Thread: Canned Barbasol

I was pretty shocked at how lon the shaving soap lasts. I bought a 125g hunk of P1.60 and it lasted me 6 months. I bought so many tubs of soap it's going to take me 4 years to go through it all.

i used to use Barbasol..I never liked it..felt like my cheap o Good News razors wiped off more lather than hairs...thank my stars for wetshaving and better quality and yes cheap dreams n soaps

As a new enthusiast to SRP I thought I would check out the comments on Barbasol and I have not been disappointed. Everyone's commentary has merit and here are my two cents worth. The ingredients are not fancy, but with the highest percent of stearic acid there is a reason it is called the beard buster. Similar ingredients to other pre-shave products in this regard and at 98 cents at Wal-Mart it makes for the cheapest pre-shave, post-shower beard softener you can buy. The non-aerosol therapeutic cream is pretty close to some favorite brands from Europe. It is also a nice American story. Here it is paraphrased from Wikipedia:

Unsatisfied with traditional shaving methods, MIT Professor Frank Shields set out to create a product that would provide for a less irritating shave. In 1919, he succeeded with the invention of Barbasol – a shaving cream that did not have to be worked into lather. He named it Barbasol from the combination of two words: the Roman word barba (meaning beard) and “solution.” The original formula was a thick lotion, unlike the aerosol foams common today and is most closely related to the Barbasol Non-Aerosol Therapeutic Shave Cream introduced in 2006.

Frank Shields established The Barbasol Company in 1920, which owned the brand for 42 years. In the mid-1950s, aerosol cans were introduced, and the Barbasol Company changed the formula from the thick cream in a tube to the soft, fluffy foam familiar in the 98₵ aerosol cans available at Wal-Mart today. The can design mimicked a barber's pole, and is still the trademark design used today.

In 1962, Pfizer bought The Barbasol Company and brought Barbasol in the portfolio. During this time, they developed many additional versions of Barbasol to complement the original formulation, including Soothing Aloe, Skin Conditioner, Sensitive Skin, Extra Protection, Cool Menthol and Lemon Lime. As gels became popular, Pfizer created gel versions of Barbasol in the Original, Soothing Aloe, Sensitive Skin, and Extra Protection varieties. By the 1990s, Barbasol brand equity had diminished. Sales had slowed. Pfizer, primarily a pharmaceutical company, looked to sell the brand.

Perio bought the Barbasol brand from Pfizer in 2001 and has since been attempting to revitalize it. Perio consolidated the Barbasol line to Original, Soothing Aloe, and Skin Conditioner, and added Pacific Rush. A sub-brand was then launched, called Barbasol Ultra. The Sensitive Skin and Extra Protection varieties that used to be in the classic line were reborn into this sub-brand and two additional varieties, Extra Moisturizing and Therapeutic, were introduced.

A non-aerosol cream that simulated the original product was created in 2003, but was reformulated to the Barbasol Non-Aerosol Therapeutic Shave Cream in 2006 (Pfizer also had a similar simulation of the original Barbasol cream, but discontinued it in 1999).

Wow, Lots of info. Good to know about the fog proof mirror too. My favorite canned cream is by nivea. Its really thick and nice. Cheap at Wally World too

I keep a can of Barbasol around, too. I have enjoyed experimenting with it, adding a splash of baby oil, or a teaspoon of scalding water then mixing it with a brush and massaging it into the whiskers. It ain't bad. I used to default to it if time was of the essence, but several SRP members suggested just face-lathering, which I have taken to doing with Musgo Real as my regular lathering routine. (I've found that the texture of my whiskers helps generate a lather much faster than the smooth sides of my glass scuttle.)

Cheers!

It's all I used when I had a mach 3 and before that a regular Gillette twin blade. Always given me a comfortable smooth shave.

I think it's fine. I don't notice any better or worse "performance" compared to my usual shaving cream, but I definitely like my shaving cream (C.O. Bigelow) better.

Barbesol is a good shaving cream and an old standby and I've used it too but I now like the Aveeno Gel in a can better. Aveeno products are pretty good in general, I find.

"In matters of opinion, debate is futile" (Star Trek Next Gen)

After 40 years of canned shave cream/gel and disposable razors, I have no desire to go back.

Looking back, I think the canned foam did not protect my face as advertised. My face was chapped all the time. The gel would have protected my face if it hadn't gunked up my multiblade razor and force me to press beyond the layer of protection it offered.

The brush and shave soap/shave cream and the DE/SE/straight razors give me a performance unparalleled on a consistent basis.