General questions about sharpness/BBS shaving from a noob

[ccsengeri]

I have been shaving with a Dovo Solingen from the Art of Shaving for about 3 months now and have ran into a bit of trouble.

For the first handful of shaves I was able to get a shave so close the stubble was invisible and the skin was BBS even against the grain on the cheek. However, the neck was significantly more difficult, as my hair is a lot thicker there, so I encountered severe irritation. I figured it was part of the learning curve, and, partially, it was, but I never managed an ATG shave on the neck without strong irritation, and eventually gave up on it for the time being, relying on single-pass on the neck.

But after I began to shave the rest of my face (jawline, sideburns, mustache, etc; I grow a beard for the winter) I just could not cut the hair reliably WTG, and XTG did pretty much nothing. ATG resulted in yet more irritation. Even the cheek, which I used to be able to shave like a pro, now is riddled with a very close/fine stubble after all three passes. I can't even attempt ATG on anywhere else.

I tried everything from various directions of skin tightening to various lather and preparation methods (I use pre-shave oil too) to no avail, and began to despair, thinking that my hirsute ancestry and sensitive skin had gotten the best of me.

However, after watching numerous videos where people are able to get a pretty smooth shave with just a single WTG pass, something I was never able to accomplish, and reading a post on this forum stating that Art of Shaving razors are in fact NOT shave ready, it's my opinion that my razor is just incredibly dull. It's also my theory that the only reason my cheeks were so easily shaved was because prior to starting with this straight razor I had only ever used electric in my 7 or so years of shaving, so the hair had not been "toughened".

So, now, a few questions:

1. Is there such a thing where a person's hair is just too heavy, and their skin is too sensitive, that they will never be able to reliably get a BBS shave? Are some of us just genetically disadvantaged to this end? I really like that invisible whiskers look, as opposed to that leftover shadow despite a fresh shave.
2. How well is a single-WTG pass supposed to turn out? For me, I have noticeable stubble, but in many videos the gentleman in question has more of a 5 o'clock shadow appearance.
3. I am not interested in learning to hone, at least right now, because of the limits of my wallet, and because I want to be able to have a really sharp razor while I'm still a beginner. Where do you all recommend I should get my razor honed? I live outside of DC.

Thanks in advance!