Greetings everyone.

Many many months ago I posted my first thread on the forum. I was thrilled to receive too many kind repsonses to count and quickly came to understand that this truly is the best place to visit for all things Straight Razor. I kept at it with my TI until I finally felt comfortable with xtg and atg. I knew I had sort of a "thing" going when house guests were insistent that they get to watch me shave. I even had my first mishap with a dropped razor and a small chip, which I (probably stupidly) never really took care of. I just kept on shaving. And I loved it.

But then something happened. I just ran out of time one day. And then I ran out of time again and again. And then before I had realized what happened I had not pickup up my straight in months.

To be fair, I didn't just jump back on the fusion wagon, I picked up an Edwin Jagger DE and have been using that exclusively.

But the other day I had some time on my hands and I wanted to treat myself to a real shave. And I realized that I once again was absolutely terrible at shaving. Nothing felt right. I'm sure my stropping sucks. My shaving angles were way off, and in general it was one of the worst shaves I've had in ages. And I realized, shaving is very much a perishable skill. While I'm not cutting into my cheeks the way I did my first time, I could not get a smooth shave after way too many passes.

I'm I alone in this? Or does this happen to everyone? And can someone please tell me that the road to recovery from such terrible shaving is a short and straight path?

With all the respect once again for you guys out there who make this look easy,

Cenzo