6 Best Beard Trimmers (2026): Full Beards, Hair, Stubble

A beard grows a couple of millimeter each two or three days—an eighth of an inch every week, on common. So testing beard trimmers can take a very long time.

Typically, we check every beard trimmer as soon as a beard has grown out sufficient for trim—utilizing at the least two reducing lengths. Weight and steadiness issues, and so does the blade’s capacity to get to the awkward areas across the neck. We test the trimmer’s capacity to perform as a shaver, whether or not for balding or on the neck.

Our testers test how well-made and simple to make use of any attachments are, and we confirm producer claims about battery life and energy. We additionally test in with skilled haircutters, particularly to confirm claims of sturdiness and reliability amongst manufacturers and fashions.

Tester Matthew Korfhage has coarse and offended hairs, with a seeming thoughts of their very own. Tester Andrew Williams has a comparatively full beard, with straight-growing stubble. We have tried to replicate any doable points—fighting thick bristles, as an illustration—in our evaluations, so that you might be positive of the absolute best trim with the least quantity of effort. And we’d additionally run a blade right into a horsehair broom, to check a motor’s energy and its probability of bogging down when confronted with a thick, full beard.

To pick beard trimmers value testing on the newest rounds of testing, I consulted a variety of barbers in Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon, in addition to suggestions from workers at hair provide shops. I consulted a variety of guides by different reviewers, together with trade publications for barbers in addition to different specialised websites dedicated to beards and trimmers. And fairly merely, some names have earned their good popularity. A brand new mannequin from Wahl, Philips Norelco, Panasonic, or Andis will nearly all the time benefit testing.

Some beard trimmers have been despatched by producers as evaluation fashions; others I purchased and expensed. Our reviewers hold top-pick beard trimmer fashions for sturdiness and comparability testing, usually over the course of years, and re-test battery life and efficiency over that point.

Here is some assistance on selecting the best options in your facial fuzz.

• Ceramic versus metal blades: Ceramic blades can maintain their sharpness higher than metal, however the smaller tooth of premium beard trimmer blades are usually fabricated from stainless-steel.
• Barrel management: Some beard trimmers have on-device twist controls. For a neater life, choose one with minimal attachments. However there generally is a trade-off in accuracy and added unwieldiness. Such dials additionally add a failure level to the trimmer guard.
• Ni-MH versus Li-ion: Keep away from trimmers with excessively lengthy cost occasions and people who use previous nickel-metal-hydride batteries. They do not maintain their cost so long as lithium-ion.
• Waterproof? Beard trimming within the bathe isn’t as exact a course of as moist shaving, however a waterproof design does allow you to wash your trimmer beneath the tap with confidence.
• USB charging: It took far too lengthy, however USB charging cables for beard trimmers have now turn out to be pretty commonplace, usually along with proprietary charging ports. A significant bonus for journey.
• Small versus bigger tooth: Bigger blade tooth can reduce thick, dense hair, however smaller tooth enable for a more in-depth, extra exact reduce. The latter is exemplified by the Philips OneBlade household.
• Broad versus slim blade: Hair trimmers have wider blade surfaces than beard trimmers. The narrower model of beard trimmer offers higher management, with minimal time loss for these with shorter facial hair.
• Do blades have to be changed? Use blade oil (usually included) to keep away from rusting, and blades ought to final for years. Trimmer-shaver hybrid Philips OneBlade will want extra common replacements, although.
• Vacuum? Some beard trimmers have a vacuum function, to keep away from getting hair trimmings all over the place. It is usually a gimmick, nevertheless it’s a gimmick with a purpose: Beard trimmings are the worst. We’ll be including protection of beard hair vacuums in future protection.

OK, you have seen it. You’ve got lived it. Each beard trimmer’s charger is a few completely different form, incompatible with all different chargers. Talking as a reviewer of trimmers, it’s maddening—requiring me to maintain straight and separate an countless number of chargers when testing trimmers in opposition to one another. Lose a charger, and you have to safe a alternative (or declare it inconvenient to take action, and substitute the trimmer.) Company conspiracy! Grift!

Properly, sure and no. Proprietary charging cables are in fact one of many basic ways in which producers have used to extend earnings and decrease comfort, whether or not by promoting a number of cords to the identical particular person or by rising the probability clients will purchase a brand new gadget. This was the impetus behind a much-ballyhooed European regulation that forced small electronics manufacturers (including Apple) to standardize charging cables and reduce waste.

However at the least within the case of beard trimmers, the producers truly do have good purpose to shrink back from USB-C. The USB-C format doesn’t like water very a lot, and small quantities of moisture could cause shorts. Whilst you can mitigate threat with silicone flaps and the like, USB-C ports are nonetheless not perfect for stuff you take into the bathe; therefore the profusion of two-pin beard trimmer connectors whose ports are rigorously insulated from one another.

Might these waterproof connectors even be standardized via European parliamentary motion, as laptop computer and iPhone chargers have been? Certain! Maybe! However this hasn’t occurred. So in the interim, get used to a bunch of humorous wire shapes till and until wi-fi charging turns into commonplace. For now, USB-C charging is extra usually a trademark of finances trimmers with a brief guarantee.