The last of my stuff arrived yesterday and I decided to start in on my week of beard prep training today. Let's get started by saying that I'm usually one of those guys that never shaves on a day off or on vacations. For years I've been saying that once out of the army I'm gonna look like a member of ZZ Top. lol

Anyways, first thing I did was prep my brush by soaking it in warm water then washing it in shampoo and then conditioner just like I would my own hair since it had never been used before. I'm pretty sure it was in the wiki that I saw that this should be done. Anyways, after that, I tossed a little bit of hot water on the soap and hopped in the shower. While in there I made a point of scrubbing my face good with soap and used some conditioner on my face and let it sit there for 2 minutes before rinsing it off with really hot water. After that I dried off and tossed some Trumpers Skin Food on my beard. I then dumped a little bit of the water that was on top of the soap in my shaving mug along with a few drops of glycerin and then soaped up the brush. It took me a few tries to get a passable lather. Anyways, after that I just did a WTG pass, relathered the face, then ATG with the proglide, rinsed the face with cold water afterwards and applied some more Trumpers Skin Food. I'd have to say that just upgrading from shaving-gel-in-a-can to wet shaving products gave me the most comfortable, close shave I've ever had! I think once I can speed up the process of getting a decent lather I'll be ready to add the straight razor in there.