Newbie here! hello y'all!
Hello folks, my name is Gabriel, and first thing i should say is that I've never ever shaved with a straight razor. always felt like i should get myself one but it was not until recently that I really started to feel the call of the razor pulling me in.. so started reading and found this forum. been reading for a few days but only till yesterday registered.
I'm an electronics engineer but I'm also a theater actor, so I've used long beard, mustache, total shave and many combinations or variations of these others. If you are wondering, other than when one of my characters has to shave, normally i keep my beard short like just get a clipper every two or three weeks and short it down with No.2 or No.3.
main reason i don't shave too often is that my wife likes it to either be completely shaved or long beard, but she just can't my scratching face of 2-3 days old beard.
the other important reason is that it's difficult for me to actually find the normal razors that don't irritate my face. normally shaving provokes some alergies, and i'm almost sure that this is because i don't even prepare my beard well, or the thigs they put in the razors to smooth cause me those reactions. so every time i've been with lon beard fr a while and then i have, the next few days are just a pain in the 4$$...
one of my main reasons to start shaving every day is that i have a boy, my firstborn, 3.5 months old now :D and it seems when I'm carrying him, my beard sees to cause him some allergies too... and God knows i would not only shave my face but also my head if that's a requirement for having him close to me :)
also, the legend of having the best shave of my life.. cannot lie, it's quite appealing!!
Anyway, I don't currently have a straight razor, and i was thinking on buying one of those "titan" razors on aliexpress. then i started looking for fededback on this forum and found out that maybe that's by no means a good idea to start with. i mean they look nice and they deserve a try (my humble opinion) but like I said I'm an engineer, so I have understood that for a complex process (like learning to hone and shave with a straight razor) you need to rule out as many possible failures, and if I start with one of those and I fail, I won't know if it's because of the quality of the blade or because of my my technique is not improving.
On the other hand, 60 $ for a blade seems fair enough to me (i know that's cheap, but i have no clue on how much is fair or how much is just investing money as a "collector"). I would like a good blade, that looks good but most important, something i can use for sure of top quality, old, vintage or new, don't care.. but want a "good quality" and that i can keep for long years (maybe give to my son), and if I'm to buy a second one later we'll see, but this might get to be my only razor ever so i want something good. maybe i should just wait till i can pay 100$ or more for it?..
anyway, this forum has run too long already, but wanted to give you guys an overview :)
i know that there are many forums where conversations like "what razor should I buy to start with my budget", and " "should i buy used ones?" or "which brands and models?"... i have not found those, did read the sticky threads with the first steps, but now in the process of defining the first step. what and where to buy? how much to spend for a very good quality blade that might be my only one that i want to give later on to my son? and which videos in you tube are most instructive to start with this?
if you have specific threads on this forum that i can go read to make sure i learn this answers that would be really appreciated.
thanks a lot for reading this post and I'm very happy to be here! :)
also thanks in advance for taking the time to answer!
Gabe