The Best Cordless Hair Clippers: Because Corded Clippers Will Drive You Crazy

Have you ever tried to give someone a haircut, only to get wrapped up and bound in that stupid clipper cord flopping around all over the place? It can drive you insane. Nobody has the time for that! Having the ability to clip hair, wild and free, is the only way to do things. And with that in mind, here are our recommendations for the best cordless hair clippers.

(OK, well, yes—technically, corded clippers do offer some benefits, and barbers and other salon professionals tend to use both corded and cordless clippers).

But for the purposes of this post—that’s it! No more cords! Here we’re cutting the cord (ha), and talking about our favorite cordless hair clippers.

Cordless Hair Clippers: Review Summaries

We’ll get into the details below, but here’s a quick review for those of you who are in a rush. We’ve split our reviews into two categories: cordless clippers for amateur / at-home use, and cordless clippers for barbers and pros.

The best cordless clippers for at-home use:

Best Cordless Clippers for Personal Use / Best for Kids: The Wahl Color Pro Cordless Rechargeable Hair Clipper—Easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to clean—a great starter set

Best Cordless Clippers for Haircuts *and* Beard Trimming: The Limural Hair Clippers for Men—Need to give a haircut to a person who also needs a beard trim? Here’s you go!

Best Cordless Clippers All-Around: The Wahl Clipper Lithium-Ion Cordless Haircutting Kit—Versatile enough to provide a range of looks from fades to line-ups to buzz cuts, but easy enough for amateurs and home barbers

Best Cordless Home Clipper for Zero-Gapping: The Andis 73000 Envy Li Cordless Clipper—Not all home clippers can be zero-gapped, but these can, and they’re great for aspiring barbers and semi-pros

The best cordless clippers for barbers and professionals:

Best Cordless Clippers for Barbers: The Wahl Professional 5-Star Cord/Cordless Magic Clip—Our “best cordless hair clippers for barbers” pick that can deliver any look you have the skill to execute

Best-of-the-Best “Deluxe” Model: The BaBylissPRO GOLDFX Clippers—A gorgeous, high-end clipper set for those that demand the best in life.

Alright! Now we’ll get into the specifics—what we liked about each model, how it might be a good fit, and which might be right for your needs.

The Best At-Home Cordless Hair Clippers

We’ll start with a model we like to recommend to families:

The Wahl Color Pro Cordless Rechargeable Hair Clipper

Summary: The Wahl Color Pro Cordless is incredibly versatile—with a number of color-coded guide combs, a long battery life, and quiet motor, it can be a great pick if you’re giving haircuts to kids and small children—but with its extensive guide combs, it can create a number of personalized looks, making it great for self-styled haircuts. This is one of our favorite hair clippers for home use.

Pros:

• Corded or cordless use
• 10 color-coded guide combs
• Removable and washable blades
• Stainless steel blades
• Worldwide voltage
• Extensive tools included in kit

Cons:

• No taper adjustment
• No hard-shell case
• Not-very-impressive battery life

Wahl is famous both for their professional and personal hair clippers, and the Wahl Color Pro Cordless Rechargeable Hair Clippers are one of our favorite Wahl models for home use. They’re incredibly versatile, and they can provide a wide range of cuts, for people of all ages. Here’s why we like them:

They can be great for kids. The kit features 10 guide combs—great for creating a range of looks—but they also feature left and right ear guards, and if you’ve ever cut your child’s hair, you know how valuable those can be! The real benefit of the guide combs is that they’re color-coded, and each guard has a particular color with that color’s length listed on the clipper itself (the longest guard is blue, the next-longest guard is green, etc etc.). This is TREMENDOUSLY helpful, because instead of searching through a bunch of black guards that all look the same, you can pinpoint the exact guard you need and use it, as you can see here:

They’re easy to clean and feature a removable and washable blade head. Simply pop off the shave head, clean it with the little brush that comes with the set, and rinse the blades underneath the faucet, and wallah, you should be good to go. This makes cleanup a lot easier, which is a major convenience when you have a bunch of kids to deal with at the same time.

The blades are stainless steel. That allows you to rinse them under water to clean them, but it also keeps them effective—stainless steel resists corrosion, and they stay sharper for longer periods of time, meaning that you may not need to replace them for a while.

The kit comes with some great gear. Along with the guide combs, the set features a charger, a cleaning brush and blade oil, the scissors, and two styling combs. It comes with a soft case, which is okaaaaaaaaaaay—we’d love it if the kit came with a hard case—but the case helps keep everything organized in one place.

The Wahl Color Pro isn’t perfect—the clippers don’t have a taper adjustment lever, and that’s a shame (but the high number of guards can still provide a wide range of haircuts and styles), and at 60 minutes of run-time, the battery life is a little disappointing (but that said, the battery itself is rechargeable, so you just need to plug it in for a while). But in our experience, the benefits far outweigh the negatives, and these are perhaps the most accessible hair clippers that Wahl makes—highly recommended.

