Home Haircuts Can Save You Lots of Money. Here are the Clippers to Use. (2025)

K.J. Bannan is a writer and editor who has been reviewing products since she was on the First Looks team at PC Magazine. K.J. started cutting her husband’s extremely thick and wavy hair at home during the pandemic. The at-home cuts have continued post-pandemic, but now she leaves “the lineup” at the nape of his neck for their daughter, a high school student, to finesse.

Arabelle Sicardi is a writer and editor who’s been on the beauty beat for over a decade.

Jon Chase, a supervising editor on Wirecutter’s smart-home team, has a fair amount of experience cutting his own hair, having practiced on and off for more than a decade.

For this guide, across nearly 10 years of testing hair clippers:

• We consulted professional barbers and hairstylists, including Benjamin Mohapi, owner of Benjamin Salon in Los Angeles and New York City, who has been a professional hairstylist for three decades; Eric Aleman, owner of King of Kings Barber Shop in Brooklyn; Ivan Zoot, a renowned barber and clipper expert; New York City–based freelance hairstylist Topher Gross, who who has been cutting hair for decades and during the pandemic taught people how to cut their own hair, over Zoom; Simon He of Techni Salon NY; Leon Broughton, a barber who owns Trimz Barber Shop in Freeport, New York; Whitney VerMeer, a Minneapolis-based hairstylist; and Mark Bustos, a barber based in New York City.
• We tested dozens of clippers on ourselves and others, and invited barbers and hairstylists to use them on clients with various hair lengths, textures, and styling needs.
• Like all Wirecutter journalists, we review and test products with complete editorial independence. We’re never made aware of any business implications of our editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.

We chose to test hair clippers that range in price and have all earned excellent customer reviews. Each model we tested has the following components: a powerful motor, a high-quality blade, a range of included guide combs, a long and sturdy power cord that doesn’t tangle easily, and user-friendly maintenance. We also considered ergonomics and comfort—device weight, grip, and noise factor.

Among the clippers we considered, the guide combs (the clip-on pieces that slot onto the lower blade and create distance between the blade and the head, to create longer or shorter cuts) ended up being the biggest differentiators. Second to technique, they play a large part in deciding the outcome of a haircut, but they are often confusing to non-professionals. Salon owner Benjamin Mohapi cautioned against models with flexible or too-few combs: “Sometimes you’ll find combs that won’t properly fasten parallel to the razor edge or have extra bits that cause the lines to be crooked—and so you’ll never get clean results, and you may get nicks or gouges.” We found it was very important to have a nice set of stiff, well-labeled guide combs that attached securely.

There is no universal sizing for combs. They typically run from size 1 (which translates to ⅛ of an inch of hair) in ⅛-inch increments up to size 8 (which translates to 1 inch). However, some companies offer sub-increments and may even have clips that allow for hair longer than an inch. (These lengths refer to the height of the hair left behind, not how much is cut off. Using a size 1 comb, for example, leaves ⅛ inch of hair on your head.) Some companies simply label the combs in fractions of an inch. Annoyingly, each brand of clipper has its own proprietary physical shape (and sometimes more than one), so you generally can’t use combs from one brand of clipper on another clipper. (Some “universal” replacement sets are available, but as many customer reviews convey, they aren’t truly universal.)

Combs are made of different types of plastic, which in our tests turned out to be a major factor in their usefulness. If they are too rigid or sharp, they can chip or break or may be uncomfortable to scrape across a scalp. If they are too flexible, they can easily bend and flex as they are pushed against the scalp, resulting in different hair lengths and leaving furrows (like you’d see in a farm field). Some comb designs allow too much play: They can trap and pull hair, snap on crookedly, or even pop off in the middle of a haircut. We found combs made of rigid ABS plastic to be the best performers.

