The best things I’ve learned: 1) Shaving properly, 2) how to cut my own hair.
I have the entire BaByliss Pro FX+ set: clippers, trimmers, and both a double foil shaver and a single foil shaver. Together, I spent about $500 for them new last year. However, I can give myself a shave and haircut for free in 20 minutes and to keep my sink clean, I have a bib which attaches to the mirror via a suction cup that works fine and it only cost $10, and a shave and haircut here in Pittsburgh is about $35 a pop, not including tip. I can do it from home anytime so it’s easy, I don’t have to go anywhere. And best of all, the equipment is professional grade equipment used in barber shops which means there is not only a variety of replacement blades (which aren’t expensive, I might add), but a huge selection of OEM and aftermarket parts for them.
When I need a realllly close shave, I use medical grade disposable razors. McKesson sells the razors in bulk to hospitals and you can buy a 100 pack for $20 on Amazon. They are only dual blade basic razors, but they are extremely sharp. The trick is to start with the bulk and work your way down: Clippers for the bulk, then the foil shaver for the remaining stubble, and finally the razor for the fuzz and any touch ups. When you do this, it prevents the razor from clogging and getting dull. A sharp blade will actually cut you less than a dull one. Never shave with a razor right before you need to go somewhere, so if you need a close shave, do the full shave with the razor a while before (or the day before), and use the foil shaver to touch it up. Similarly, if you use the foil shaver often, you won’t need to do a full shave. A foil shaver doesn’t make a mess and takes as long as brushing your teeth well to do a good job. Using a razor with a foil shaver is optional. Also, the foil shaver won’t cut long hair, so if you intentionally leave long hair, like when trimming sideburns, you don’t have to worry about passing over the sideburn with the shaver to get the stubble, which is part of what makes shaving with a trimmer faster. Of course, it’s all variable, and the flexibility is yours to experiment and LEARN. It’s actually become interesting to me, because it’s something to do, but I also know if I screw up, I can safely recover on my own reliably, and the first thing I learned was how to do a good job reliably so that I could rely on my newfound skill.
Now, shaving and cutting my hair is something that I enjoy because it takes no effort and it wasn’t difficult (for me!) to learn. Everyone has different hair so cutting it yourself might not be an option. In my case, I have a receding hairline so I actually quite enjoy the look of a zero guard shave, but guards are available and inexpensive, and a 1/2 guard does quite a good cut for me.