Help me understand razor comfort

[BanjoCowboyMartaTobes]

Well, there's one way to tell historically, as far as the design of a razor. How long was it around? That's it. And I would put the historical boundary at somewhere around the 1960's or early '70's. Once, there were thousands of men (and women) - maybe millions - using bladed razors of all types. And many, er, unique versions. The razors that "survived," or that most people continued to use, were those that the majority of humans using razors preferred, for whatever reasons - comfort I expect being a significant one. The reason I set the boundary at the place I did is because that up to, and prior to that, using a bladed razor was how you removed the hair from your face, and the whole planet did it. Oh, there were cultures where a beard was desirable or even mandatory, but for those thousands (or millions) of humans that removed their facial hair (Romans included), using a blade was the way they did it. After that artificial boundary, having a beard, or not, became less important. Global marketing had a greater influence. Niche products popped up and abound today. More choices on whether to even use a blade (electric razors as one example) are available. On the forum we are a sophisticated group of handsome shavers, but a very small one. Collectively, we'd use anything (I not quite jest) no matter what it felt like. Individually, not so much. We are therefore not a very good touchstone. So as a thought exercise, I would submit the following for the Hall of Razor Fame and Comfort, at least as far as core design (and many, many clones) - tested on humans, certified Grade A:

- Any straight (I know, scary and hard to learn, but centuries of use)
- The Gibbs
- Almost any vintage Gillette
- The Progress

And I'm sure a host of others that I can't see mentally right now, and I'm sure forum historians can chime in, but that's the basic theory and methodology. YMMV.

Almost any vintage Gillette? Would you then recommend say a superspeed or a milord should be practiced with along with numerous blades/soaps until a moderate level of mastery is attained? I have a dozen razors and I have been irritating my skin for 20 years lol. I didn’t realize what a noob I was until reading a few hundred threads here. I feel a strong desire to buy more razors yet think perhaps the shiny new items won’t fix my lack of experience.