Thread: Introduction and a Question

Originally Posted by TheDoctor

Hi everybody, I'm Ian. I've been eyeing up straight razors for a while now... and in a post-Sweeney Todd fervor I swept the internet for all the information I could get on them. We figured the movie would bring some guys around to us here. Welcome! I've got a habit of making things difficult... When I started smoking, cigarettes seemed too easy, so I went for a handmade Egyptian hookah. When fast-food lost its charms, I went to culinary school and learned how to cook. Since disposable razors are ridiculously expensive and leave me with constant razorburn and never a close shave, straight-edges seem the way to go.

I plan on buying a secondhand, shave-ready piece off the BST section of the forum, but before I lay out the money to get a shave-kit set up, I wanted to ask if anyone else had luck in eliminating some damn persistant razorburn by switching away from a disposable? Not only eliminating razor burn from cartridge, disposable (and DE!...oooh the B&B guys are going to argue!) but also electrics. My neck was the worst for burn before straights. Now I have no burn, no ingrowns and a clean shaven neck since moving to straights exclusively. I figure having a constantly-sharp blade would be better, like always having a fresh-from-the-box razor.

Also, I know I need soap, a brush, a strop and a hone, You do NOT need a hone to start off. A strop in some form , (there are many things that can be used for stropping, smooth leather, balsa wood, newspaper, denim, etc) without question. If you have a properly honed edge to start and you take care of it, it can give you many shaves, PLENTY of shaves to find out if you like shaving this way prior to actually buying stones (plural). but that seems to be about it. I'm looking to get as much as I can from The Well-Shaved Gentleman and Classic Shaving, and the secondhand razor from the forum. Potentially a stand, too. Only my opinion here and the opinion of many others....a stand isn't necessary. Standing your brush you've rid of as much moisture as possible upright on it's handle works great. I actually bought a chrome stand from Classic Shaving when I started out and never use it now. I've already got a shaving mirror, and it shouldn't be terrible to sacrifice a house-mug for the shaving cause, right? Besides that, are there any cheaper alternatives to the fifty-dollar-plus brushes I see everywhere? I bought a $15 Tweezerman 100% Badger brush some time ago as an interim brush upgrade from the scritchy $5 bristle brush I started with and have yet to buy a "$50+" brush (too many nice razors and hones to buy). CLICK HERE for the link to where I bought my brush. I'm perfectly satisfied with it at this point; it shed almost no hair whatsoever and is worlds softer than the bristle I had.

I hope some/all of this helps. Most of all...............Welcome!

Chris L