When I started, I bought a starter kit including a lot of items. Thinking that it would be my only purchase, I bought a good looking and expensive one. In retrospect, it was a mistake. IMO, it'd be better to buy items separately, and upgrade in the future if you stick to it.
What you need :
- A well honed razor that you could find second hand in a number of places, namely on forums such as Straight Razor Place or Badger and Blade. The site Whipped Dog appears to be backorder on straights.
- A strop: Star Shaving Supplies has good cheap ones:
http://shop.starshaving.com/
- A brush, soap, aftershave and alum block (some will say the alum is optional, but I wouldn't go without it). Most of these items can be found at the drugstore or with many online vendors, such as
www.bullgooseshaving.net.
- Technique: check the aforementioned forums.
Hope this helps.