Not long after I started straight razor shaving, I asked my dad what my grandfather used, figuring it would be a straight razor. I was surprised to find out that from what I can gather he used a gillette fat boy, slim or super speed - some sort of gillette TTO that is long gone now.

So I got a fatboy and a super speed flare tip, and an assortment of blades. I don't figure anything is ever going to unseat my morning straight razor shave, it is too fantastic of an experience and it's predictable and danger free.

But I was surprised at how much literature is out there about how bad I could get sliced and diced by the DE.

I have two shaves under my belt so far, one with an astra blade and one with a treet blade. The treet blade gave me bad razor burn and my first ingrown hair, but the astra blade was very smooth. Not quite as close yet as the straight, but not a bad experience. And the whole process felt very....well, safe. No weepers, no nothing second time around. Maybe if the razor burn stays away I can open up the fatboy a little further.

It did take me a while longer to make two passes with the razor than it does with a straight, though ... a little over twice as long (8 minutes vs. 4). And it does definitely lack in comparison to shaving with a straight razor - it feels sort of like listening to the radio with ear protection on, there is definitely a lot less stimulation than there is with a straight. I've also never gotten a single ingrown hair while shaving with a straight razor.

it seems like a good route to go, proficiency with a straight, and then buy a DE for curiosity (to see how things were for g-pa). The things you do with a straight come naturally on the DE then (constant angle, orientation of the blade to the direction of the cut), and unless something changes, it seems awfully hard to get in much trouble.

(I did nick myself up quite a bit with a straight razor when I first started several years ago, but it's rare these days that I even get a weeper with that - once a month or so)