Thread: Want to try a straight razor but am concerned...

I'm really beginning to get the urge to learn to shave with a straight razor but am a bit hesitant...

About 10 years ago or so, after years of seeing other guys getting straight shaves at the barber's, I decide it was time to splurge a little and try one myself. Now, I should mention that I was about 28 or so and he was my barber since my very first hair cut so I really trusted him and had no doubt he knew his stuff.

Well, when I sat in the chair and asked for a straight shave on top of the hair cut his immediate response was "You'll bleed. I can do it but I don't recommend it. With your type of beard (I have a very course, fast-growing beard) a straight razor shave will make you bleed. Stick with the cartridge razors." I took him at his word, skipped the shave, and went on my merry way believing I'd just never get to experience one. (I moved soon after and haven't been back to his shop since.)

The significant tugging and slight-but-very-short-lived irritation I've regularly felt when other barbers have used straights to trim under my sideburns after shortening them with the clippers seemed to confirm his words.

But the more I think about it the more I wonder, if he was right, then:

• What did all those guys the world around with course beards like me do before safety razors were invented? They couldn't ALL have just let their beards grow...
• Why shouldn't a straight razor be able to shave a course beard w/o problem if a DE blade can? Is there really that big a difference in the sharpness each can achieve...
• Maybe his razor was never quite sharp enough or his technique not quite right and he'd been doing it that way for so long he just came to believe it wasn't him or the razor but that course beard simple weren't straight-shave material...

The thing is, I don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars, 1-2 years of time, and countless harsh or even bloody shaves only to find out he was right.

SO, I'd really appreciate any confirmation, debunking, insights, etc. you guys - particularly those of you with course beards - can offer... or any answers to the following questions you can give:

1. Are some beards really just too thick/course to comfortably shave (after gain enough experience) with a straight?
2. What blade type, size, brand shave-ready razor would be a good starting place (I recall reading somewhere that wedge or 1/2 hollow grind is needed for a course beard)?
3. Are there any special things a course-beard shaver should take into consideration aside from the general getting-started tips and info found in all the first-shave-read-first threads?

Thanks.