What do I need to buy?

Yesterday, I was in the Art of Shaving store in Baton Rouge (two hours away) and almost bought a straight razor, strop and strop conditioner, but I wanted to get more information before I spent that kind of money.

They recommended one of their carbon steel razors, which are shave ready.

What brands would you recommend that I buy to start with? I am an old guy when it comes to shaving -- 1959 to start with, but pretty much seven-days-a-week since about 1962. I am not a rich man, but I don't want to waste money on something cheap that will make me want never to try it again.

Even though I was shaved with a straight razor at the Art of Shaving store because of a Christmas gift, I have never attempted to shave myself with a straight razor. It's always been with the latest Gillette model. I enjoy the whole Art of Shaving line up, but sometimes I'm in a hurry and just lather my hands well and rub the soap lather on my face and commence shaving, first with the grain and then against it -- I never experience discomfort or irritated skin. But then I live is super-humid Louisiana.

Thanks,
Bob Vincent

Just a heads up from a newb - I bought a SR from aos and though they said it was, it actually was NOT shave ready. If its straight out of the box it will most likely need to be honed. Otherwise their items to me at least are great. The razor was awesome once it was honed.just my two cents!
Regards- Tony

AOS is just telling you what their vendor tells them. Our shave ready standards are different.

As to what you need check out this part of the Beginner's Guide

If you want to try a straight out with minimum out lay try Whipped dog's sight unseen deal. Pair that with a VDH Starter set and you would be good to go with the basics.

Jonathan

Or checkout Straight Razor Design. The razor
will definitely be shave ready.

Chances are the razors and strops will
also be less less expensive.

Terry

Whipped dog gets many good reviews here and so does Straight Razor Design (SRD).

I jumped into str8 razor shaving and wet shaving in general. I bought a DE razor, blade sampler, tweezerman brush, Proraso cream on amazon. I bought a Dovo Best Quality and a 3" hanging strop from SRD. The result is a $250 setup that has very little compromise, quite a bit of quality, and set me up 100%. You can spend more of course, and you can spend less, I have found this for me to be a nice starting point.

If you're looking to cut down on costs, strop conditioner is optional. And +1 to the recommendations for SRD and Whippeddog.

Good luck!

Ditto ^


Mick