By the way, if you’d like to read more about Wahl, you can check out all our Wahl hair clipper recommendations here.

The Limural Hair Clippers for Men

Summary: If you’re looking for a multi-tool that can cut hair *and* trim beards, Limural Hair Clippers for Men can be a great option—they’re great for fading and blending, and they can keep a beard looking neat and trim.

Pros:

• Can cut hair and trim beards
• Three taper positions
• Great for fades and line-ups
• Strong motor
• VERY long battery life of 300 minutes

Cons:

• Only six guard attachments
• Guards not color-coded

We’re big fans of any capable multi-use device, and that’s why we included The Limural Hair Clippers for Men: they’re very powerful hair clippers (and we’ll talk about that in a moment), but they double as beard and stubble trimmers, making them a double-threat tool.

As clippers, they’ve got a few great features: they’ve got a taper lever that can adjust to three different positions, which is wonderful to see, because usually clippers in this range only have two positions. So that’s great, and when coupled with the six guard attachments, that’s quite a range. It would be fantastic if the kit included eight or more guard attachments, but with the three taper positions, you’ll have the ability to clip at many different lengths.

The motor is another perk—it’s a little more powerful than you’ll see in similar clippers, and it hums away at 6,000 rpms. That’s very good, and it’s designed to cut through hair both thick and thin, which is also great, because a lot of clippers get gummed up when working through thick, dense hair. We’re not sure they’re powerful enough for the all-day usage that comes with barber or salon work, but for at-home / amateur haircuts, these can be a great option.

The real benefit of these clippers, however, is that they’re a capable multi-grooming tool: you can give yourself or someone else a haircut, and then quick-switch to beard trimming and cutting. Not all clippers are capable of that (in fact, we had a difficult finding a clipper/beard trimmer combo we liked!), and it’s great to find a pair that can work for multiple grooming needs.

One more thing: one surprising aspect of the Limural Hair Clippers is their charge—they’re capable of clipping away for up to 300 minutes. That is truly a stand-out feature, and surpasses a lot of the high-end, deluxe models we review. 300 minutes is a LONG time for clippers to run—so you hate charging clippers, or perhaps you travel a lot and don’t know when you’ll be able to plug them in—they can be a nice option.

The Wahl Clipper Lithium-Ion Cordless Haircutting Kit

Summary: If you’re looking for an at-home set of hair clippers that can perform at the level of a barber-shop set of hair clippers, these are the ones we’d recommend—with self-sharpening blades, they’re very strong, and they have a quick-charge feature that enables you to juice them up quickly.

Pros:

• 12 guide combs
• Hard-shell carrying case
• Taper adjustment lever
• Advanced battery with 2-hour life
• 15-minute quick charge
• Self-sharpening blades

Cons:

• Blades not removable
• No charging light

There are very few cordless clippers designed for at-home use that can operate like barber clippers do, but The Wahl Clipper Lithium-Ion Cordless Haircutting Kit comes very, very close. They’ve got a lot of features we’d hope to see on a pair of barber clippers, including 12 guards and a taper adjustment lever—which, when combined, can give you a wide range of cutting lengths and therefore cutting styles, allowing you to cut fades and blends and line-ups and buzz cuts and whatever else you have the skill to do. Lesser hair clippers can have a difficult time allowing you that versatility.

The clipper’s motor is also very close to what you’ll find in a pair of barber clippers, and they’re capable of chopping through thick, curly hair. The blades are self-sharpening, which means that they can last—at their original performance level—for quite a while, until the teeth break down. We don’t subtract points for the teeth breaking down, by the way—that’s something that happens on Wahl clippers, Andis clippers, and just about every other pair of clippers you’ll find.

The battery is also a step up from similar clippers. The Wahl Clipper Lithium-Ion Cordless Haircutting Kit features a lithium-ion battery that’s more technologically advanced than the older nickel batteries, so not only does it have a much longer two-hour runtime, but it can take a quick charge in just 15 minutes that will give you enough juice if you accidentally let the battery die.

The one thing we don’t like about this model is that the blades are unfortunately not removable. That’s not the worst thing in the world, and clean-up is still very simple, but it’s a nice feature that most at-home clippers have. It can also be nice to switch the blades for a T outliner, which you can’t do here.

These clippers are probably best for hair cutters who know their way around a pair of clippers. There are no color guards, and those make using clippers a lot easier for those who are new to the practice, and all the attachments might be a bit much for someone who is need to clippers. If you have some experience with them, and you’re looking for a “step up,” they can be a nice fit, and with the appropriate skill, you can really start getting creative—whether you’re cutting your own hair or your family’s hair.

The Andis 73000 Envy Li Cordless Clipper

Summary: The Andis 73000 Envy Li Cordless Clipper is a high-end home model with highly adjustable blades that can be zero-gapped and allow you to execute some difficult looks.

