Your first time.....

I started DE shaving 2 years ago in an attempt to "save money".  After much research I settled on a Edwin Jagger DE89 and a sampler pack of blades and that's it.  I didn't bother with fancy shave soaps or a brush and bowl because who knew if I would like shaving this way.  After that first 2 pass shave it felt like someone had lit my face on fire!  I had never had razor burn that bad in life.  But I knew I was on to something.  Even though the razor burn was terrible I still managed to get the closest shave I ever had.  

2 years later I now have 5 razors (34c is my favorite), 3 brushes (Plisson knot on a Wolf Whiskers custom handle is my favorite), 2 bowls, 6 soaps, 6 aftershaves, an alum bar, and no more razor burn.  I've vowed to never shave with a cartridge again, and I'm at peace with fact that I will probably never save money shaving this way.

it always starts with 1 of each, right?

The price of cart's drove me to it also, but my first wasn't a DE razor but a SE razor. The rest of the equation was: Carbon steel blades from CVS, and a VDH kit. It wasn't until later that I found my first Gillette black handle Superspeed that I bought in '69 or '70, and a bunch of other razors that I had and forgot about.

I liked my first so much that I spent time researching to be able to do it even better to make it a better experience. But that happens so often after the first time. One enjoys it so much and wants to get good at it and do it often. As with other "first times" I wish I could have done it more than just once a day. :-) But I would have worn it out (my face) if I had tried.

One thing I could do many times a day was to hand lather to practice that art. That paid huge dividends as my lather got great quickly. To this day I think lather is a critical part of a really great shave. I wonder how many folks practice it to make a really superlative lather? That might make for a good poll.

I also used Scientific Method to quickly evaluate what worked for me and what didn't. I knew the chaos "method" wouldn't work nearly as quickly - there were far too many variables.

With my overly sensitive skin and a thick course beard, shaving was a chore, and I didn't like growing a beard either as that also made my skin irritated... seriously I think I'm allergic to myself O_o  Anyway, it was middle of winter and I was only into a new job 3 months and I needed to keep myself respectable, to work with the public.  But that's harder to do when you're bleeding on your white collared shirt(so I started shaving at night and bled there instead...), and your face is bright red on top of that.  One night I went to shave, and I was using the Gillette Mach... whatever it is with 5(4?  16? who cares) blades, one trimmer blade on the back(which worked better than the many on the front I might add...) and, shamefully, the vibrating handle    I thought to myself, probably like many others "there has to be a better way".  My first thought was use an electric razor, but I have tried that and, damn my luck, I'm allergic(badly) to nickle >.<  So ya, razor burn AND an allergic reaction all rolled into one shave, that was fun.

(did I not mention in the intro post that I ramble??  )


So, to the net to look for answers, that same night, I found Geofatboy from Shave Nation, a man who probably has introed a lot of people into this hobby, and ordered up one of his starter kits with everything that I needed:

Parker 22R Long Handle Butterfly DE razor
A buffalo horn bowl
Parker badger brush, not sure of the kind
some alum
Arko Shaving Cream, extra sensitive

All that comes in and I'm stoked!  It's a slow time at work, I wrangle in a couple of days off to practice and OMG the fact I didn't bleed to death on the first try!  hahaha  My lather went flaky after like, two minutes of being on my face, I think even the blade was out of alignment and that razor aligns itself!  lol  But, of course, first try, right, and I don't give up easy.  I was at that time determined to either get this right and stop buying Gillette, or bleed out trying.

Here we are over 2 years later and I'm still standing and loving every painful burning moment of those first few DE shaves, without them I don't know what I would have done!

I now own an iKon slant 1st gen, that same Parker which just recently I pulled out and been using again and enjoying the memories, a PAA DOC razor which I LOVE, 15 soaps, 6 aftershaves and, my personal fav to my shaving routine, my Dirtybird shaving scuttle with webbed ridges(my Christmas present to myself) : Still only use the Parker brush, I tried a boar and didn't like it even after I got it broken in, I still have it but I never use it, it works, it's just not for me is all.