The best beard trimmer is a modern-day essential – especially right now, with less likelihood of a face-to-face once over. Crafting an attractive beard, be it a bushy hipster flex or a more sculpted number, takes time, patience and a good trimmer. The modern man needs the latest tech in his armoury to deal with such hairy issues. More fundamentally, he needs it to ensure he doesn't look like a hobo, when video conferencing with his work-from-home colleagues.
Beard trimmers can also be used to cut hair elsewhere, of course – although you might want a pair of the best hair clippers if you are not intending to sport The Rock's hair-do for the next few months.
If you're looking for regular beard management or the occasional trim, what is the best beard trimmer/shaper? These ones are the sharpest, to put it bluntly. As with the best electric toothbrushes, you should never pay full price for a beard trimmer; they are bloody always on sale.
If you're looking to fully upgrade your grooming routine, then you might want to check out the best body groomer for all-over hair removal, or, if you want to remove your facial hair completely then you'll want the best electric shaver.
How to choose the best beard trimmer for you
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When considering a beard trimmer there are several things to consider. The first one is length: some trimmers are only suitable for short beards, while others come with a range of heads or guards that can be used for bushy beards.
Most trimmers can be used for body hair and the hair on the top of your head too, but if you want anything other than a skinhead, you'll again want a trimmer that's capable of longer length settings.
Charge time may matter if you’re constantly on the move, and often these things take 8 hours or more to fully juice up. Realistically, that shouldn't be a problem if you only trim once per day, but if you suffer from beard maintenance anxiety, you might favour a trimmer with an emergency 'quick charge' feature, giving a full trim after just a few minutes charging.
Watch out for consumables – while many trimmers have self-sharpening blades that last forever, some need oiling, and some even require regular replacement.
As with electric toothbrushes, our biggest tip is: never pay the RRP on higher-end beard trimmers: grooming gadgets are regularly discounted, as reflected in our handy pricing widgets.
The best beard trimmers you can buy today:
Although it doesn't have a fricken' laser like its sibling below, the Philips BT9000 Prestige is the classiest looking beard trimmer we've ever clapped eyes on. That's thanks to its steel body, steel blades and heavy duty rubber grip. Heck, even the battery life indicator is neatly integrated into the base of the trimmer.
Thankfully, the BT9000 Prestige isn't just a looker, because it offers an equally classy shave. There's a robust steel dial that quickly adjusts the blade length from 0.4mm to 5mm, or throw on a plastic guard and cover the 5.4mm to 10mm lengths.
Designed primarily with neater beard-scaping in mind, it neatly whips away whiskers without any snags or pulls. That steel cutting head is brilliantly contoured, thanks to “anti-friction skin follower” technology, and managed to get into those awkward or hard-to-reach areas where many rivals fall down .
Battery life is excellent and the 'power sensor adaptor' automatically adjusts the speed of the motor depending on how hard it works, allowing it to plough through longer sections without getting bogged down like cheaper trimmers out there.
Although we wouldn't recommend submerging it in a bubbly bath, it is supposedly 100 per cent waterproof and performed perfectly well when tested in the shower. The easy flip-back shaving head also makes rinsing out any fine hairs really easy, as there's no fiddling around trying to clip a cheap plastic head back on.
Yes, it's pricey for a beard trimmer, but if feels premium and like it's built to last. Keep on top of blade maintenance (oiling them after cleaning) and this is one trimmer you won't be throwing in the bin after a few months of heavy use.
The Philips OneBlade is an odd-looking thing, with what appears to be a large Mach 3-style blade instead of the familiar cutting comb (although with the Pro models you get a cutting comb too).
The main selling point here is the absence of razor burn: if you’ve found other trimmers leave your face a fiery red, you will find the OneBlade considerably more gentle. You'll want to stand near the sink, use it in the shower, or keep a cordless vac nearby, mind: the way the head vibrates sends cut stubble all over the place.