Among the clippers we tested, there was some variety in blade materials. But our experts agreed that for most home users, even a low-end blade will dutifully cut hair for years or even decades. All clippers have a pair of stainless or carbon steel (or, at the high end, ceramic) blades with teeth; the bottom blade is fixed, and the top blade is connected directly to the motor and oscillates side to side to cut hair. When oiled, carbon models self-sharpen, but they are susceptible to rust. Stainless steel is rust-resistant and may be self-sharpening. The hair length that a comb-less blade leaves depends on the clipper, though it’s often 1/16 of an inch; if the clipper has a taper lever (more on that in a minute), you can adjust that length.

A taper lever is an advanced feature—a little doodad found on the side of a clipper that increases or decreases hair length more finely than you can get by switching combs or shifting the bottom blade forward or back. Ideally, when cutting hair you can adjust the lever with a finger, but it shouldn’t be loose enough that it slips due to a bump or vibration (otherwise you could end up with different hair lengths). We found that some taper levers were too easy to move accidentally while cutting hair. But among pros with the technical capability, a taper lever is an essential element for blending and fading between different lengths of hair, especially on the side of the head. For a home-haircutting enthusiast, though, its value is extremely subjective.

A clipper’s housing is usually plastic, though high-end models—like the Andis Master and the BaByliss Pro Silver FX+ All-Metal Lithium Clipper—may be metal. Aside from material, a clipper’s size is a major consideration: A larger model, such as the Wahl Color Pro Plus, is at the upper limit of acceptable size for an adult’s hand; the smaller, palm-sized models, like the Remington Virtually Indestructible, tend to be much more comfortable to hold.

As clipper expert Ivan Zoot told us, most non-professional clippers have many of the same parts as pro models, but the non-pro models have been stripped down to trim their price. The power cord is a common corner to cut: Pro models have thick, round, shielded power cords that are 8 feet or longer; non-pro models often have thin, lamp-wire-style cords that tend to tangle, can fray, and may be only 5 feet long or so.

On the advice of our experts and owner reviews, we primarily looked for corded models simply because they’ll reliably power through the job without needing a recharge. A haircut can take a while, and the risk of getting left with a drained battery and half a haircut isn’t worth the extra convenience. We did opt to try a few cordless models, since they can be especially handy for outdoor use.

As is true of blades, when it comes to motors, most home users wouldn’t notice much difference between types—other than their loudness. Magnetic motors, which all our picks have, are the most common and make a signature whap noise when turned on. Pivot motors run slower and emit a pleasant hum. One of our experts suggested that advances in magnetic motors are making pivot motors effectively obsolete.

The models we selected to test ranged in price and earned high reviews from publications, owners, or both. They all met our hardware criteria: a high-quality razor, a powerful motor, a range of included combs, a long and sturdy power cord that doesn’t tangle easily, user-friendly maintenance, and ergonomic considerations (weight, comfort, and noise).

During our at-home testing, we were able to try out clippers on a wide range of hair types, from extra-fine to thick, from straight to kinky, and from thin (or thinning) to dense. We three authors tested a range of clippers on ourselves and members of our households. Since 2016, we’ve also recruited three expert barbers—Eric Aleman of the King of Kings Barber Shop in Brooklyn, Simon He at Techni Salon NY, and Leon Broughton, who owns Trimz Barber Shop in Freeport, New York—to test contenders with clients.

In 2020 and 2021, we recruited a panel of seven testers with assorted hair types and textures—as well as varying levels of haircutting experience—to try out the clippers at home. We asked these testers to give their opinions of each of the clippers and accessories they tried out, without knowing the prices of any of the models. They noted whether the clippers slowed, clogged, or pulled. They also noted how comfortable the clippers were to hold due to size, weight, and vibration, as well as the power-cord length. Our testers noted the quality of guide combs and how easy they were to use, how easy clippers were to clean and maintain, and the quality of any additional accessories, such as hair clips, capes (for covering clothes during a cut), and carrying cases. At the end, we asked participants to pick the model they favored and would be most comfortable using themselves.

