Thread: How much am i lookin at to get started

My first set up was around $100 for a honed Gold Dollar, strop, brush and soap. There is a lot of debate about GD blades that I don't want to get into, but for me it was a good intro to straight shaving - after that, I knew it was what I wanted to do and over time I expanded on everything, one piece at a time (or several pieces at a time once RAD had kicked in).

All the best with starting out!

The only items you don't want/need to start out with used is the soap and brush. Badger hair is awesome stuff, any grade.

DX.com - Parker clone ~$5.
Derby professional 1/2 blades 100~7$
Best Shave horse hair brush~ $5
Shave soap Walmart ~3$

(While at Best Shave you can pickup some Alum~5$ good idea)

25$ you shave for a year.

My setup:

ebay vintage straight razor: $32.
ebay hone: $11 - this is rather small but does work well.
shave brush: $5.
ebay strop: $11.
Shave soap: $5.

Comes to $64 in total. I'm wary to completely endorse this route since it requires learning to hone and assumes that you will source a good razor from ebay, which isn't always easy. With this said, learning to hone wasn't especially difficult (Gold Dollar razors are good for practice) and ebay does have a lot to chose from.

As the above poster commented, if you chose a shavette, your costs will be far lower and you will not require stropping or honing. Initial shaves will be tricky and it is very likely that you will make mistakes, although this improves in time. They're not the same as a proper straight but their low entry cost make be worth considering.