Due to the sudden increase in people cutting hair at home, there is a short supply of hair clippers of any type available online.

Due to the sudden increase in people cutting hair at home, there is a short supply of hair clippers of any type available online.

Your guide

After a dozen real-world tests of eight highly rated hair clippers on volunteers and consulting haircutting experts, we’ve found the Wahl Elite Pro High Performance Haircut Kit is the best home hair clipper for most people. Its sharp steel blades sliced easily through fine, thick, smooth, and coarse hair without slowing down or clogging, and it wasn’t annoyingly loud. The 10 included guide combs—the snap-on plastic teeth that control how closely the clipper cuts, letting you trim hair to the length you want or get creative with styling—were the best among the clippers we tried.

We also have recommendations for hair scissors and tips on how to cut your own hair.

May be out of stock

If we were to take up regular home haircutting, this is the clipper we’d reach for first. The Wahl Elite Pro’s combs are a rigid-but-smooth ABS plastic that doesn’t bend when pushed against a scalp, and they stay seated and straight on the blade better than any other set we tried, thanks to a metal retaining clip on the back. They add great value, considering that replacement combs of equal quality for a competitor cost about half the price of this entire clipper kit. The taper lever on the side of the clipper didn’t slip from vibration, which we’ve experienced from other clippers we’ve used in the past. We also liked the Wahl Elite Pro’s thick and extra-long 8-foot power cord. The hard plastic carry case, along with a relatively nice pair of shears with a cover, round out the experience.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $35.

The small, easy-to-handle Remington Virtually Indestructible Haircut and Beard Trimmer is a close runner-up that’s especially suited to people who want to cut their own hair. This model is lightweight, has rubberized grips along the sides, and is truly palm-sized, making it far easier than any other model we tested to maneuver and hold in a loose grip, even with fingertips, as is often required when clipping one’s own hair. It comes with quality, rigid-plastic guide combs that seat securely, though the tips are fewer and slightly more dangerous than our main pick’s. This model also has a thick-but-pliable 8-foot power cord, and a powerful-but-exceptionally-quiet motor—one of our test haircut subjects questioned its effectiveness solely for that reason (“It’s too quiet to really be cutting hair, right?”) The carrying bag also isn’t as useful as that of our main pick. At about a third of the price, though, those downsides may be forgivable for many people.

A barbershop classic, the Fast Feed is pro-grade but still affordable, well-suited for those who sport a close buzz or fade and need frequent touch-up trims.

Our concerns about build quality are checked by this unit’s unquestionable ability to suck up hair clippings, making it ideal for those who like regular maintenance trims with the least amount of clean-up hassle.

With a powerful motor, the best guide combs we’ve seen, a long cord, and terrific build quality, this model will satisfy any home haircutter’s needs.

A barbershop classic, the Fast Feed is pro-grade but still affordable, well-suited for those who sport a close buzz or fade and need frequent touch-up trims.

The guide combs ended up being the biggest differentiator among the clippers we considered.

There is no universal sizing for combs. They typically run from size 1, which is an eighth of an inch of hair, in ⅛-inch increments up to size 8, which is 1 inch. However, some companies offer sub-increments in between and may even have clips that allow for hair longer than an inch. (To address all the confusion we saw in online forums: These lengths refer to the height of hair left behind, not how much is cut off. Using a #1 comb will leave ⅛ inch of hair on your head.) Some brands simply label the combs in fractions of an inch, which is confounding and easy to mess up in the moment. Annoyingly, each brand of clipper has their own proprietary physical shape, sometimes more than one, and so generally you can’t use combs from one brand of clipper on another clipper (there are “universal” replacement sets available, but they aren’t truly universal).

Pro models have thick, round, shielded power cords of eight feet or longer; non-pro models often have thin lamp-wire style cords that tend to tangle.

We recruited our expert barber, Eric Aleman of the King of Kings barber shop in Brooklyn, to test out our short list of winners on a client and offer his opinion and insight.

Eric Aleman of King of Kings barber shop testing out one of our selected clipper models on a customer. Photo: Michael Hession

We recruited staff, friends, and family to put the clippers through their paces by attempting to cut their own hair or submitting to our unsteady hand. I also personally tested each of our picks on myself and on my child at least twice over the course of several months. Finally, we recruited our expert barber, Eric Aleman of the King of Kings barber shop, to test out our short list of winners on a client and offer his opinion and insight. During testing, we were able to try out clippers on a wide range of hair types, from extra fine to thick, straight to kinky, and thin (or thinning) to dense.

We asked participants to cut their own hair and to give their opinion of each of the clippers and accessories they tried out without knowing the price of any of the models. We asked them to note whether the clippers slowed, clogged, or pulled; how comfortable they were to hold due to size, weight, and vibration, as well as the power cord length; the quality and ease-of-use of guide combs; ease of cleanup and suggested maintenance; and the quality of any accessories such as combs, hair clips, capes, and carrying cases. Each test subject handled all of the clippers before testing the to see the differences between models. At the end, we asked them to pick the model they favored most and would be most comfortable using themselves.

