Thread: Really lost now...

You need a decent quality razor and strop. The rest doesn't need to be expensive. Plenty of reasonable shaving brushes that won't break the bank.
I'll probably get shot down in flames by the others, but many of the soaps, pre-shaves and aftershaves are very overpriced and overrated.

The basic make-up of most of the soaps and creams is very similar. I bought an inexpensive tube of Palmolive shaving cream at the supermarket, apart from the smell, it's performance is about the same as my expensive tub of Trumpers cream. In fact, it doesn't dry out quite so fast on the face.

People often ask how they can tell good from bad, to be honest, common sense works wonders.

BeBerlin wrote an excellent article on shopping as a beginner.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...beginners.html

I bought an antique store razor for 15, the 8 dollar soap/brush/bowl from WalMart, and a begginers strop from tony miller for 20. I asked around and got my razor honed for free.

15-razor
8-brush/soap/mug
20/strop
free/honing

43$

You need good, not great. With some experience now, but still a novice, here's the way I would go: If you are on a tight budget you can get the set from RupRazor. $60 for a "good" shave ready razor and strop. While I like the Dovo a little better, the Gold Dollar from Rup is a nice razor, and Ken will resharpen it for free if you screw it up when you get started. Lynn at SRD gives you a shave ready Dovo for well under $100, and even throws in a free sharpening, too. So, you don't need to worry about hones and sharpening for awhile. That said, there are quite a few honemeisters here who can sharpen your razor a lot of times before you hit the cost of all the hones and stuff you will need to sharpen a razor, not to mention the experience.

Some cup soap from Wal-Mart and an Omega brush from Amazon and you're in business. My calculator says this will all cost you around $80 -- you supply the empty cup for the soap.

If you get into it you can always upgrade, and having more than one razor isn't a bad thing. You will also probably cut up your strop as a novice, so the Rup is a bargain, and you can upgrade that, too, when the time comes.