The people who buzz their own hair, the guy who fades his sideburns beautifully, the mom who is prepared for everything including a gum-in-the-hair emergency: These are all candidates for the best hair clippers. There’s a solid option for everyone, whether you want the right intersection of quality, durability and customization (that’s the Andis ReVite Clipper, our best overall pick), or the most bang for your buck (our top value pick the Wahl Color Pro Cordless Clipper).
To find the best hair clippers, I researched the market and narrowed down to test eight … [+]
Here’s an overview of my top picks:
To find the best hair clippers, I researched the market and summoned eight well-reviewed, industry-favorite devices to my doorstep. I then called on the expertise of my trusted barber, Evelyn Gutweniger of Nomad Barber in Berlin. In addition to testing these devices with home users in mind, Gutweniger also advised me on what to consider when buying hair clippers. Read on for all of that, and check out my reviews of the Andis ReVite and Wahl Color Pro Cordless devices as well.
Tested charge time: 1.5 hours | Tested runtime: 2 hours 10 minutes | Weight: 11.5 ounces | Clipper lengths included: 1/16-inch, 1/8-inch, 3/1-inch, 1/4-inch, 5/16-inch, 3/8-inch, 7/16-inch, 1/2-inch, 5/8-inch, 3/4-inch, 7/8-inch, 1-inch | Zero gap possible: Yes | Warranty: 1 year
Best for:
- Longevity and power
- Precise cuts, with the best selection of sturdy hair guards
- Barbers in training, since it feels like a professional-quality device
Skip if:
- You want a multitasking device
- You need a whisper-quiet clipper
This 1-year-young clipper isn’t just rookie of the year—it’s the best in show. The ReVite strikes the perfect balance between professional-grade clippers and at-home ease. On the barber-worthy level, this gadget can zero gap and offers seamless tapering and fading capabilities thanks to a large range of sturdy guards. It manages great full-360 navigability despite a slightly heavier weight than other tools on this list; that heft also speaks to its quality and power, which can mow seamlessly through thick hair. On top of that, this tool has a runtime that outpaces its charge time (130-minute endurance against a 90-minute charge).
The Andis ReVite manages great 360-navigability despite a slightly heavier weight than other tools … [+]
The primary complaint from Gutweniger is that they are noticeably louder than other clippers on this list. That’s not suggesting that they sound like a lawn mower, but if everything else is at a subtle hum, these ones are more of a proper buzz. That’s almost negligible considering its many other benefits, but still worth noting.
Tested charge time: 12-plus hours | Tested runtime: 1 hour 15 minutes | Weight: 22.4 ounces | Clipper lengths included: 1/16-inch, 1/8-inch, 3/16-inch, 1/4-inch, 3/8-inch, 1/2-inch, 5/8-inch, 3/4-inch, 7/8-inch, 1-inch, plus left/right-angled ear guards | Zero gap possible: No | Warranty: 5 years
Best for:
- Infrequent buzz cuts
- All amateurs, given the easy-to-use color-coded guards
- Dual corded or cordless use
Skip if:
- You need a fast charge
- You need a nicely graduated skin-tight fade
I remember my mom buzzing my hair (and both of my brothers’) with the corded version of this tool growing up. And I promise that nostalgia isn’t guiding the pick here; instead, it’s Wahl’s brilliant decision to color-code its guards, making it visually easier to change between clipping lengths or to recall the one you use each time. (It’s much easier to remember that you buzz on “yellow” than to remember “#5” or “5/8 inch.”)
The Wahl device’s color-coded guards make it visually easier to change up clipping lengths.
Gutweniger, who often cuts with other Wahl devices, also raved about this one and trusted it enough to use regularly on her customers at the barbershop. She loves its sturdy guards, which don’t bend or bow as you move them around the head. And she isn’t bothered by its 12-hour charge time—which, to my frustration, extended to 15 or 16 hours before I realized that the charging light doesn’t ever turn off or change its color once complete. Instead, the 75-minute runtime is enough to keep heads buzzed for months on end, with a simple overnight re-up.
Her main strike against it though is the omission of any trimming options between 0 and 1/16 inch. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing for most home users, it does mean you can’t really fade anything from a bare shave; instead you would want to start with 1/16 inch. Speaking of fades, another positive for this tool is its pair of left and right-angled ear guards, which allow you to cleanly fade around the ears, just not from a bare shave. All this for just $40 or so—brilliant.
