Fellow beginners research before you buy
I've wanted to learn how to wet shave for years, but was always leary of putting a razor blade to my throat by watching videos. So an AOS recently opened near me, and I ventured in. Now I will say ahead of time I'm a compulsive personality, when I do something, I DO IT. The salesperson was very helpful, and showed me step by step how to wet shave. This was invaluable to me to see it done in person, and gave me the comfort to try it. I bought everything pre-shave lotion, cream, after shave, razor, strop, brush, etc. By the time I was done I spent over $400, with the cheapest razor. The salesperson gave me some info to look up on the web including this site, I can not emphasize enough how helpful the salesperson was. I ran home in excitement, and proceeded to nick myself up. Ok, lesson learned I signed onto this site, and proceeded to read as much as I could. I found out my razor was not "shave ready", and someone was even kind enough from this site to hone it for me. I decided to buy another razor from SRD that was shave ready, and proceeded to nick myself up again. Somewhat discouraged I called SRD, and discussed the sharpness of the blade, and that lead into how I was stropping. After that discussion I decided to buy a 3" strop, because I would not have to make an X pattern. I received, and used it, the blade was NOTICEABLY sharper, and I had a much better shave. My point to all this is please learn from my mistakes. Do your research, I spent twice as much money as I should have by not researching, and was almost discouraged enough to stop trying because of the uncomfortable shaves. Everyone on this site are extremely helpful, heed their advice. Now, I'm very happy I went into AOS because that gave me the push to try wet shaving, but had I researched on this site, and spoke with SRD initially I would have saved a lot of money. I am not saying that anything I bought would not have eventually worked because it would have. But, why make something more difficult than it should be, by not having easier tools for the same or less money. Let my waste be your gain!