Well guys... my quest is going well. Now, I have to be honest with you guys here... I used a mach3. HOWEVER, not by choice. I sent my blade to get honed, and I've been wanting to learn how to lather since I've looked it up more, and I just bought some bigelow shave cream, sooooooo... I took a nice hot long shower.. I used some shamp-and-cond on my beard, then i got out, and i made a veryyyy hot towel. Well, I did that after i made my lather... i had soaked my brush in a cereal bowl full of hot water, and i covered just the top inside the rim of my williams soap.

so, i dumped the water out of mug, squeezed the brush, and dumped the soapy water into the bowl. i then went to hell on my soap in the mug with the brush until it was soaked thru with soap in the hairs. then i squeezed a bit of shave cream into bowl and water, and went to work. its a cheap glass bowl, completely smooth, and i managed to get a pretty good lather! i worked it into my face, then applied more to smooth and thicken everything up, and went to work.

i have no razor burn... no irritation... i just wish my straight was here to share in my learning! lol

soon enough... but atleast i've gotten that down. wish i had some glycerine (tried to find it today in store) and maybe some nice bay rum splash for aftershave.

any recommendations?

im sorry to bring up that mach3 crap, but, i had to be honest. also, it was a MUCH better shave than my damn $30 at the barbers hahaha