New guy, looking for help
As everyone here has stated stretching is the key. So though it may sound stupid go stand in front of your mirror and begin stretching and contorting your face with your non dominate hand to find ways of pulling the hollows more flush with skin around it. Then make a mental map of your face.
Also you don't have to wait for a straight to start doing this while you shave.
While doing this you can feel how the grain of your hair grows. Going with the natural grain will help.
A couple questions though in you post you said your tired of safety razors are you talking about your Mach 5 modern razors or DE's?
Are you using a brush and shave soap or quality shave cream or canned shave gel/cream that you put on with your hands?
As to buying a straight any of the major brands dovo, thiers, aust and hart will serve you well. But they need to be shave ready. Typically none of the razors come shave ready from the factory. Hart being the only exception and that depends on who you ask. So it's the vendors you need to see about making sure your razor is ready to shave. There are a lot of them that offer this service sometimes with an extra fee and sometimes not. Just make sure you get it done.
Another option for a razor is the classifieds here. You can get nice razors at a good price. Also any razor listed as shave ready you can be sure is shave ready or someone will make good on that.