The Wahl Elite Pro High Performance Hair Clipper Kit met or exceeded the quality or performance of all the other models we considered in nearly every way. It has the most reliable and easy-to-use guide combs of any clipper we’ve tried. The Wahl Elite Pro also features sturdy housing and a pro-grade power cord, a powerful yet quiet-enough motor, and a useful and rugged hard-plastic carry case.

The guide combs set this set apart. When it comes to clippers for at-home use, the combs matter the most, since they significantly affect the cutting experience and are expensive to upgrade or replace. The Wahl Elite Pro comes with 10 clearly labeled combs, including two half sizes for extra-fine control of hair length. These combs are made of rigid ABS plastic and include stainless steel retaining clips that are riveted on securely. (One model 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 the edge could be lifted or even pop off.)

The motor is plenty powerful and housed in an easy-to-grip body. The Wahl Elite Pro’s build quality is a noticeable step above that of most mid-tier models available in big-box stores. The upper part of the housing isn’t hollow-feeling; it is made of rigid plastic, with texture for a secure grip. The taper lever at the side, for blending hair, allows you to make adjustments via a screw, but out of the box it functioned smoothly in our tests (though not as precisely as the levers on pro models like the Andis Master or the Oster Fast Feed).

The round cord is plenty long (8 feet) and as thick as those on pro models. And this is the only clipper we considered with a Velcro wrap near the plug, to gather the cord and make storage tidier. By comparison, the Andis Headliner and Wahl Chrome Pro have lamp-wire-style cords.

The other included accessories are just so-so. Almost all clipper kits come with at least one questionable accessory—like cheap scissors or a garbage-bag-quality cape—that seems great until you have to tuck it in a drawer or root through a pile of them to find what you want. The Wahl Elite Pro’s hard-plastic case is compact, and it has a quality clasp and rigid hinges that allow it to seal correctly.

The Wahl Elite Pro is covered by a five-year warranty.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The Wahl Elite Pro lacks a T-blade attachment. Also called a companion trimmer, this attachment allows for close cutting around the ears, in the back, and around facial hair without accidentally nicking an ear or creating a bald patch. (Our budget pick, another Wahl, comes with an ear-trim guide comb.)

It’s at the upper weight limit of what’s comfortable to hold. It weighs nearly a pound. But our testers didn’t find it overly heavy, and it doesn’t vibrate uncomfortably. Compared with the Remington Virtually Indestructible (a smaller and quieter model we like), the Elite Pro has a slightly louder magnetic motor, but it isn’t obnoxiously loud.

The Wahl Color Pro Plus Haircutting Kit offers a clipping experience very similar to that of our top pick; the key difference is in its overall size (this model is larger, but a touch lighter) and the design of the attachments, which are easier to sort, but overall of lower quality. It has a 7-foot lamp-wire-style cord.

Color-coded, clearly labeled guards make it easier to find the right ones. Apart from its lower price, this is the primary draw of the Color Pro Plus. The brightly colored, all plastic combs are easy to spot, even in a drawer or the kit’s dark carrying case. You can grab the comb you mean to, quickly—with less fishing around required.

The Color Pro Plus’s storage box is a bit smaller than the Elite Pro’s, but it’s not quite as sturdy. If space is a deciding factor for you, this kit will take up less space overall than our top pick.

The Color Pro Plus also comes in a cordless version, though it has a different motor and includes four fewer guards. It offers roughly 60 minutes of service. “It’s wireless and powerful, [and] it’s easy to use,” remarked Simon He.

Like the Elite Pro, the corded Color Pro Plus is covered by a five-year warranty.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The guide combs lack the metal reinforcements included in the combs that come with our top pick. Compared with the Elite Pro’s guide combs, the Color Pro Plus’s combs are a touch flimsier and do not have the metal reinforcements.

If you’re a frequent-haircut household or you need or prefer a clipper with a rechargeable battery, the BaByliss Pro Silver FX+ All-Metal Lithium Clipper is the one to get.