Tested charge time: 1.5 hours | Tested runtime: 1 hour 25 minutes | Weight: 13.2 ounces | Clipper lengths included: Bare guard only (others sold separately) | Zero gap possible: Yes | Warranty: 1 year
Best for:
- Quality and showmanship
- Sheer power and performance with all hair types
- Actual barbers who want a device with longevity
Skip if:
- You want all the necessary guards and attachments in a single purchase
- You want a lightweight device that allows you to buzz with haste
The Master Cordless is beloved by many barbers for its power, but you could consider it a luxury since it comes with a steep price tag, even without including clipper guards. You’ve got to buy those separately, which will add between around $10 and $30 and are often sold out. And while many brands sell guards that swap easily onto competitor devices, this one demands dedicated guards (making it all the more exclusive).
While many brands sell guards that swap easily onto competitor devices, the Andis Master Cordless … [+]
While Gutweniger warns of the device’s weight, it’s merely an indication of its muscled performance. (So much so that the device tends to heat up easily during use, too.) The guy who buys the Andis Master Cordless Clipper will likely not be buzzing his own hair in the end. He’s got a barber on call and perhaps even keeps these clippers set aside specifically for that use. (Or let’s face it, the guy who buys these is himself a barber who cuts any head of hair and just wants a device that lasts long and cuts strong and smooth.)
Tested charge time: 4 hours | Tested runtime: 1.5 hours | Weight: 10.7 ounces | Clipper lengths included: 1/16-inch, 1/8-inch, 3/16-inch, 1/4-inch, 3/8-inch, 1/2-inch, 5/8-inch, 3/4-inch, plus five detent taper controls | Zero gap possible: Yes | Warranty: 2 years
Best for:
- Power, precision and durability
- The cleanest tapering and closest cuts
- The guy who brings his own clippers to the barbershop (although not all barbers like this)
Skip if:
- You just need a simple no-frills buzz cut
- You need anything above a 3/4-inch clip
“Cutting-wise, they’re smooth and quiet; these are professional guards,” Gutweniger says of these durable, barber-favorite clippers. She is a recent owner of a BaBylissPro device, and this one got the most mileage out of her testing. In my years as a grooming writer, I have come to think of BaBylissPro as the barbershop favorite, seeing that it’s got a fervent fandom among the experts I tap for their wisdom (or for their fancy fades on my own dome).
The BaBylissPro Barberology FXOne Clipper is a barbershop favorite.
The BaBylissPro holds a generous 90-minute runtime and travels fairly easily. But I don’t think it’s the best option for any run-of-the-mill buzz cut. Instead, it’s for the guy who wants things like skin-tight zero gaps, the best graduated tapers possible and the most trophy-like grooming device on God’s green earth. And for what it’s worth, the Barberology FXOne Clipper is also available in other colors, like silver, black and rose gold; just be sure you’re buying one with guard attachments, or buy them separately if it’s just the clipper body you’re buying. (Also, the equally trophy-like BaBylissPro GoldFX foil shaver was one of our top picks in the race for the best electric razors for men.)
Tested charge time: 2 hours | Tested runtime: 3.5 hours | Weight: 18.4 ounces | Clipper lengths included: 1/8-inch, 1/4-inch, 3/8-inch, 1/2-inch, 5/8-inch, 3/4-inch, 7/8-inch, 1-inch | Zero gap possible: Yes | Warranty: 1 year
Best for:
- Those who want a single high-quality device for facial hair and head hair alike
- Design lovers—this one is a beaut
- Fresh lineups between proper haircuts
Skip if:
- You need a device that travels light and easy
- You need a wide range of medium hair clipper lengths (anything above 1/2 inch)
This is one beautiful machine, with its magnetic guards and its digital display and 0.1 mm incremental trimmer adjustments. You’ll get dual beard trimming and hair clipping use from it, too, and you can take things all the way down to a zero gap if you need skin-tight cutting (be warned, that’s a task best done by the pros). Sometimes the design is to its detriment, since that sleekly graduated body lends itself to being more easily dropped, and if those magnetic guards are installed incorrectly, they are difficult to remove—so be sure to install them correctly.
