About 4 months ago I saw a video on Youtube where the guy said to become proficient with using a straight razor, figure on at least 100 shaves. So I committed to try at least 100 and see how it goes. I kept a simple tally and today was number 100! (I guess that means I’m proficient now)

From my vantage point, I can see that this was very good advice. For beginners, I think 100 shaves or so is a very realistic "evaluation period". Anything short of this you may not get to the point where you can consistently get good shaves. Although some around here seem to pick this up rather quickly, in my case I hit several plateaus where I didn’t see much improvement for a while. On several occasions I considered reverting back to some other method. But then I would have a breakthrough and things would improve. Some of the improvements happened not even because of anything I was doing consciously - just more practice. The moral of this little story is: Don’t give up, just keep shaving.

At this point, there is no stopping me now. I think what is most addicting for me is the constant pursuit of the better shave. There is infinite variability (combinations of different prep, razor, cream, aftershave, stropping, angle, pressure, sharpness) and perpetual room for improvement. That’s one thing that elevates this daily chore to a daily experience. (I mean really, how many different ways can you shave your face with an electric?)