Thread: How did you begin - first razor, shave, etc

I got my start almost before I was old enough to shave. I had just a little more than peach fuzz and had always watched my dad shave. Of course I had the little play cup and brush and plastic razor when I was a little boy. I think my dad got me that for Christmas one year or something. I was so little I don't even remember.
Anyway, so I had just started shaving with one of my dad's old DE's and thought I had a handle on it. I think I was about 15. He had a straight razor that I think was my grandfather's which he didn't really use very much but I do have some, not very many, vague memories of him using it. My grandfather died when I was about six or seven so I was still pretty young. I always thought the straight razor was really cool and I loved more than anything to watch him strop it on his old belt.
One day when nobody was around I decided I had enough ass in my britches to try the straight razor. I got it out and lathered up with his old Hazel Atlas mug full of Williams and his old boar bristle brush, he always used boar, soaped myself up and went after it. At the end I thought it was pretty good. Nice and smooth to my notion. So this was on a Saturday afternoon. The next day, as always, we went to church. I don't know why he was the first to notice it or at least to say something about it but the youth director, who was a real character, looked at me, wrinkled up his brow and said, "Did you get attacked by a cat?" I guess I hadn't even really looked in the mirror closely but when I went into the bathroom and looked I had all these tiny little scratches about half an inch or so long all over my face. I did however eventually learn how to use it correctly. It wasn't until years and years later my dad gave me that straight razor. I still have it, his old Hazel Atlas milk glass mug and some other paraphernalia of his including his old belt strop and some barber hones. Those were the only hones that I ever saw him use for razors. He may well have used that giant gray brick that I also have but I don't really remember him using it more than a time or two that I can remember and not on his own razor. I like Mike used that razor and those couple of barber hones by themselves for a long time, at least 10 years before I discovered that there was information on the internet about straight razors. I came here looking for information on one that I had bought and then the world full of other things opened up to me as well. I too think that the 1k challenge is a very good trial to put yourself through. It can be very... enlightening.
Oh yeah, I guess I should post some pictures of my heirloom gear.