Its been a fairly long road, and I've finally gone proper do to much frustration

I now have a badger brush, some Taylor rose cream, a nice strop, a Lynn honed razor, and Lynn's dvd.

Tonight I watched Lynn shave and tried for myself. Lo and behold, when I did it the way he said to do it, it felt, well.. it didn't hurt. I still have a lot to learn and I managed to nick myself a few times, but the constant wincing pulling pain is gone. Something about the stroke & angle, stropping semi correctly, and most importantly a good quality soap or cream.

I noticed that the cream kept drying on my face and thats when I started to nick and pull, so I'll try more water next time. Also, I don't think I'm going to try more than my cheeks for a while, sense I feel like my face is burning pretty bad.

Thanks for all the help so far! And to you newbies out there like me, do yourself a favor and don't try to save pennies in the short run, cause it just leads to pain and frustration, not to mention way more than you would have spent in the first place, had you listened to common wisdom.

-Mark