The dual-sided blade is designed to cut more precisely than a comb and we find they last about 6 weeks to 3 months before needing to be replaced. That's somewhat less than Philips' claim of 4 months, but the replacement heads aren't especially pricey or hard to find.
The battery runs for 90 minutes on a one-hour charge and it can handle beards up to 10mm via its adjustable comb head. I'd say it is suited to shorter trims on the whole – it's most ideal for those who favour neither beards nor a smooth visage: it does perma-stubble brilliantly.
There are a number of versions of the OneBlade available at Amazon and elsewhere, and particularly if you suffer from facial irritation, they are all excellent.
The hardware of the non-'Pro' versions does have more of a tendency to wear out, however. That's because rather than having an integral, adjustable comb for different lengths, they use interchangeable combs.
There are slightly cheaper beard trimmers out there but the Braun Beard Trimmer 7 feels like good value for money, earning its place pretty high up on this list. It is small, light and easy to use, while the tough blades shave cleanly and feel like they are built to last.
Granted, the quality of the main body isn’t massively impressive and some of the included shaving attachments feel like gimmicks, but stick with the main blades and the two plastic guards and you can achieve some great results, both on the face and, if you know what you are doing, on top the head too.
Battery life is solid and the unit is waterproof enough for easy rinsing to clean, just beware that you’ll need a two-pin adaptor if you don’t have shaving sockets in your bathroom and actually want to charge the thing.
We were a bit sceptical of this Panasonic trimmer at first, as it's unlike any trimmer we've used before, but after getting used to it (that does take some time) it's quickly become one of our favourite grooming tools.
Why is it so difficult to get used to? As you can see from the image, you don't hold it like a traditional trimmer, as the cutting blades are in-line, rather than perpendicular, to the handle. This results in a lot more visibility while trimming, making it easier to create clean edges to your stubble. This is also aided by the long and sharp cutting blades.
If you're after more precision, the Panasonic comes with a detail attachment, which essentially covers 2/3s of the blade, and makes getting to those hard to reach places easier. As well as the detail attachment, you'll also get an adjustable comb with 20 cutting lengths from 0.5 - 10 mm. This makes getting your stubble the perfect length a breeze.
Unlike the Philips above, however, you do need to oil and replace the blades. Panasonic suggests oiling after every use, which is a bit of a hassle. It also has quite a plasticky quality but then, to be fair, these things all do.
We’re big fans of Braun shavers, clippers and trimmers: they’re rock solid, last forever and do the job without any fuss, and they tend to be pretty cheap too. If you’re looking for a good all-rounder to keep your beard looking its best, the BT3040 is well worth a look: with two combs and precision length settings you get 39 different lengths to play with, from five o’clock shadow to a luxuriantly long 21mm.
That means it can double as a hair clipper too, and Braun also bundles a Gillette Fusion ProGlide for precision edging. It’s not the fastest to charge - it takes about eight hours to charge from flat, and needs charging again after an hour - but it’s an excellent all-rounder.
The Remington B5 borrows the rotary dial set-up of rivals, which makes adjusting the length of the built-in comb really easy. It also boasts one of the best spread of lengths we've seen in a single comb mechanism, covering 0.4 to 18mm.
When set to its shortest setting, the Remington B5 does a good job of slicing whiskers down to a fairly even trendy perma-stubble, but the large comb does make it difficult to reach tricky spots, like those on neck or just underneath the jaw.
But for £30, it feels like a good buy, although it doesn't come with the nose/ear trimmer attachments like rivals we've listed here. Bottom line: it's good for really thick beards but lacks the finesse for shorter or more lavish facial hair designs.
I have had one of these for 5 years and used it – usually in the shower – multiple times per week. And yes, admittedly the battery did eventually die (it now only works when the power cable is plugged in, although that in itself is a feature that some trimmers lack), but I can't really fault it for the price.
The headline feature here is an actual laser, which projects onto your face so you can cut extra straight lines in your beard. Needless to say, this is utterly useless, so let's ignore that and press on to the non-headline features.
