Solved my dilemna regarding having to do tons and tons of passes...

It was my lather! My lather technique has been utter ****e all along.

I always made my lather in a small coffee mug, but this time I tried building it directly on to my face and the lather turned out very different. It was extremely thick and at first I thought my razor would grab and pull. But to my surprise, it sliced through my hairs like butter.

GREAT shave in three passes.

Man, I was really putting these feathers to waste before. Now I'm committing whisker genocide with every pass and it barely makes a noise.

Well done! Gosh, it must have been tough to learn to do something like this 30 years ago when there were no internet fora to check up.
Enjoy your new-found technique and have fun shaving

There's that word again...

Congrats! Glad to hear it's working for you.

Pete

+ 1 on building a good lather