There’s a lot of folklore around cast iron, so be careful when taking advice on what to do. Please wash your pan even if people yell at you for doing it; it’s hygienic and won’t strip the pan unless you have soap with lye in it. If your soap does have lye, you’ll probably want some that doesn’t.

Also, don’t feel like you need to coddle it. It’s a big chunk of iron. It’ll be fine despite people insisting you need to follow their way or your pan will explode. It can get weirdly cult-like. If you mess up too badly, you’ll just need to strip the pan and put a new layer of seasoning on it, which isn’t that difficult.

That said, you’ll probably need to use more fat than you thought you’d need while cooking when you’re building up the seasoning. Eventually, things will stop sticking as much, though.

Only thing you really have to be careful of is to not let it sit wet for too long, like overnight, cause then it can rust. After use, let it cool a bit (holding a scorching hot pan under water can crack the metal), wash it like a regular pan, and dry it thoroughly. Do that, and your pan is happy.

The “don’t use soap” command comes from a time when soap contained lye, which most modern soaps don’t. Your seasoning is not affected by water and normal soap.

Edit: and watch this 4 min video for some advice: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3bZVk0LpilM&pp=ygUVbWludXRlIGZvb2QgY2FzdCBpcm9u

Wash it. I’m serious.