Grooming tools for men are really an important investment which has to be made carefully, without any confusion. However, there is a surfeit of grooming tools which make it extremely hard to know which one is used for what and which one is better than the other.

These major problems are highlighted especially when it comes to some grooming tools for your daily hair care, like hairbrushes, hair oils, shampoos, gels and so on and so forth. One of the major problems which can be highlighted is the difficulty to establish a difference between clipper and trimmer.

These are the most important tools used for styling your hair and maintaining your hair length. If you go to a salon you might have found the clippers and trimmers which are sometimes used simultaneously. But have you ever struggled to identify the one from the other? Well, here is a complete guide explaining clipper trimmer difference along with its application and benefits.

What is a Clipper?

Clippers can mainly be explained as a kind of restitution for scissors when it comes to cutting your hair. They are used for a professional haircut, working perfectly well on long hair. A professional or even a normal hair clipper comes with multiple combs or guards determining different hair lengths.

For instance, if you want a number 2 haircut, that means the corresponding guard will be used which will help in cutting ¼ inch of your hair or whatever the length has been given to the guard. The shortest haircut is obtained when you use 0 guards, leaving only 1/16 inch of your hair on the scalp.  These guide combs or guards are identified through numbers and corresponding hair lengths remain the same in all the hair clippers. Moreover, guards are extremely necessary when it comes to cutting your hair. They also have certain variations which exhibit deeper or wider blades.

Using a clipper is extremely helpful as it reduces your need to use scissors. Haircuts, with the help of clippers, don’t even take 30 minutes. They can be finished within 20 minutes or so, which was certainly not the case while people used traditional methods such as scissors for cutting your hair. If you want to use a clipper efficiently, use it on damp hair which makes it easier to brush out all the hair that is clumped on your scalp. However, the clipper cannot be used for trimming or styling your moustache.

What is a Trimmer?

Hair trimmers are similar to hair clippers in the sense that they also have blades and motor. However, trimmers do not come with different combs with corresponding hair lengths. They are majorly used for trimming your short hair or maintaining your buzz cut style.  

Trimmers can be used for your beard, moustache and hair to maintain the shortness of your hair. They are extremely helpful in maintaining the sharp look and precision in whatever style that you want to create. Trimmers and its other variants can be used to trim the hair belonging to any part of the body.

Hair trimmers due to the thinness of blades are also used to maintain stubble and even provide you with cleanest of shaves. More often than not, trimmers contain a rotary dial which helps you in adjusting the cut. You can use a trimmer guard to get the desired cut for styling your hair.  

Clipper Vs Trimmer

What is the difference between clipper and trimmer apart from its main application? More importantly, which one is better? As mentioned earlier, clippers are used for haircuts for long hair whereas trimmers are used to maintain stubble and style short hair. However, most of the time it so happens that a clipper and a trimmer are used simultaneously when you want to get a haircut. However, trimmers can be used for the beard as well as moustache along with your scalp hair.   

Clippers and trimmers come in different variations, for example, both come as corded and cordless variants. Certain variations in the clipper models such as a pivot motor or rotary dial are also found in most trimmer models.

In comparison to the clippers, trimmers are used along with the blades which are tightly spaced and slightly narrower than the guards used with clippers. Therefore, all the blades that come along with trimmers are slightly narrower and tightly spaced. One of the most important advantages of trimmers is that they have hypoallergenic blades which are helpful even on sensitive skins. This reduces the chances of rashness or dryness of the skin. However, these trimmers are not made for thick hair whereas clippers are essentially used to pave their way through thick hair.

Difference between beard Trimmer and Clipper

Practically, there is no difference between a beard trimmer and a clipper except for its function and use which is very lucid through its appellation. However, there is but one primary difference between the two and that is, they both have different size and lengths of blades.

Beard trimmers, unlike hair trimmers, do not come with any adjustments and they are solely used for meticulously styling your short beard hair, with even thinner blades. If you want a clean and neat shave, you need to use a shaver after trimming your hair. Shaver is basically modern-era restitution for shaving gel, shaving foam and shaving cream, completely obliterating the process of shaving. Shavers give you the cleanest, quickest and easiest shave. 

However, some men do not like to use a shaver as they have sensitive skin, excessive ingrown hair or acne-prone skin. Therefore, they would keep a rather raw stubble look with the help of their trimmers. Any trimmer be it a hair trimmer or a beard trimmer is not designed for thick hair, as mentioned earlier. In such cases, clippers are always to the rescue. With the difference between clipper and trimmer being clear, it is difficult to reckon the importance of one to the other.

Ideally, both are important and necessary not only during a haircut but also while shaving.  Sometimes, clippers can also be used to shave thick beard hair and then, you can use a beard trimmer for a final finish.

Also Read: 5 Best Trimmers In India For Men