Out of the box, we were drawn to the Wahl Elite Pro High Performance Haircut Kit for its selection of 10 guide combs, including two half-sizes for extra-fine control of hair length, which were rigid ABS plastic and included stainless steel retaining clips that are riveted on securely. All things being equal among clippers, the combs mattered the most, since they significantly affect the cutting experience and are expensive to upgrade or replace. The other Wahl we tested had a bent “tooth,” or fin, on one of its combs, and a few of the models came with guide combs that either attached unreliably or wouldn’t seat perfectly so that the edge could be lifted, or they could even pop off.

All things being equal among clippers, the combs mattered the most, since they significantly affect the cutting experience and are expensive to upgrade or replace.

The build quality of the Wahl Elite Pro was a noticeable step above the lower-tier priced models that you might buy at Walmart or the drugstore. The upper part of the housing wasn’t hollow-feeling like the Chrome Pro; it used a more rigid plastic with texture for a secure grip. The taper lever at the side, used to blend hair, is adjustable via a screw, but it functioned out of the box smoothly with our thumb (though not as precisely as pro models like the Andis Master or Oster Fast Feed). The round cord is plenty long (8 feet) and as thick as that of pro models. It was also the only clipper with a velcro wrap attached near the plug to gather the cord and make storage tidier. In comparison, the Andis Headliner and Wahl Chrome Pro have lamp-wire-style cords, and the Remington Vacuum had a cheap speaker-wire cord that we guessed would wear out after time.

Almost all clippers come with an excessive amount of throwaway accessories—cheap scissors, hair clips, garbage-bag-quality capes—which seem great until you have to tuck them in a drawer or root through them to find what you want. Our pick had a useful assortment of 10 combs that are clearly labeled and easier to sort than every other competing model; most had combs with impossible-to-read raised black plastic numbers printed on black plastic. The Wahl Elite Pro’s hard plastic case is compact enough to fit in a drawer or on a shelf and has a quality clasp and rigid hinges that allow the case to be sealed correctly. (This is in contrast with our own ancient model that flexes, causing the top to pop open and everything to spill out and scatter across the bathroom floor. All. The. Time.)

The Wahl Elite Pro’s hard plastic case is compact enough to fit in a drawer or on a shelf and has a quality clasp and rigid hinges that allow the case to be sealed correctly.

The Wahl Elite Pro lacks a T-blade attachment or companion trimmer, which allows for close cutting around the ear, in the back, and around facial hair without accidentally nicking an ear or creating a bald patch. The absence of one may be problematic for buyers who plan to cut their children’s hair, as full-size clippers have a long blade that’s tricky to maneuver around tiny, tender ears. For us, their absence was minor.

The Wahl Elite Pro is at the upper limit of what’s comfortable to hold, but not overly heavy, and it doesn’t vibrate uncomfortably. Still it was a close call between the Wahl Elite Pro and the Remington Virtually Indestructible Clipper, which are two very different models. The Wahl has a slightly louder magnetic motor, but isn’t obnoxiously loud.

For some, another minor point against the Wahl Elite Pro was the lack of left- and right-ear tapered guide combs, which are used to simultaneously trim and blend around the ears. They can make cutting this area easier for beginners, we didn’t miss them in our own testing and got along just fine using regular straight combs.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $35.

The clipper’s guide combs are made of rigid ABS plastic, so they don’t deform and leave track marks or trap and pull out hair when pressed against your head. They attach and seat firmly, unlike some models we tested whose attachments had enough play that they could be put on crooked or pop off altogether.

The Remington’s palm-sized lightweight housing, coupled with rubberized grips, was the most comfortable of any we tried.

A barbershop classic, the Fast Feed is pro-grade but still affordable, well-suited for those who sport a close buzz or fade and need frequent touch-up trims.

The Oster Fast Feed with its guide combs. Photo: Michael Hession

The downside to any at-home haircut is clean-up. Remington’s Vacuum Hair Clipper was the surprise hit of our testing group because it could suck up trimmings effectively. It doesn’t get every last whisker or hair, but we think someone could reasonably trim their hair or simply tweak their edges and sideburns in a hurry before rushing off to work without worry of leaving a mess behind on your collar or the floor, a scenario none of the other clippers can match. Cleaning out the vacuum canister is as simple as lifting, pulling, and dumping, and it clips back in easily.

During our tests, we cut hair lengths ranging from 3/8 inch to 3 inches without a consultant comb, and the vacuum miraculously submerged everything unobstructed (although its mileage would possibly vary if you check to cut a lot more hair). Anyone who makes normal cuts will appreciate the cleaning time and inconvenience this style saves.

