get yourself a feather ad d2, MDC soap and a vulvix brush with a blade sampler pack including merkur blades, and osma alum block. practice until you get a few consecutive good bbs shaves. once you got your technique down, then get more stuff. i know people will say start with cheaper stuff, but i think this are good items that will last you a long time in the long run you will be happy you got these. and you will keep it in your rotation, as where u might toss the cheaper stuff aside.
Buying too many vintage razors before discovering modern, less expensive clones.
I have to agree with these statements, certainly for my situation. I bought more than a dozen vintage razors and found I didn't like three quarters of them, same for the cheaper non vintage razors I bought. I finally got a 6S and a Mamba 70 both of which I love and likely will use almost exclusively. Similar story with the soaps and creams I first bought, mostly on sale and always cheap. Now that I've gotten a taste of SV, Stirling, MWF, Tabac and Haslinger I doubt I will use the cheaper soaps and creams that often. I will have to PIF or giveaway the hardware and software that I don't use. I did a lot of buying before coming to B&B and after, the difference is the stuff I bought after, I will keep and use. My taste has evolved and knowledge has improved.