Greetings!
This is my first post here at SRP... a little over a year ago -- shortly after I started shaving my head daily -- I decided to ditch the Gillette/Schick "MOAR BLADEZ!!!" du jour and try out this whole wet shaving thing. I started out with the VDH "Premium Shave Set" and a Parker DE from CS. One shave was all it took to convince me these "wet shaving" nuts were on to something! (now I am one)
Since then, I switched to CS' "Black Lavender" WF soap*, quality aftershave and moisturizing afterwards.
But the lure of the straight razor as the "real" wet shaving was always there. Being a head-shaver I was understandably intimidated.
Still, I have a strong grip and a steady hand so I figure, "why not? If I don't like it, I can always use the DE for my head and the SR for my face...."
And so I am here, looking for razor-buying advice. Everyone everywhere (and by "everywhere", I mean here and B&B) seems to recommend starting with a cheap, used razor professionally honed by some guy named "Lynn Abrams" (who I understand it does or did the sharpening service at CS?) and that such razors were available on the forums here.
I'm not even sure what sort of price range to look for; honestly, the TI they have over at CS looks nice and when there are custom jobs going for over two grand, $240 seems like a steal for such nice...steel.
But everyone recommends starting with a cheapy and the reason always seems to come down to "honing". So...I'm looking for advice on the shaving instrument AND in maintaining it. My plan is to buy a strop in the same order as a razor (if I buy new from a vendor) but I also am a DIY guy at heart so the instructions here on making your own strops really caught my eye. But I digress....
I need a strop, that much I know; but what about hones? And what sort of hones? Would I really ever really need a stone, or would a pasted paddle strop do? What are balsa hones for? Am I asking too many questions? Oh, and is T&H "Trafalgar" a good cream? Think it would go well along side CS's Black Lavender? What is the price of tea in China?
OK I think I've given you guys enough work with this post so now that I'm done lurking and posting, I am really revved up to contract a bad case of RAD.
Now...GO!