In our tests we cut hair lengths ranging from ⅜ of an inch to 3 inches without using a guide comb, and the vacuum miraculously swooped it all in without clogging.

Ordinarily those downsides alone would be damning, and we’d love to see those deficits improved, but after trying the Remington Vacuum Hair Clipper a few times we were won over. Even if it lasts just a year or two, we think not having to deal with the mess of hair clippings is so appealing that it’s worth considering, especially for high-frequency hair cutters.

Hair clippers are as close to an immortal product as anything you’ve noticed in the last two decades. All the experts we spoke to repeated the same fundamental mantra: grease the blade of your lawn mower and it will last for years or even decades. (Or as Ivan Zoot says, “Hair dryers and mowers don’t die: they only kill themselves.” Oil reduces friction, so the blade doesn’t stick to your hair, it doesn’t heat or burn your skin. What is even more unexpected is that, according to user feedback and our own experience, lawn mowers live for years, a decade or even several, even without a drop of single oil. This means that if you are the type that stays with any device until your death, your maximum investment will probably be with you for a long time; explanation why more to decide on a winner.

If you need optimal performance, a five-point lubrication is performed as follows: before each use, place a drop on each side of the blade and one in the middle while the blade is running, then one in each an aspect where the moving down blade rubs in opposition to the constant top blade. Move the razor a little to let the oil pass, but tilt it so that the blades point down to allow excess oil to flow out of the engine (which can be erased over time). Turn off the mower and gently wipe off excess oil with a tissue or towel, making sure not to hang fibers or paper. Most brands also propose cleaning loose hair after a haircut with a hard bristle brush (almost included with oil), followed by a little oil to avoid any possible surface oxidation. When you lose the small bottle of oil included, you can use food grade mineral oil. Avoid 3-in-1, WD-40 or other non-food lubricants that would possibly cause a skin reaction.

Your investment very will likely be with you a long time; all the more reason to pick a winner.

While mowers, even the lowest-end mowers, can withstand a lot of abuse, even a single fall on a hard surface like the floor of a tiled bathroom can instantly shut down an engine or damage the housing enough to turn the mower into a lost cause. Our expert barber, Eric German, specifically warned that if you ever drop a mower, you should promptly inspect the blade for any bent or especially injured teeth. An injured tooth will make an instant ita mince of the skin. If the blade is not replaceable, recycle or discard the mower, and be sure to cut the power cord to make sure that someone else who can locate it does not unknowingly use it.

We do not find a marked enough difference in the haircut functions between the mowers that we tested so that one of them is a questionable purchase, especially since they are low load and long lasting devices. Because a reasonable lawn mower kit is close enough to the load of a haircut, what is in play is unusually low.

The Andis Master is a gorgeous piece of industrial design, a dumbbell-heavy, polished aluminum beauty with a powerful and quiet magnetic motor. It doesn’t come with combs and is really purpose-built for precise tight fades of the sort only a trained barber is capable of. “It’s like handling a Katana—not just anyone can use it,” our expert Eric Aleman says.

The Andis BGRC is a glorious machine: lightweight, comfortable to hold, with an ultra-silent rotary motor and a ceramic top blade capable of gently shining through thick hair. The BGRC is the Lamborghini Poison of the hair clippe, all precision and perfection, but more than twice the value of our choice, for non-professionals, it is an extravagant and unjustifiable purchase.

We wanted to love the Andis Headliner Combo, a 27-piece kit that includes a cable cutter and cable cutter, as well as combs, scissors, brush, oil and more. We are discouraged by poor quality steering combs, too flexible to be trustworthy.

Similarly, the Wahl Deluxe Chrome Pro is a 25-piece kit that, like the Andis Headliner Combo, had fragile consultant combs that had no reliable compatibility. (The same comb challenge affects the Wahl Color Pro, which is almost a style we haven’t tried.) The included battery-packed lawn mower is useful and makes it an absent component of our main choice. However, this does not buy poor quality combs.

Alex, Review by Wahl Elite Pro, hairclippersclub.com

Ivan Zoot, Know the removable cutting blades, scribd.com

Sarah Lytle, best hair clippers, fondReviewed.com

Hair Clipper Guide, TheSleekCut.com

Domen Hrovatin, The 6 Best Hair Clippers for Home and Professional Use, BaldingBeards.com, October 7, 2016

Benjamin Mohapi ” Interview

Ivan Zoot” Interview

Eric Aleman ” Interview

Jon Chase

Jon Chase is smart home cover editor in Wirecutter. It covers the generation as an editor and editor from the days before mobile phones became wise. His paintings have appeared in print and online publications, as well as on television. Lately you have more than 35 smart devices installed in your home. None of them look perfectly.

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