My (late) great grandfather had been a barber. As a kid every so often my dad would get a shave while we were out for a visit (actually only lived about 20someodd miles from them). I can remember watching the whole process and thinking "why bother?". Any way got older & pretty much forgot about that but I had grown a set of sideburns that I just couldn't keep the edges square on. I started looking for a straight just for that reason. I poked around a bit but most of what I found in the antique shops were either way too expensive or just junk, sometimes both. Move along again to where I chopped the burns off. I was talking with my kid sister and she said that mom was looking for a picture she had in storage somewhere from when our G-grandfather was at the barber school in L.A. and it had him lathering a guy up for *da-ding* a straight shave. She still hasn't found the pic but that got me going. Wasn't sure where to pick up the necessities so just went to amazon and got a shavette, Fredmeyer groceries had the soap & VDH brush so I was off. I had actually come across the forum a few times but thought why bother? So here I am. Haven't used anything else since that first shave.