Starting out - graduated from a shavette to a 6/8 straight razor
After shaving with a shavette for 2 1/2 weeks, my wife was impressed with my learning how to straight shave and she ordered me the kit from SRD that I pointed out to her. Since I have not been straight razor shaving a month, is it better to shave WTG for a while before attempting to go XTG and ATG just to get the feel of the razor and comfortable? Or should I just plunge in and start learning ATG right away? I have mostly been WTG even with the shavette and this morning when I first tried my new DOVO, I tried to go ATG, but the whiskers seem to "stop" the blade, so throwing caution to the wind, I did not try to go any further. So it was two passes WTG today. A couple nicks but nothing styptic cannot handle. But I am looking forward to tomorrow morning's shave though.
I have the pre-shave prep down well (wash my face with body wash well in the shower, use a pre-shave oil, a good rich lather that I let sit for about 2-3 minutes, and I reapply the pre-shave oil and re-lather for the second pass WTG) and I have stropped my DOVO Best Quality 6/8 well. (Mind you, I watched some videos on proper stropping.) My wife donated a long hair strand and the blade cuts right through the strand without bending it; so I know my DOVO is shave-ready.
I am open and appreciative to input and advice to work my way to a BBS shave.
Thank you in advance,
Patrick