After reading up about a lot of the tips before cooking I tried my first attempt at cooking in my new stainless steel pan. I've seen pans develop a rainbow effect online over time, and read that that's normal and purely cosmetic. I have however not seen the kind of smear or dullness that my pan developed right after first use and I'm unsure if I'm messing something up.
I cleaned the pan by hand with water and dish soap only before first use, hand dried it, let it warm up on medium low on the gas stove, and put avocado oil in once the water beads started jumping around. I put enough oil in to cover the whole bottom of the pan, maybe even a bit too much, and put the food in after waiting for a couple minutes so the oil could heat up.
Cooking went great. The meat did not stick to the pan. The pan however did get brown at some points, which I don't think is unusual. After I was done cooking I ate from the pan so it could cool down at the same time. Once it cooled down a bit l filled the pan with some warm water and left it to sit for a couple minutes. All the brownness could be removed after that with only a sponge, but I went over it with some dish soap afterwards anyway.
Then, once I dried the pan I noticed it looked really dull compared to its new state. Is this expected from normal use, or am I doing something wrong? The pan feels smooth so I don't think there is something on it that makes it looks so dull. The smudges also do not give the Rainbow effect which I've read about.