today, and it was much better than the first, although still nowhere near clean. I stropped for the first time today (last time my razor was fresh from being honed by Lynn, so I decided to isolate the stropping variable by not doing it) and that worked quite well -- the razor was definitely sharp. Last time, I'd also only done one pass. This time I did both a WTG and XTG pass. Already after the WTG pass my shave was cleaner than last time, and with the added XTG pass it ended up being much cleaner. But there's still a lot of stubble around, and it's too long for me to dare going ATG. I figure I'll do two passses only until I get a reasonably clean shave before attempting ATG.

There are two questions I have, now. First: my lather. I've been following the instructions I've read here and at badgerandblade.com, and the lather I've been producing has looked very much like the pictures I've seen of a "good lather". However, on my face, it dries out very quickly and once dry is quite sticky, which I imagine can't be good for the shave, as I'd imagine the blade is supposed to glide over my skin. This time, I lathered each cheek separately because otherwise, by the time I'm done shaving one side, the other side is dry and even a little bit cakey. Am I using too little water? Looking at videos of people wet shaving on youtube, it doesn't seem like their lather dries out quite so quickly. At the very minimum, they can do one pass without relathering. Any thoughts?

Now, as I've mentioned elsewhere previously, my strategy for learning proper technique is to grow a goatee for now and thereby reduce my shave to just cheeks and neck, which are flatter and apparently easier to shave. But I've run into a trouble spot already: how do I do an XTG pass on the area right below my goatee, under my chin? WTG is no problem, obviously, but XTG is kind of difficult. I'm a skinny guy with a defined jawline, and with the way my hair grows on my neck (straight down towards my Adam's apple) going across the grain means moving laterally. But because of the slope of my neck, doing that would shave off a bunch of hair that I want to keep on my chin. How do those of you with a goatee or chin beard do maintenance on that line? It looks like doing ATG would be no problem, if I could shave it cleanly enough with just a WTG pass. But at least currently, I don't cut the stubble short enough on just a WTG pass to attempt that.

Any thoughts on either of these two issues?

Thanks a bunch,

Alexander