Gentlemen,

I have been giving a lot of thought lately to success factors in any new endeavor and the induction of frustrations into the new endeavor. I have been thinking that aligning one's expectations with the reality of the new endeavor is extremely important to reducing frustration and possibly abandoning the new endeavor.

For any beginner and sometimes even the veteran, this art is wrought with frustration.

What I thought might be useful is to gather the learning curve timeframes that most of us took to become proficient at the different aspects of this art, average them and create a beginner's expectation chart. My purpose here is to align expectations, not to generate an "I'm never going to get this" conclusion, but an "I need to try something different or get some help" conclusion.

Now, I know that there are people at both ends of the spectrum on all of these areas. Those that came out of the shoot able to do something (like I could with ambidextrous shaving) and those who may have taken 6 months to become proficient. In addition, I also know that most of us could say "I'm still learning" for any of these areas. I am not after the extremes, nor am I after the incremental improvements. What I think we want is when did you get a bloodless comfortable shave without destroying your razor or strop. What I listed in my timeframes contains my time to make/break bad habits, create muscle memory or just find the right thing than my skin liked.

So for me:

Beard Prep (finding a consistent preparation for my beard) - 1 month
Stropping (no strop nicks and smooth consistent motion) - 3 months
Ambidextrous Shaving (switching from left to right hand and back)- 0 days
WTG (know the angles and control the blade for a WTG Pass) - 2 weeks
XTG (know the angles and control the blade for a XTG Pass) - 4 weeks
ATG (know the angles and control the blade for an ATG Pass) - 4 weeks
Beard Growth Direction (telling the direction my beard is growing and adjusting angles for it) - 4 months
Lather Building (learning the right water/air/cream or soap mix and what my face likes) - 1 week
Bloodless Shave (no knicks or weepers, though still get a weeper once in a while)- 2 Weeks
Razor Burn-less Shave (no white knuckles while applying Bayrum - correct pressure) - 6 months
Skin Broken In (skin responds and replenishes after ex-foliation)- 6 months
Post Shave Treatment (finding what your skin likes after a shave)- 1 month

In addition (does not add to the shave quality unless a beginner decides to hone out the shoot):
Honing (consistent shave ready edges on straight and smiling edges) - 1 1/2 years

So please feel free to add a dimension I may have missed and your own experience times. I will wait about a month and then average the values we post.

I am always open to suggestions from our long term veterans as to the usefulness of this idea. It may not be as useful as I anticipate.
Alembic