hair clipper recommendations ??

Greetings -

Increasingly, going to the barber is an exercise in much ado about less & less.
A quick run with a #2 (summer) or #3 (the other 3 seasons) and I'm done.

Don't see why I need to pay someone to do that, so I'm looking to get a good quality set of hair clippers so I can roll my own.

Recommendations of brands & and reputable sources welcome.

Thanks.

- Richard

I would love to help..I really do my best to help all I can...unfortunately I think I am of little use on this one!!!!

I would recommend and Oster Fastfeed. Its very well built and cuts very well. Andis also makes great machines.

looking at some of the posts below, I believe I made an error in the brands discussed. I will have to double check my clippers when I get home:

OK.. I made a mistake earlier... information below has been corrected...

I came to that conclusion years ago and just had my wife clip my hair. However, with her getting a job where she gets home late and other time constraints I started going back to a barber in the last two years. I might just switch to a #1 or 2 guard this summer and see how badly I actually mess it up by doing it myself.

If you are going to get a department store (Walmart, etc..) clippers I would chose Wahl over Conair or others.

I have a set of Wahl clippers that we have been using for 15 years. The blades were getting a bit dull after 8 years. So we purchased a Conair... terrible clippers. They got relegated to shaving the long haired hedgehog. After a few hair cuts on tribble, we gave up on the Conair entirely. Tried another brand and gave up on it. Took the old Wahl blades apart and cleaned them thoroughly with the proper oil and it was as good as new.

Hi Richard,

I too use my own clippers to cut my hair. I have a set of Philishave mains powered ones with a adjustable cut length attachment that just pushes on. I've had them now for at least 4 years and use them at least every 2 weeks. I have never had a problem with them at all, very well made in my opinion and not too expensive too. Good luck!

EDIT: These are similar to mine apart from mine are blue.

Hi Richard,

You might want to consider these two kits (1 - 2) as well. They are well built and work great. The whole collection can be found here.

Hmmm those Wahl clippers look familiar. Perhaps I made an error in my above post. I will have to wait until I get home from work to confirm which brand I actually use.

yup--- I made an error. Wahl is good Conair is bad.

I've been using the Wahl Clip'N Trim [http://consumer.wahl.com/product.cfm?sid=9&ID=58] for a year now-after my cheap Conair clippers bit the dust. They have worked well for me. I threw away all the attachments and "clip" once a week at the "0" setting.

While I do like these clippers, whatever you do pay for a set of clippers can be fairly inexpensive relative to the number of times they are used and in comaprison to the cost of going to a barbershop.

By my calculations, at a trim once a week, I pay for my clippers after a month.

Regards

I bought a cheap wahl set about 10 years ago, and it's still going strong. I paid 17 dollars for the clippers, guards number 1 2 3 4, a fading guard, and some cheap scissors and a comb. Just remember to take the blades apart and clean them out, and oil them every so often.

I used an inexpensive Racine clipper for about 35 years cutting hair for a friend of mine. He used a similar set to do mine. When my son was a kid, I also cut his hair with it and I still cut my wife's hair when she gets tired of trying to get a good haircut at the beauty shop.

When I first got the Racine over forty years ago, it was used and it seemed rather dull. I put some sharpening compound between the blades and ran it for about 30 seconds. I then took it apart and cleaned the compound out, put the head back together and it's worked fine for all these years. The sharpening compound is similar to valve grinding compound . . . works great.

As far as what I see on the market today in an affordable clipper, I think I'd go for the Wahl. A few years ago, my wife thought I needed a new clipper and she bought me this Wahl and it works just fine. (Frankly, so does the Racine.)

Regards,
Tom

No matter what brand of clipper you choose, keep three factors in mind:

Corded models always work better than battery-powered ones. The motors are more heavy-duty, and they don't slow down as the batteries drain.

Buy a model that has individual hair-guides. Those all-in-one adjustable guides are just plain flimsy and never work right. You can always buy individual replacement guides at any beauty supply house, like Sally's.

Always keep it cleaned and oiled.

That being said, I get good results from my Andis kit, but when I upgrade, it will almost certainly be to a Wahl.

P.S. Cutting your own hair can be tricky. I botched up my first few self-haircuts pretty badly. Go to a professional barber, tell them that you want to switch to cutting your own hair with clippers, and have them give you a clipper-cut. Pay attention to where they cut WTG and ATG. Then, when your hair grows out again, you can follow the shape that they cut in for you.

P.P.S. Do some research on YouTube and Google to find instructions on cutting your own hair. Again, its not as easy as you think, especially the first few times.

My wife has been cutting my hair for about 12 years now and she does a great job at it. How can you trim the neck area and around the ears by yourself?

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but how short in mm or " does a #2 guard leave your hair?

Scotty, the guards are numbered in eighths of an inch, so a No. 2 guard is 1/4 ".

Regards,
Tom

When I was a teenager I wore a buzzcut and used to cut my own hair with clippers. One thing I would strongly recommend is buying a pair of clippers that DO NOT have the lever fader adjustment on the blades. If the level isn't set just so thoughout your haircut, you'll wind up with a uneven cut. A lot of clippers sold in stores now have these levers and they are cheaply made. Also, I would get clippers that use standard guards that can be easily replaced should you lose them.

The easy solution: About $.40 a week on DE blades...Then you too can look like me!!!

OK...Maybe not the best selling point!

Regards,

i have a set of wahl clipper that i got about 15 years ago. I keep them clean. i oil them when they need it and i use them about every 2-3 weeks on my face (goatee) and hair. the clippers i got came with a tiny little brush made to clean out the clippers. I use the brush after every use.

Richard, i bought philips hair clipper qc5170 couple of weeks ago selling in uk amazon for £24.99 with free deliver, it has a 180 pivoting head which makes it ideal for cutting your own hair, cordless and mains, gives up to 60 mins use on one charger.
fed up with the barber asking me what i would like and then charging me £7.
ever two weeks or so i take into the shower and tidy up
comes with 10 length settings, can recommend strongly

I’d recommend the Karmin T70