A shave with a straight razor would take me 45 minutes the first week or so. That was finishing the tough areas, knob of the chin, some of the neck, with a DE. Within a week it was down to 30 minutes but the lather would still be dry on one side of my face by the time I got to it and I'd have to redo it. By the time a month went by I was getting decent shaves, the DE stayed in the medicine cabinet, and my time was down to 15-20 minutes. One lathering was sufficient per pass on the face/neck.

From there it may have been three months, I can't recall. The plateau thing kicked in and I seemed to be static as far as improvement went. As Jimbo pointed out, the honing and stropping was improving at the same time my shaving technique was. Add lathering to that equation as well. I specifically remember, at about a year into it, I began using a slicing stroke and that was a major step in improving my shaves.

IOW, visualize slicing a tomato rather than trying to push the blade through it as if you were scraping ice off of a windshield, or paint off of a sheet of glass with a scraper. Meanwhile my stretching was improving, I was getting to know my own face and neck, which stretches worked for problem areas, like the hollows on either side of my windpipe. BTW, if anyone who hasn't done that slicing/diagonal stroke thing reads this, just be careful, watch your blade angle, and no pressure. Don't make your cheek or neck the tomato, just the whiskers.

I guess I'm still improving, but that plateau is longer and wider than it used to be. Smooth shaving y'all.