Because taking things literally is how I roll...
Here at the 30DC thread it doesn't make as much sense to go mild--lot's of help readily available (as well as moral support).
However, if you're experimenting with DE shaving and don't have that support, I can see how someone just starting could have some pretty wretched early experiences with a Muhle R41 loaded with a Feather blade. Bad enough to set the process aside forever. I'm stubborn, and will slog my way through crummy shave after crummy shave almost indefinitely (especially if one out of 20 bad shaves turns out well). Heck I did exactly that for the first 3 or 4 years that I started wet shaving. It's why I wound up with 7 or 8 razors--a more aggressive razor will fix everything; a slant will change the game entirely; an adjustable razor will solve it all; thicker Gem blades will do the trick... ad infinitum.
Without fairly steady and close support, an aggressive razor could be like putting a 16 year old behind a formula one racer, tossing him the keys and saying, "Here, you go, Lad--figure this thing out!" Some will figure it out well enough, others will quit after a close call or two, and others will crash pretty severely and just walk away.
Very few beginners have their dad teaching them how to wet shave, and while it doesn't make any sense, most of those beginning wet shavers don't plan on joining a forum so they can ask questions. A few might slog through various forums after a google search in order to find info they are after. Most, I think, just jump in the pool and try to start swimming--a milder razor
does give you a greater margin for error.
Case in point. I tried shaving with a shavette last summer (three months of beard to get through). I had no idea what I was doing, but was impressed, then intimidated, by how easily it mowed through a couple inches of beard. Trying to get a CCS, however was extremely difficult, often bloody, and always slightly terrifying. I put the thing down and walked away after just 4 or 5 attempts. Stubborn as I am, the shavette was too much for me to get a hold of on my own.
If someone were to ask for a DE set up, and I knew they weren't going to have a support system, I'd probably tell them to get a Q-shave adjustable, keep it on 2 or 3 for a month or so, and hope for the best. However, if I knew they were coming here, I wouldn't worry quite so much.
Really the best advice for a beginning wet shaver has nothing to do with aggressiveness of razors and blades; the best advice would be to point them to a place where they can ask questions and have them answered by folks who know what they are doing (either that or tell them to build a time machine, go back 50-70 years, and have granddad teach dad how to shave--then have dad teach them
)
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