I'm getting discouraged here, so I need some advice. I've been using a straight for a couple of months now.

My equipment: I have two blades I got from Lynn, both carbon steel, a Tony Miller latigo/horsehide strop, and a practice strop I put some chromium oxide on.

My beard: The hair on my face is, maybe, average density, meaning I can grow a decent beard with a couple of thin spots on the cheeks (but I'm not here to grow a beard, ya know). My facial hair is very coarse, and grows fast, so each individual whisker is thick and there is a good deal of length to shave off each day.

My current technique: I strop 50 times on the latigo, 25 times on the horsehide. I do have Lynn's video so I think I'm stropping correctly (who knows?). I do three standard passes: WTG, XTG, ATG. My chin is the toughest part to get close, enough so that I often cheat and touch that up with an electric.

My first pass is always the most painful and the razor feels like it's pulling. There's no easy slicing of the blade through the whiskers here. The second and third passes are better, though not the ease I have been expecting. I usually end up with a pretty decent shave. My post-shave irritation comes and goes, but it is certainly better than when I started.

I want shaves to be comfortable. I want shaves like I see on all the videos! All the videos I've watched seem to show people who looked like they shaved 4 hours before.

So, should the first pass feel different than the rest? Does thecoarseness of my beard make a difference? Is there more resistance because the hair is longer? Where's the glide?

I recently fixed up my chromium oxide strop since my blades weren't performing. I only did 5 passes. Afterwards, my blades seemed worse, harsh.

I'm missing that magic. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Ray