It feels indestructible but is still lightweight and easy enough to use. This high-end clipper has a cylindrical metal handle that fits nicely in the palm, along with an on-off switch that works with the push of your thumb. The motor itself is quiet, thanks to its dual ball bearings, which reduce the friction inside the device. This feature is especially important when using the Pro Silver FX+ in its cordless mode since less friction means a longer battery life.

You can use it cord-free. The company says that each charge should last about three hours, which our at-home testing confirmed. Barber Leon Broughton of Trimz Barber Shop in Freeport, New York, used the Pro Silver FX+ at his shop and was able to work all afternoon using the device.

It cuts cleanly and allows for more precision styling when compared with our other picks. The Pro Silver FX+ All-Metal Lithium Clipper has a built-in five-position taper arm so you can choose one of five length settings for the stainless steel taper blade without having to snap a guard on. This means you can cut a fade or change the length of your cut on the fly by simply moving the on-clipper lever. Broughton tested this model on clients with a variety of hair textures and lengths; it cut through everything smoothly. The clipper also excels at cutting straight lines and shaving hair completely. One of our 2024 at-home testers, who has fast-growing hair, loved that he could use the clipper a few times a week to keep his neck tidy.

The included guide combs aren’t the best, but they’re good enough. If you do need to leave hair longer you can snap on one of eight plastic guides, which are clearly labeled and click on easily. The guides are of average quality, and removing them can be difficult since they snap on so tightly. This might be a problem with someone with limited hand strength. Wahl and universal guide combs fit this model.

It has a long battery life in cordless mode. When the battery does die it’s easy to switch over to the corded mode, although most home haircutters probably won’t run into this problem. The clipper charges via USB-C—no special cord required.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It has a lesser warranty. The BaByliss Pro Silver FX+ is backed by a two-year warranty—coverage that falls short when compared with that of our other picks.
Some customer reviewers have said this clipper can get hot. We did not experience this during our testing.

If you’re mostly clipping your own hair, the smaller and easier-to-maneuver Remington Virtually Indestructible Haircut and Beard Trimmer, which is lighter than any of our other picks, may be your best choice. The Remington’s lightweight (7.5 ounces), palm-sized housing—coupled with rubberized grips—is the most comfortable of any we tried. Our testers especially appreciated this clipper when they guided it along the backs of their heads while looking in a mirror—that’s a tricky maneuver, especially when cutting along the hairline.

The guide combs are serviceable but far from the best. The clipper’s eight included 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 on some other models we tested, whose attachments had enough play that they could go on crooked or pop off altogether.

It’s nearly as powerful as our top pick yet runs much more quietly. This model is extremely quiet, despite its magnetic motor. One of our at-home testers questioned its effectiveness solely for that reason: “It’s too quiet to really be cutting hair, right?” A long-term tester who uses the Virtually Indestructible with her children finds the low noise level to be a big plus. “My kids barely notice it above the sounds of whatever Wild Kratts episode they’re watching while I cut,” she said.

The 8-foot power cord is thick but pliable. It seems tough enough to last years but also wraps easily for storage.

The Virtually Indestructible is the only one of our picks covered by a lifetime warranty (blades excluded).

Flaws but not dealbreakers

There’s no taper lever. Though this model lacks a taper lever for finessing a fade or blend, most of our testers didn’t miss it for at-home uses (none of our haircutting novices attempted to do their own fades).

Close cuts can be a challenge with this model. For another tester, though, the Virtually Indestructible trimmer fell short because it couldn’t cut quite as close as our other picks: “As someone who shaves, the guard it provides doesn’t meet my needs,” they said. “The shortest it goes to is not [short] enough.” The smallest guard is ⅛ inch.

For some, the guide combs can cause discomfort. However, the guide combs can feel a little too pointy and sharp. If they’re not angled properly when you’re cutting, it’s easy to jab your scalp. (Full disclosure: It can hurt.)

