quote:
Any advise for a noob to the world or Feathers, safety razors, straight razors, etc? Difficulty, advise? I am miserable shaving with my Mach's and need help.

This is what I did - I found a starter kit with decent reviews from Amazon. My kit came with a Merkur 34C (a decent to good starting 3-piece razor) - and most decent kits will have Merkur or EJ 3-piece razor. Mine only came with 1 Merkur blade, so find a sampler pack with a similarly high rating. What you're going to do is try various blades from various manufacturers - looking for good results on your actual skin and beard - all the while working on your wet shaving technique.

A good set will include a razor (handle and head - I find most are interchangeable - I can use my Merkur 34C handle on my EJ DE89 head and vice versa), stand and badger brush. Most also include either soap or cream and some will add a bowl.

Once you collect a little gear (and this part is not inexpensive - I wouldn't go over $150 but, you can get started well under that if you're frugal) - find some wet shaving youtube vids and start shaving. The first shave might take an hour - it's like learning anything else. Go slowly - but you don't have to be afraid of the razor - I find most newbies are overly cautious and my problem now is that I get into a hurry and forget I'm shaving with real shaving gear - overconfidence.

Anyway, don't give up for at least 6 to 8 weeks - your technique should continually improve fairly dramatically over that time and your shaving time will go down.

In addition to youtube there are numerous online communities for support - I go to [link=(badger and blade)]Badger and Blade[/link] all the time, although I don't post there.

I've never gone overboard with the overpriced "Art of Shaving" stuff, but they have good resources, too.

This post was edited on 1/17/15 at 10:51 am