The Bevel Pro All-In-One Clipper And Trimmer allows for dual beard trimming and hair clipping, and … [+]
But beyond those minor gripes, Bevel’s pro-grade device is a rarity in this space; it’s one of the few non-tentpole names to enter this field and perform among the best of them. (And it is inarguably the most beautiful device of the bunch.) Since Bevel’s acquisition by Procter & Gamble in 2018, though, it’s becoming harder to consider Bevel an outsider anymore. Rather, this quality is baseline for them, and this multitasking tool is one of the best upgrades you can make in the grooming realm.
Tested charge time: 2.5 hours | Tested runtime: 17.5 hours | Weight: 8 ounces | Clipper lengths included: 1 mm to 3 mm in 0.2 mm increments; 3 mm to 7 mm in 1 mm increments; hair clipping guards at 2 mm, 4 mm, 9 mm, 12 mm, 16 mm; plus 2 left/right-angled ear guards | Zero gap possible: No | Warranty: 8 years
Best for:
- Those who want a single device for head-to-toe grooming needs
- Packing for travel, with its 17.5-hour runtime
- Style customization, given all of the different attachments
Skip if:
- You want the most powerful mower possible
- You need lots of dedicated hair clipper lengths (this one excels at shorter lengths and then graduates between larger gaps for its medium clipping lengths)
I’ve said many good things about the Philips Norelco Series 9000 tools in the past—also our best overall pick for the best beard trimmer—but there are more kind words to say yet. In addition to being the most customizable grooming tool from beard to toe, this one also manages quite well for the head, according to Gutweniger’s testing. While the device doesn’t offer as many cutting options for hair clipping (since it cuts up to 7 mm in small intervals, but then jumps to 9 mm, 12 mm and 16 mm), what it lacks in length options it makes up for in customization. This includes the ease of fading hair around the ears with its two angled trimmer guards, as well as the ability to graduate in 1 mm increments with its fixed dial-adjusted guards.
What the Philips Norelco All-In-One Trimmer Series 9000 lacks in length options it makes up for in … [+]
Gutweniger noted all of this in her hands-on evaluation, as well as the importance of having extremely sturdy, reinforced guards to ensure an even clip, which the Series 9000 does have. “It sits very nice in the hand, is easy to use and has a USB charger, which I find amazing for travel,” she says. Plus, it has a killer 17.5-hour runtime (no joke), on just 2.5 hours of charge. Who can compete with that?
Other Hair Clippers I Tested
Here are two other devices that were well-reviewed around the web but that didn’t make the cut on this roster of winners. That’s not saying they’re bad devices, but they aren’t among the best of the best for mass use or at-home buzz cuts. It’s also worth noting that I used cordless-ness as a barrier to entry in this contest, since the ergonomics and mobility are much better with cordless devices. While barbers need to have corded options available (for both power and longevity), the general at-home user does not have those same demands.
Panasonic MultiShape: While this is one of the best beard trimmers based on my own extensive tests, it has some limitations as a hair clipper. In particular, its longest clipper head attachments don’t have the same sturdy reinforcement as its shorter guards, meaning you may not get an even cut on those longer buzz lengths. And that’s not all: “When I put the long guards on, I had the feeling that it was not the same height on both sides,” says Gutweniger. “It was going down on one side.”
Braun Hair Clipper Series 7: If you only need a short buzz cut (less than 3 mm), then Braun’s clippers should be fine. But its guards aren’t as reinforced as the others on the winners list, so it ranked pretty low in my tests. Gutweniger says, “When you’re trying to do a longer length with the pressure in the middle, they can sometimes bend in and slide in, so it cannot likely be completely even.”
How I Tested The Best Hair Clippers
Since there are plenty of terrific hair clippers out there, I homed in on some of the best options from top brands and started with cordless picks as a baseline, since that’s a major factor for home users. Since I’m not a barber myself (and can’t just go buzzing my head over and over in a quick enough manner to fit this project), I called in the devices and assessed them for their runtime, charge time, guard options, detailing options and general power.