Every expert we spoke with repeated the same basic mantra: Oil your clipper’s blade, and it will last years, even decades. Or, as Ivan Zoot put it, “clippers do not die: They are only murdered.”

Oiling cuts down on friction so the blade doesn’t snag your hair or heat up and burn your skin. If you want top performance, a five-point oiling goes like this: Before each use, place a drop on each side of the blade and one in the middle while the blade is running; then place one on either side where the moving lower blade rubs against the fixed upper blade. Move the razor around a bit to let the oil travel—but then tip it so the blades point downward, to let excess oil run out, away from the motor (which can get gummed up over time). Turn off the clipper and gently dab the excess oil away with a tissue or towel, being sure not to snag fibers or paper.

Most manufacturers also recommend that, following a haircut, you wipe away loose hairs with a stiff bristle brush (almost always included along with oil), followed by another oiling to prevent potential surface rust. When you run out of the tiny included bottle of oil, you can use food-grade mineral oil instead. Avoid 3-In-One, WD-40, or other non-food-safe lubricants, which may cause a skin reaction.

Many clippers with magnetic motors (as opposed to pivot or rotary motors) have a large adjustment screw located on the side. If your clipper begins to make an annoying and terrifying “chattering” sound, take a medium or large Phillips-head screwdriver and tighten or loosen that screw until it stops; then continue in the same direction another half-turn.

Clippers (even lower-end ones) can take a substantial amount of abuse, but just a single drop on a hard surface, such as a tiled bathroom floor, can instantly kill a motor or damage the housing enough to make the clipper a lost cause. Barber Eric Aleman cautioned in particular that should you ever drop a clipper, be sure to immediately inspect the blade for any bent or broken teeth, which can cause injuries. If the blade isn’t replaceable, recycle or toss the clipper, and be sure to cut the power cord to ensure that someone else who might find it doesn’t use it unknowingly.

The Andis Master is a gorgeous piece of industrial design, a dumbbell-heavy, polished aluminum beauty with a powerful yet 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 creating. “It’s like handling a katana—not just anyone can use it,” barber Eric Aleman told us. (All of our pro testers mentioned having it in their arsenals at one point or another.)

The now-discontinued Andis Ceramic BGRC is a wonderful machine: lightweight, comfortable to hold, with a whisper-quiet rotary motor and a ceramic top blade capable of blazing through thick hair with ease. The Ceramic BGRC is the Lamborghini Veneno of hair clippers, all precision and perfection. But it’s more than twice the price of our pick, so for non-pros it’s likely an unjustifiable purchase. And it comes with no attachments. The Ceramic BGRC’s suggested replacement, the BGRC Detachable Blade Clipper, is nearly identical to the version we tested.

We haven’t tested the beloved Andis T-Outliner, a specialty/companion tool that’s best for outlining (such as around the ears), shaving, and precision fades.

The Braun Hair Clipper Series 7 (HC 7390) is small and fits nicely in the hand. Unlike other home clippers that come with lots of guides, this one has only two—they can be adjusted with a lever to create multiple lengths. The washable clipper has a lifetime sharp blade and a rechargeable battery with a 50-minute runtime. Our expert Broughton enjoyed using the clipper saying it gave a “solid” haircut, but confirmed our finding that this tool is best for between-cut trims, lineups, and similar maintenance tasks.

The Oster Fast Feed Adjustable Pivot Motor Clipper, formerly a pick in this guide, remains an excellent buy. We’ve determined that people willing to spend more to upgrade on a clipper are likely to appreciate the versatility of a tool that can be operated cordlessly (such as our upgrade pick, the BaByliss Pro Silver FX+ All-Metal Lithium Clipper). If cordless operation is unimportant to you, the Oster Fast Feed is still a great choice.

Although beard and body-hair trimmers are generally not ideal for cutting hair, many of them come with guide combs that in a pinch can be useful for at-home haircuts. The Philips Norelco MG7750, our top pick among beard trimmers, comes with 14 guide combs, including four meant for head hair. Our professional testers were divided on this model: It’s beautifully designed, and the multiplicity of use is great for a varied household. But this model is not as powerful as any of our hair-clipper picks, and switching its guards when using this model specifically for a haircut is somewhat of a pain.

