I guess I should pass along some experience... my beard can make the second shirt button in a month if I dont shave and I dont have the toughest skin...
Razors... multi- blades are a waste of cash for me. About 2 days and they are so clogged up and dull ...junk. Last wonder razor whas a newfangled trac 26 or something with batteries and fog lights... it's in a drawer with it's other wasted cousins... peeled me like and onion till it's $6 blade clogged up and wouldnt rinse out.
I've tried a bunch of the "latest" shaving appliances over the last few decades and keep returning to a good old safety razor. I have started hoarding blades... they are getting hard to find.
Shaveing in the shower... good move. Hot and clean hair is softer and easier to cut. I lost my shower mirror and have not replaced it... thats on my short list of things to do.
Shave creams... tried a bunch... Liked "Edge" but after years of shaving I keep going back to Barbasol ( about a $1.25 a can)... works good if you work with a hot, wet well steamed beard.
No shave cream, at any price will work worth a darn if you dont work it around on a hot, wet face.
It's pretty basic soap...rinse well and use a moisturiser if it drys your skin out.
Barbershop shaves... if you can still find a barber who shaves...treat yourself. A good straight- razor shave takes the hair really close... I get a few days out of one. Unless you are really into sharpening and stropping razors skip the do- it- at home routine. the hot towels and the whole routine are probably the first "male spa" experience we ever invented (and the closest to a male spa you will ever see me)
Skip a day now and again... longer hair tends to cut closer and it's pulled out a little as the razor glides by it... snaps back just below skin level. Skipping a day or two gives every thing a chance to rest and heal too.
Electrics... last one was a Braun. Good little German precision shaving instrument. A gift from a well meaning relative. Passed it to my lighter- haired son... he likes it. I've tried several overs the years... rather buff the hair with a half- sheet electric sander.
~Hill