For shorter beards (up to 7mm), there's nothing to beat the 9000 Series. It goes through even wiry neck hair with ease, edges neatly, yet there's never any danger of being cut or suffering irritation.
That's despite the fact that you never ever need to oil it or replace the self-sharpening blades. Because it's 100% waterproof you can use it in the shower and it's very easy to clean.
Bottom line: because Philips wanted this to have a premium feel, they put a laser in it. But the good news for beardies is that they also made it as good as a beard trimmer could be. The only bum note is that if you have a beard longer than 7mm, you can't use this, unless you 3D print a longer comb attachment or something.
As much as we hate the fashion for adding an “i” prefix to make things sound modern, the iStubble is a smart shaver indeed: its trimmer guard is motorised, enabling you to set the length perfectly.
You can expect around 45 minutes use from 90 minutes of charging, and if you forget to charge it completely there’s enough power for a single shave after just five minutes - although a full charge does take 16 hours.
It’s not suitable for Santa or hipsters - the maximum cutting length is 5mm - but if you prefer your beard to be short then the iStubble is one of the best shavers to keep it that way.
I used to carpool for work, and one of my colleagues would always jump in the passenger seat and immediately fire up his electric shaver - something I wasn't happy about until I realised he was leaving his DNA everywhere and framed him for a series of murders. If only he’d bought the Philips, which has an integrated vacuum system to catch most of the facial fallout. It promises to catch 90% of your cuttings (albeit in lab conditions), so that should mean less cleaning up after each cut.
In my experience, you still need to clean up after, just as you do with any other beard trimmer. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that, as with its 'laser-guided' trimmer at #1, Philips has again come up with a trimmer whose 'bonus feature' is a pure gimmick to catch your attention.
On the other hand, also like the laser-trim-o-matic, this is an excellent beard tamer, so long as you aren't too fussed about its headline feature. The lockable cutter has 20 settings from 0.5mm to 10mm and you’ll get around an hour of shaving from a single charge. Also as with the laser one, don’t pay the RRP as it’s frequently available for much less.
Wahl's excellent emergency charge system is just one reason to get excited about this trimmer, because it delivers enough power for a quick trim in just one minute - perfect for when you inevitably run it flat and need a last minute shave before work. On top of that, it comes with a staggering 16 guide combs, which means you can go from a 0.2mm super close shave, all the way up to a proper barber shop hair-do tidy up if you really want to. There is also the obligatory nose hair trimmer, detailer head for fancy beards and a foil shaver for getting that "smooth as a baby's bottom" look to your cheeks and chin.
The Remington Durablade is another favourite grooming tool of ours. It's a hybrid trimmer and shaver, which has both positive and negative points.
The Durable is capable of a closer shave than many of the trimmers on this list, it's lightweight, and you never need to replace the blades.
But, while it does undaboutable offer a closer shave, it's not as good as a traditional electric shaver, and it's not as powerful as other trimmers on this list.
It's a classic jack of all trades, master of none.
That being said, it's an incredibly useful little tool to take away one holidays or when travelling for business, and great for quick touch up jobs, when time is off the essence.
Finding a decent place to charge a beard trimmer in a hotel, on the train or even in the car can be a nightmare, with those special bathroom safety plug sockets often missing from the most essential places.
This Remington number gets around that with a special USB charge cable, allowing you to theoretically plug it into a laptop to squeeze enough juice out of it for a quick shave.
A motorised comb cleverly sets the trimmers to up to 175 different length settings, with the ability to set these within 0.1mm, while SenseSpeed technology senses the level of facial hair and adapts the blade speed to ensure optimal, nick and snag-free trimming.
The precision dial on the single comb is arguably the Hatteker's party trick, as it allows for a rapid change in hair length without the faff of continuously changing heads.
Aside from that, it's all the usual suspects here: a good array of combs for trimming all sorts of body hair, steel moving and standing blades for a painless shave, a washable body and USB charging for those who travel a lot.
Plus, this doesn't come from one of the fancy big brand names that chuck every conceivable piece of tech at their shavers, so it boasts a very reasonable price tag, too.
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