A few thoughts.
1) You may be overly limiting yourself with a Colt Detective Special. Keep an open mind.
Also, if you ever have to use a handgun for self defense, it will almost certainly be taken into evidence. Departments vary in their evidence room procedures. Some are quite respectful to the value of the firearm, involved. Those departments are rare. More often it will be tagged and thrown in a box. In some departments it will be required to be marked with an electro pencil. While it could be marked as such under a grip panel, the evidence room staff usually are not going to bother and will mark it in a prominent location on the frame.
In short, don't care anything that has collector value.
2) A three inch revolver is no more difficult to conceal or less comfortable to carry than a 1 7/8, 2", or 2 1/8" revolver in inside the waist band (IWB), outside the waist band (OWB) or with a shoulder holster, either vertical or horizontal. A two inch barrel revolver does work better in ankle carry and appendix carry.
3) A three inch revolver is more ballistically efficient than a 2" revolver with .38 Special, .38 +P and .357 Magnum. Specifically you'll need a .38 +P load in a 2" barrel revolver to achieve the same velocity as a standard pressure .38 Special in a 4" barrel.
The extra inch in the 3" revolver gives you back about 75% of the velocity loss between 2" and 4". It's not a linear gain.
4) 3" revolvers are generally easier to shoot than a 2" revolver due to slightly greater weight and improved sight radius. Both however are capable of god accuracy - 2" group at 10 yards - provided the shooter has mastered the basics of grip, sight alignment and trigger pull.
That said, the vast majority of people who carry revolvers do not have the skills to shoot them to their accuracy potential. (But the same is true of the vast majority of people who carry any handgun).
Most fixed sight .38 Special revolvers are regulated to fire standard pressure 158 gr bullets to point of aim. Lighter bullets and heavier loads will both shoot to a different point of aim - usually a couple inches lower at social shooting distances. Placing the front blade itself on the target, rather than placing the top of the front blade on the target usually works well to bring the load to the same point on the target.
5) Blued handguns are much more prone to rust than either nickel plated or stainless steel handguns, especially in IWB carry. It's less of an issue with shoulder holsters or OWB carry. For example my blued 3" Model 13 carried IWB needed to be wiped down to remove condensation and then wiped down with oil every. single. day. to prevent surface rust. Most of the handguns I carry on a daily basis now are stainless steel. You can clean the lint off them once a week and be good to go.
Nickel plated handguns are nickel plated on top of copper plating, on top of the steel. As such you need to be cautious when using a any powder solvent intended to remove copper fouling (this includes multi purposes products like CLP). If there are any pin holes or scratches in the nickel plating the solvent will get under the plating and start dissolving the copper plating. That will cause the nickel plate to flake off.
If you use a powder solvent on a nickel plated handgun, limit its use to the bore and chambers in the cylinder, limit the exposer time wipe it off thoroughly and then coat the parts involved with gun oil to further displace and or dilute any remaining solvent.
6) I generally prefer to carry K frame sized pistols as opposed to J frame sized pistols, except when size and weight might be an issue, such as IWB carry under a tucked dress shirt. For shoulder holster use, there's no real benefit to a revolver smaller than a K frame.
7) Shoulder holster carry has a place, but it's limited. Cover garments are not always appropriate, particularly in hot weather and clothing that is inappropriate for the weather just screams "I'm carry a gun" and negates the intent and advantage of concealed carry.
8) gratuitous 2"-3" concealed carry revolver pictures:
