What's a Trimmers for Men's?
These days it just isn’t enough to go for the clean shave. The days where the bald-faced man ruled are gone. This is the age of groomed stubble. To achieve the airbrushed stubble look we so often see on the faces of Gosling, Franco et al, you will need a trimmer.
So what do we need to look for in a trimmer? The main features we used to sort the wheat from the chaff are: personalisation, clean, cut and comfort. How personal can you get with your trim? How hard is the trimmer to clean? How accurate is the cut? How comfortable is the job? We’re looking for trimmers with an edge (both literal and metaphorical). Which have that bit extra to make your experience easier – lasers? A vacuum?
With this in mind, we picked out the most effective trimmers on the market and turn you from Brian Blessed to David Beckham.
1. Panasonic ER-GB80: £79.99, Argos
The Michael Phelps of beard trimmers, this trimmer excels in every category and won’t pack up on you in a hurry. The trimmer is designed for top-to-toe grooming, engineered to trim as comfortably on your face as your shoulders, legs and groin.
Three length attachments provide extensive personalisation: there are wider blades to suit heavy usage as well as narrow blades for precision and a downright copious 40 adjustment settings between 1 and 20mm. The tool also boasts waterproofing, cordless operation and an extended battery life of 50 minutes from an hour's charge – great when you consider you only need it for a moment in the morning. While other trimmers on the list may have these features, none of them have them all in one.
2. Philips BT7202/13 Beardtrimmer Series 7000 Vacuum Beard Trimmer: £45, John Lewis
We love to be lazy so we love this trimmer for its vacuuming capabilities. It claims to capture 90 per cent of hairs as you trim, much easier for the clean-up than other trimmers on the list. The vacuum also cuts your partner’s nagging down by 90 per cent.
There are questions over the longevity of the multi-length attachments which feel rather flimsy, but with 20 lock-in lengths from 0.5 to 10mm, we aren’t grumbling. The battery can run for almost an hour but takes about 25 per cent longer to charge than the Panasonic.
3. Remington MB4560: £37.49, Amazon
Touch screen… Ooh. This is the second most space-agey of our trimmers and comes with touch screen technology, allowing you to adjust your length from 0.4 to 18mm in 1mm increments – leaving you feeling like you are in Blade Runner in the process. The blades are incredibly durable due to the titanium coating and a lithium-powered battery gives you about an hour’s life, though you’d need some serious beard to get through that.
This is the kind of trimmer you would find Harvey from Suits using, however, he may be a tad let down by the accuracy.
4. Babyliss Super Stubble XTP: £99.99, Argos
The premium model in the Babyliss beard trimmer range does a lot of jobs very well. Perhaps the most useful feature is the floating contouring head which matches your facial curves to give a much more comfortable trim with less snags – in fact, we think this is the most comfortable trimmer in the list. The battery life is one of the most impressive on the list with an 80-minute charge, affording you around a fortnight of five-minute trims. The trimmer also comes with a three-year guarantee.
