Review: Wahl professional balding clipper

[Johnny J]

Oops, meant to put this in the reviews sub-forum. Mods, feel free to move it.

My 15 year old electric clippers have been dying a slow painful death, so I headed on down to the local beauty supply & decided to give the Wahl professional balding clipper a try.

The "pro" clippers, like this one, in the $55 range, seem far sturdier than the drugstore clippers in the $25 range. Maybe that's a non-issue, since even the cheap one lasted 15 years, but having your clippers die when your head is half-shaved is an inconvenience I can do without Call the extra $30 cheap insurance.

The balding clipper looks like any other clipper, except that the blades are much thinner, giving a lower cut, and the tooth pitch is finer. The photos on the box imply that this clipper will shave you as bald as a blade. It won't, but for a clipper, it DOES shave unbelievably close; about like a DE plus 2 days of growth. MUCH closer than my previous clippers.

If I am shaving a beard off, or if I've neglected to shave my head for more than 3 days, I like to make the first pass with clippers because I have a hard time getting the soap to penetrate through all the hair down to where the shaving is happening. This clipper does that job exceedingly well. It also works well for remofing excess body hair, and does not pinch or nick skin like my other clippers did, due mainly to the finer tooth pitch. I still would not use it to shave the most intimate of areas, however, though you can trim those areas by hovering over the skin. It also shaves my head close enough that I can opt not to bother wet-shaving my head if I'm pressed for time.

So overall, I like this clipper. Even though it doesn't quite do what it claims to, it gets damn close, much closer than any other clipper I've used. I give it one thumb up.