When it comes to learning anything, it is best to start from the very beginning. If the learner starts in the middle or in the end, the basic foundations of learning about anything will not be established and the quality of education becomes nil.
It is the same with guitar learning. Start from the beginning. Learn what the structure of the guitar is. Learn what types of guitars are out there: electric guitar, flamenco guitar, 6, 8, 9, and 12 string guitars. Each kind has a particular type of playing, holding, strumming, and others.
Not only are they structurally different which takes a good learner to distinguish from, but the chords, speed of shifting and strumming are all dictated to by the different styles of guitars. For those who want to learn how to play the guitar, it is important that the student gets a good guitar. Never ever start the beginner with a lousy guitar as this will form habits that would be very hard to break and could later on affect the way the learner plays.
Guitars can be bought almost anywhere, the custom made ones and the special ones could be bought in specialty guitar shops or online. Each type of guitar to be chosen from will be explained thoroughly by the one selling. Listen to how they sound, look for and listen for the best one that produces the best tonal qualities.
Tone in a guitar is a very important detail for guitar learning as the learning will involve how to tune the guitar by ear. If the guitar ends up being of bad tone quality, the student will never learn how to do it on their own and would have to rely on machines or pay for a guitar tuner, which can get expensive.
Once all these priorities are settled, look for a good teacher or go online for the lessons. However, the best way is still to learn from a teacher as they could demonstrate as easily as they could explain and teach making for better learning and quality playing.