Newbie WTB Shavette

[Vova]

So I have wanted to try straight razors for a long time (or skip this and jump to questions below ). After regularly growing and cutting my goatee I decided to keep it long term so gave some good grow out and went and got a professional shave. Of course for hygiene reasons/laws they use a shavette. I was planning on buying a traditional straight but I think I have decided to go for a shavette instead.

For one the shave was fantastic, I am sure a lot of that is the three passes they do with fourteen products and warmed lather... But for a good week or two after my cartridge razor was giving me a much more comfortable shave (I have quite sensitive skin). So I already had a fantastic experience with it, sink $40 for something I know gave a good shave, or $150 for something I have never used before... seems like a no brainer.

Also I have read they are easier to get around corners of a goatee etc, so that is good. More importantly I am not sure I have the patience for the maintenance of a straight right now. Assuming I love the shavette also I would have no problem getting a straight as then I have the shavette for my "quick shaves".

Cost is also a concern, and while I'd love to get away from buying blades I calculated it out and at six years a shavette is still cheaper than some of the cheaper straights.




So, a few questions...

1) It seems like the Parker Shavettes are much more popular, but I see a lot of references to blade sizes, but nothing concrete. I want to make sure blades are easy to get, and some people mention they prefer the dovo over the parker because of an additional blade size it accepts?

2) I did a lot of searching and I see lots of other shavettes out there, however all have issues. Is there anything similar to a dovo or parker (more expensive is ok) easily obtainable in the US and can accept common blades? I found a few that had good reviews but all were from EU/Asia or required some funky blade.

3) In general anyone have comments on The Art of Shaving, this is where I got my shave and unfortunately the only shavette they sell is the dovo but I got really good service. I am surprised I do not see any mentions of them in the forums (that I have seen), but maybe they are new or not in that many places?

4) Is there any reason to treat prep/post-shave different with a disposable compared to straight razor? What do people recommend? They have most the same stuff they used on my face @ Art of Shaving for about $70 I think it was, they said it should last 8-10 months. It included a pre-shave, cream, and after-shave balm.

P.S. I know there are cheaper straight razors out there but I don't want to go with something cheap that is lower quality and results in an unfair bias AGAINST straight razors .