Barbasol Floating Head Razor

[brothers]

There really hasn't been much posted here at SMF about this big old chrome plated example of the American razor. They came out aroung 1931 or so, and were only in production for a very few years. The first examples had the edge of the blade laying flat down on the closed comb safety bar. That's a shortcoming in design that began with the very first open comb Gillettes and Merkurs. 50% of the edge can't cut anything because only the other 50% is showing between the combs. So Barbasol tweaked their design and created the perfect razor. Some say aggressive, I say efficient. Hard to find these days, and only becoming more difficult as their legendary status increases. When I bought mine I was amazingly lucky. I didn't know there were two head designs, until I'd already bought mine, so when it arrived a day or two later, that was the first thing I checked. Turned out to be a floating head. Since then, as my own technique becomes better with experience, the Barbasol just keeps giving the best shaves ever. The company Barbasol is still in business! For sentimental reasons, I still have a couple of cans and one tube of their shaving cream. Very few razors give me the smooth close shave I expect, and the Barbasol is right there with them.

[wvbias]

if I used cream from a can it
would be Barbasol Original.


Terry

[Tucker]

I've got a two-piece Barbasol Razor with a black plastic handle. I haven't shaved with it yet. How do I know if it is a "floating head?"

[brothers]

With a blade loaded, if the razor's edge lays flat on top of the bottom plate and there's no gap (floating) between the cutting edge of the razor and the bottom plate, it's not the floating head. Here's a picture of a floating head.

[Squire]

Best thing Barbasol did was their ads.

[robert-00]

Barbasol-c1930s

Barbasol&Case.jpg (553.62 KiB) Viewed 2482 times

Here is a Barbasol & its case.