Quote Originally Posted by JSMaxwell View Post
1.)Soak badger brush in hot distilled water while I took a shower. I used distilled because my water is so hard here it is hard to lather anything.
That really must be hard. I live in an area surrounded by chalk hills, & have no problem. Having to boil up distilled water would be enough to put me off. Might be worth trying a top end cream & seeing how it performs with your standard water.

Quote Originally Posted by JSMaxwell View Post
2.)Took shower being sure to get my face good a wet
It's obvious, but use a decent face soap to remove oils without drying the skin. This will allow water to penetrate the stubble & soften it.

Quote Originally Posted by JSMaxwell View Post
3.)Get out of shower, dry off, just pat dry my face
Stop doing this. Leave the face wet. It keeps the lather from drying out for far longer.

Quote Originally Posted by JSMaxwell View Post
4.)Build lather using almond sized bit of unscented shaving cream and soaptopia sweet almond soap
And this. You have enough variables without mixing your own formulas. Just use each good quality product at any one time.


Quote Originally Posted by JSMaxwell View Post
5.)Didn't do any other beard prep except to apply lather with brush
A good hot shower should be enough. Conditioner can help, but a shower & good lather do more than enough.

Quote Originally Posted by JSMaxwell View Post
6.)Attempt to shave with straight razor, have bad experience, finish with Mach 3.
30 degrees? Did you have your protractor? It's hard to judge. Aim for the spine to be two to three spines width from the face. As you make progress, tighten up the angle for successive passes, reducing the number of spine widths.

Learn to stretch properly. The skin should not be moving too much as the razor glides over it. The act of stretching in conjunction with the direction of the blade should lift the hair, not encourage it to lay flatter.

More passes are better than more pressure. Don't aim to take off too much on the first pass. There's no harm in doing two or more WTG passes, till you're comfortable enough to move on to XTG etc.

Really thick lather sometimes doesn't have enough water in it.

Hollow blades do sound "like sandpaper". Don't worry about that. Full hollows may ring, wedges are fairly silent. The sound a blade makes can be a useful tool when you know what it's telling you, but right now, you probably haven't the experience to read it.

Don't be disheartened. If you could just pick up a straight & get fine shaves where would you get the satisfaction from when you master it?

Good luck.