Likewise, the Philips Norelco Multigroom 9000 is a cordless model billed as a (21-in-1) all-in-one trimmer. The Multigroom 9000, which charges via USB-A, comes with 21 pieces including the clipper, a steel trimmer, a smaller precision trimmer, a shaver, a nose/ear hair trimmer, an eyebrow guard, a hair trimmer, seven guards including two fading guards, a body shaver and two body guards, which all fit nicely into a small hard travel case. While it was excellent at keeping nose hair, beards, and ears trimmed and cut hair well for some testers, it wasn’t as effective on thicker, coarser head hair.

We previously recommended the Remington HKVAC2000A as an option for easier cleanup. But our testers consistently found it to be the most flimsy model overall, the hardest to hold, and very loud. The vacuum feature—this clipper sucks up loose hair so it doesn’t land on you or the floor—is the best thing this model has going for it (and for some, may be reason enough to look past the tool’s flaws). Wirecutter writer Michael B. Cohen estimates he has saved some $1,000 by cutting his own hair with the HKVAC2000A.

A step above our budget pick, the Color Pro Plus Haircutting Kit, Wahl’s Extreme Grip Pro Hair Clipper is outfitted with a nonslip sleeve and comes with 12 all-plastic guide combs (including the left- and right-ear tapered guide combs that come with the Color Pro Plus but are no longer included with the Elite Pro), among other accessories. It’s a touch larger and heavier than the Elite Pro, and its combs are not reinforced like our pick’s. It has a similarly powerful motor. “I can feel the added weight, but it’s offset by the grippier body,” our tester said.

Similarly, the Wahl Deluxe Chrome Pro is a 25-piece kit that, like the Andis Headliner Combo, has flimsy guide combs that didn’t seat reliably for us. The included battery-operated trimmer is useful and is in fact a missing element from our top pick. However, that doesn’t redeem the poor-quality combs.

The Wahl Professional 5-Star Series Magic Clip Cordless is a pro-level machine, but the 90-minute battery life isn’t ideal. Like the BaByliss Pro Silver FX+ All-Metal Lithium Clipper we recommend, it comes with eight guide combs. But our testers found the experience of using this clipper to be very similar to using the less-expensive Wahl Elite Pro model we recommend. The Wahl Professional Cordless Senior Clipper differs from the 5-Star Series Magic Clip Cordless in its blade. The Cordless Senior Clipper has a standard blade and a more powerful motor, both of which make this unit a solid choice for someone who is looking to do a simple, traditional haircut. The Magic Clip Cordless features a simple rotary motor and a stagger-tooth blade, which are better suited for someone looking to add blends and textures to their haircuts.

We haven’t tested the corded Wahl 5-Star Senior, which is often compared to the Andis Master and is therefore best for experienced haircutters. It is specifically made for taper work and precision fades—which leads to excellent pro-level detail work. But for most at-home haircutters, this model may require unreasonable skill and artistry.

This article was edited by Tracy Vence and Kalee Thompson.

1. Eric Aleman, barber at King of Kings Barber Shop, in-person interview, November 30, 2016

2. Leon Broughton, barber and owner of Trimz Barber Shop in Freeport, New York, in-person and phone interviews, January 2, February 13, and March 15, 2025

3. Mark Bustos, barber, phone interview, December 5, 2024

4. Topher Gross, freelance hairstylist, phone and in-person interviews, March 2021

5. Simon He, hairstylist at Techni Salon NY, phone and email interviews, March 26, 2021

6. Benjamin Mohapi, hairstylist at Benjamin Salon, phone interviews, November 2016

7. Whitney VerMeer, hairstylist, phone interview, December 6, 2024

8. Ivan Zoot, barber and consultant, phone interview, November 21, 2016