I tested eight top-of-the-line devices and assessed them for their runtime, charge time, guard … [+]
Then I handed them off to my own trusted barber, Evelyn Gutweniger, who got acquainted with them for a couple weeks and applied her studied perspective to each tool (but with amateurs in mind). She cared mostly about details like reinforced guard heads and having a broad range of cutting intervals. She found some tools too heavy or unwieldy for solo use, or simply not up to snuff in terms of quality. The ones she liked best, she used more readily on her own customers with a variety of hair types and style preferences. Together, we looked at the following things most closely when casting the winners list.
Ease Of Use
I kept in mind that the use case here is primarily for at-home, DIY buzz cuts (or those administered by your roommate, mother, girlfriend, boyfriend, whoever). Professionals have plenty of resources and opportunities to get acquainted with pro-grade tools, which they are using a thousand times more often than the guy who buzzes his own hair every couple months or so. Mostly, then, ergonomics and general navigability are top of mind here—can those buzzing their own blind spots manage with these clippers?
Customization
While hair clippers are much more straightforward than, say, beard trimmers in terms of their range of capabilities, it’s still important to find a device that offers creative options. I considered factors like the range of clipping lengths offered by its guards, and whether those guards are sturdy enough to deliver an even clip every time. And for those who need it, can the tool perform things like zero gapping (a blade realignment that allows you to trim directly on the skin) or taper cleanly from a skin fade up into a graduated fade? This isn’t always demanded by consumers; some may just want a single uniform buzz cut, but even then they should have a range of length options.
Power And Runtime
Don’t get too hung up on the marketing speak that brands use to sell how powerful their tools are. Things like “hairs cut per second” or “blade revolutions per minute” don’t really mean anything to most of us. Instead, you need a device that doesn’t lose momentum as it cuts through thick patches of hair—and generous battery life is always a bonus. My top picks all finished with at least 75 minutes of cordless runtime (up to 17.5 hours, for the Philips Norelco Series 9000). Gutweniger doesn’t give much consideration to charge time, since all you need to remember is to charge a device the night before using it, and it should have enough juice to last you a month or three in cleanups.
How To Pick The Best Hair Clippers
If you want to buy one single device to cater to your hair cutting needs, then here’s how to frame the search, according to Gutweniger.
Styling Preference
Gutweniger notes that most people who buy clippers for at-home use are strictly using them for a simple buzz cut. So a high-end tool might not be necessary, and even battery life might be overrated, since it’s easy enough to charge the device the night before you plan to use it. Most will last an hour or more fully charged, so since you’re not using the tool daily like you might with an electric shaver, that means you don’t need a long battery life. Also, if you plan to travel with the device often, then a smaller size and lighter weight might be more important to you. (Although who is really buzzing their hair that often on the go?)
Sturdy Guards
Sturdy, reliable guards are crucial for the best hair clippers. Nothing is worse than buzzing your hair and then realizing you have very uneven results. This usually happens when a device’s guard heads are flimsy and easily compromised by your hand’s pressure. Surprisingly, the price of a device doesn’t always speak to its guard durability. The least expensive clippers on this list (the Wahl Color Pro Cordless Clipper) have perhaps the best guards of all. Pro tip: “It’s important that the guard stay in place, and that people check that it’s actually on before use,” says Gutweniger.
Ergonomics
Weight and product design are two contributing factors to a device’s navigability around your head, specifically when it comes to buzzing the backside of your hair. “It could be difficult to hold a heavier device correctly in the back, so it might be easier when it’s a lightweight device,” Gutweniger says. She adds that even the barbers who are the best at fading hair have difficulty cutting their own hair in the back—so don’t hesitate to call in a friend in order to get the most even and presentable results (and to have them clean up your neckline).
My Expertise
I’ve been a men’s grooming journalist for over a decade, covering the beat for titles like Forbes, GQ, Men’s Journal, Robb Report, Spy, Gear Patrol and more. I’ve grown my hair out past my shoulders a few times, and I’ve buzzed it all the way back down a hundred times. I’ve even had a hair transplant (in the name of research!) to have more of a canvas to work with up top.
For expert insight, I tapped Evelyn Gutweniger, who is a Berlin-based barber at Nomad Barber. She has been cutting hair for 16 years, having trained in Italy, then barbering in the U.K., Australia and Germany. She is who I entrust with my own haircuts, too. This best hair clippers evaluation was edited and produced by deputy editor Jane Sung, who has overseen all tested beauty and grooming content for Forbes Vetted, ranging from the best beard trimmers to the top electric razors for men.