Hello gents,

To start with, I began shaving "the right way" recently due to the fact that I’ve heard it irritates the skin much less, and I’m sick of having razor burn after shaving with the Fusion I had. Plus, I just think it's cool. I've started out on a budget, I got the Van der Hagen Deluxe brush/soap/mug kit with a Parker Disposable Straight Razor. I eventually want a Boker Tree Brand or a Hart Steel Razor, but I figure the parker was a good introductory step to see whether or not I want to do this and drop 150+ on a razor. So far I love it, minus the nicks. But I think the nicks may be because I’m missing something when it comes to prep. I must say that the pre-shave prep was one of the reasons I was looking forward to wet shaving, but so far I’ve only been frustrated with it. I've searched the forums, tried all the different methods I’ve found, etc... but I can't seem to get a decent lather going. I've been using the tutorial from here on building the lather in a bowl, not lathering on your face. Anyway, I'll get what I think is a good consistency, put it on my face and it disappears within a minute. It's more like soap suds than shaving lather. Today I actually stopped trying after like half an hour of frustration, completely rinsed my face and brush off and started trying again. My face, after I rinsed whatever I thought was a lather off (still hadn't shaved), was kind of tight and a little dry feeling, could this mean something? It also kind of seems that whatever it is that I’m making makes my hair stickier during my shave instead of being lubricating. Whenever I lather up, it kind of looks good to me in the bowl then I try and brush it on my face and it seems to just sink into my skin. I can visibly see my skin when I'm shaving, I’m pretty sure I’m missing something. Is this something I’m doing wrong? I've been shaving with whatever it is that I’m making, and it's definately not the comfortable, enjoyable experience that everyone says it should be. Should I just go with putting the soap in the bottom of my mug and lathering straight on my face? Could it be the soap? The Van der Hagen Soap I’m using gets great reviews, but that's assuming I know what I’m doing (big assumption). Could it be the brush? Could it be the water? I'm serving in Afghanistan right now and the water quality here is poor, very hard and treated non-potable is what we have running in our plumbing. I'm thinking of switching to a Truefitt & Hill cream instead of using soap, as that seems somewhat easier and less hassle, which is good for me right now while I’m here overseas. But I want to understand what it is that I’m doing wrong with the soap, as I want to enjoy that type of prep also, and my searches thus far haven't fixed anything. Also, any input on King of Shaves pre-shave oil? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!