Pay attention to how much of the blade is exposed. The Merkur HD is a great beginner razor because the head (top of the razor, over the blade) covers a large area of the blade; thus limiting the amount of blade that touches your skin. More aggressive razors will have more blade showing and are considered to be more "aggressive," and are typically not recommended for beginners to wetshaving because of the increased chance of nicks and cuts and all that bad stuff!