The Very Best Hair Clippers

Cordless | Motor: Rotary | Battery life: 100 minutes | Guards and attachments: 8 guard attachments

The most recommended product by our barbers is Wahl’s Magic Clip. According to Mark Miguez, co-owner and barber at New York City’s Friend of a Barber, the device is not only multifunctional — it’s also a best-in-class beard trimmer — but comes with eight different guard sizes (ranging from 1/16-inch to one-inch) that cater to pretty much any length a home cutter may want. Lester Rivera, of Florida barbershop the Spot, adds that the Magic Clip can manage every hair type, telling us it’s “strong enough to cut through the coarsest of hair yet still able to deliver precision blending.” Another “huge plus” of the cordless clipper, according to Rivera, is its lithium battery, which gives it “almost two hours of battery life” on a single charge. Wood Smith agrees about the battery life, and notes that the Magic Clip is “light enough to be able to maneuver around easily by hand.”

Alejandro “AJ” Albano, creative director and barber at Tuft NYC, has been using the cordless Magic Clip since 2015 and agrees that it is the “lightest, easiest-on-the-wrist clipper” he’s used in his two decades of cutting hair. Once you get comfortable with it, Miguez says the Magic Clip can make hair trimming even easier via a lever that you can press to shorten the length of a guard while trimming, allowing you to taper around the ears and the neck without having to stop and swap in a shorter guard. Wahl actually makes the majority of the models on this list, some of which also appear on our list of expert-recommended beard trimmers. While reporting that story, we asked Fellow Barber founder Sam Buffa why the American manufacturer’s name is so popular among his peers, and he told us there are two reasons: The quality of Wahl blades makes its products “the most bang for your buck,” and those blades often “stay sharp for longer.”

Corded | Motor: Not specified | Guards and attachments: 13 guard attachments, plus two combs and a pair of scissors

For a more affordable option that will satisfy anyone in need of a quick cut. Even though this clipper is on the cheaper end of Wahl’s product line, barber David Kim of the Electric Barbering Company in New Jersey says you’re always going to get a “professional product” from the brand, and this one is no exception. Sposito says the Color Pro has a “great guard setup,” which takes the form of 13 guards (ranging from 1/16-inch to one-inch) color-coded by length (hence the “Color Pro” name). The color-coded guards aren’t the only thing that makes this clipper great for at-home cutters: It also comes with two combs and a pair of scissors, or pretty much everything you’d need to cut men’s hair at home. Barber Ronnal Lee King also likes the Color Pro — the first clipper he says he ever used — telling us that home use will deliver “an almost-professional cut without professional prices.”

Cordless | Motor: Rotary | Battery life: 60 minutes | Guards and attachments: 3 hair cutting guards plus 7 more beard and shaving attachments

We’ve written before about how, in reporting stories on the best grooming tools for men, barbers sometimes tend to favor different brands than normal guys — it often simply comes down to marketing. . So it didn’t come as a surprise that this affordable gadget from Philips Norelco is the one that came most recommended by Andy Baraghani, cookbook author and recipe developer, who used to share his his self-administered quarantine haircuts on Instagram. Baraghani, who generally keeps his hair on the shorter side, told us he’s used this trimmer both to cut and style it for “about eight years now,” praising its ability to “get the job done as fast as possible,” whether he’s trimming hair, sideburns, or beard. The clipper comes with three beard-trimming guards, a stubble-trimming guard, and three hair-cutting guards (3/8-inch, 1/2-inch, and 5/8-inch).

Cordless | Motor: Pivot | Battery life: 5 hours | Guards and attachments: 8 guard attachments

While the combination trimmer above is all Baraghani needs to keep his already-short hair neat, for guys who aren’t as regular with maintenance, this clipper (made for cutting head hair) is what Strategist senior writer Liza Corsillo used to trim her fiancé’s “curly, fast-growing hair” during long pandemic barbershop closures. “I like it because it’s cordless, you can charge it with a USB cable, and it has a nice range of guards,” she says, the latter detail being especially important to her as a first-timer who wanted a wide margin for error. (The clipper comes with eight guards and a lever that adjusts their positioning to provide a cutting range from just under 1/16-inch to just over 3/4-inch.) Corsillo adds that the clipper is “really precise, with a lever for blending that I’ve got better at using each time.” It’s also made from sturdy stuff: “In the picture, it looks like it’s plastic with a chrome plate, but it’s actually steel throughout,” she notes.

Cordless | Motor: Rotary | Battery life: Not specified; rechargeable batteries and charger included | Guards and attachments: 4 guard attachments

For anyone who knows they want a buzz cut, two of the barbers we spoke to recommended the lightweight Wahl Peanut — which is also one of our favorite beard trimmers — as the best clipper for getting that shorter style. Miguez, who has used the Peanut to cut his own hair at home, says that while it comes with fewer guards than the other Wahl clippers on this list, the ones included are all you need “for a basic buzz cut” (the four included guards range from 1/8-inch to 1/2-inch). Sposito also recommends the Peanut to prospective buzz-cutters, saying its modest size and weight is “meant for the home cutter but strong enough for professionals.” It’s also available in a corded version. Before buzzing everything off, some advice from Dhiran Mistry, hairstylist and owner of the Carriage House salon: “If your hair is already short, you can just go in with clippers, but if your hair is long, you’ll have to cut length before using clippers, because otherwise it can get caught and that would be really painful.”

Cordless | Motor: Rotary | Battery life: 210 minutes | Guards and attachments: 10 guard attachments

For keeping on top of your newly buzzed head, Mistry recommends the Wahl clippers that he uses at work. “The box comes with a bunch of different guards, oil for the blades, and a pair of scissors,”says Mistry. “If you’re shaving it all off, it doesn’t matter if you start in the front or the back.” He doesn’t recommend trying a fade, though, “because those are extremely difficult for even a professional to do.” He suggests you pay close attention to your ears, hairline, and neckline, running the clippers over those areas another time to stay on top of fuzz. The long battery life should give you more than enough time to spot-check.

Cordless | Motor: Rotary | Battery life: 120 minutes | Guards and attachments: 4 guard attachments

The Andis Slimline Pro, like the Wahl Peanut and Wahl Magic Clip, is another expert-recommended hair clipper that also landed on our list of the best beard trimmers. That’s not the only detail those three clippers share: They all have rotary motors, which the pros say are more powerful than the motor on the Color Pro. And like the Magic Clip, the Slimline also has a lithium battery. Whether used on your hairline or beardline, experts like Albano, Miguez, and Rivera love the “wandlike, easy-to-maneuver” Slimline Pro for neatening edges — making it a tool to consider if you’re more concerned about tending the perimeter of your hairline than your whole head. Wood Smith says it’s “easily maneuverable to trim even hard-to-reach hairs on the neck.”