Pros:

• Blades can be zero gapped
• 11 guide combs
• Taper adjustment lever
• Rotary motor
• Thumb-controlled button
• Worldwide voltage

Cons:

• No carrying case

Along with Wahl, Andis is considered one of the top hair clipper brands, and their models have long been loved by professionals. With the Andis 73000 Envy Li Cordless Clipper, they’ve combined professional features in a more accessible package for personal at-home use.

For instance, you can easily zero gap the blades if you feel that you’re experienced enough to clip right up to the skin. However, the blades are adjustable with a built-in taper adjustment lever, so if you aren’t comfortable zero gapping, you can still fade and blend you or your family’s hair. That’s a great “best of both worlds” option that you don’t always find in a pair of at-home clippers.

On top of that, the kit comes with 11 guide combs that allow you to cut hair at different lengths and produce specific hairstyles. That’s actually pretty generous, because most at-home hair clippers usually come with six or eight combs. The kit doesn’t come with a carrying case, though, so make sure you store them in a place you won’t lose them. That’s actually our biggest gripe about this model—it’s our firm belief that all clippers should come with some type of carrying case. You should know better, Andis!

Andis makes up for their shocking lack of carrying case in other ways, though, and the model’s powerful motor is a big plus. As a rotary motor, it’s a manageable cross between speed and power. It produces 5,500 cutting strokes per minute, which is a lot easier to handle for amateurs cutting hair at home. At the same time, it can still handle thick hair with lower chances of snagging or yanking.

Andis makes some really great models, and this is a nice “mid-range” model that’s great for home use.

The Best Cordless Clippers for Barbers and Professionals

Here are the cordless hair clippers we recommend for professionals. You don’t have to be a professional to use them—you can absolutely buy these and use them at home, and many people do—but these are “higher-grade” clippers that can perform well in a professional setting.

The Wahl Professional 5-Star Cord/Cordless Magic Clip

Summary: With a number of advanced features that allow for blending, fading, and texturing, the Wahl Professional 5-Star Magic Clip is a good choice for hair professionals who have clients with a wide range of haircut requests.

Pros:

• Durable construction
• Lightweight
• Stagger tooth blades
• “Crunch” technology
• 8 guide combs
• Corded and cordless use
• Maintenance accessories included

Cons:

• Moderate battery life
• No scissors or combs

There are two main reasons we recommend The Wahl Professional 5-Star Cord/Cordless Magic Clip for barbers and people at home who want barber-grade clippers:

“Crunch” technology. The Wahl Professional 5-Star Magic Clip has an advanced feature you’re unlikely to find on other clippers: stagger-tooth blades with “crunch” technology. The “crunch” feature lets you blend hair and create texture, and when combined with a taper adjustment lever that lets you slightly change the length of the blades, the looks and styles you can create are pretty vast. That’s fantastic, because it seems like modern clippers focus solely on fades and line-ups and forget about how important layering and texturing are. By the way—why did they name that capability “crunch”? We have no idea, and despite looking around for about a half-hour we couldn’t come up with an answer. We’re big fans, though.

They’re lightweight and sturdy. If you’re a professional barber—if you’re a home haircutter and prone to dropping things!—one of your primary concerns is getting a set of clippers that can handle hours of use and keep working if you accidentally drop them, bang them into things, etc. For that, the Wahl Magic Clip has a tough housing that doesn’t add too much weight to the clippers (in fact, they only weigh 10 ounces, which isn’t much at all). That’s a rare combo—both tough and lightweight, and it’s a great (and often overlooked) feature.

The only mildly disappointing feature of the Wahl Professional 5-Star Cord/Cordless Magic Clip is the battery. With a 100-minute run-time, it’s OK, but not very impressive. They work plugged in and cordless, though, so if you run out of juice you can just find an outlet and keep going. If Wahl ever updates the 5-Star, though, we hope this is an issue they’ll look at, because in all other respects, they’re fantastic hair clippers.

We absolutely recommend them for both barbershop and home use—they’re great for aspiring barbers, semi-pros, and pros, and with the right skills, should be able to deliver any look you can conceive. Highly recommended.

The BaBylissPRO GOLDFX Collection

Summary: A high-end, luxury model that wins the title “best of the best.”

Pros:

• Gorgeous
• Gorgeous
• Gorgeous

Cons:

• Maybe too gorgeous?

We usually like our “Pros and Cons” to be a little more informative than that, but… come on. These things are just gorgeous.

We’ve recommended BaByliss clippers before, and we always get email about it—and the email is always the same: “Are these things real, or are they hype?” And the answer—our answer, anyway—is yes, The BaBylissPRO GOLDFX Clippers are real, high-quality, high-performing clippers… and yes, there is also a fair amount of hype surrounding them. But they are high-quality, capable tools nonetheless.

Basically it’s like any super-popular product you see celebrities using: sometimes celebrities are using a particular product because the product is trendy—but sometimes they’re using a particular product because that product is really exceptional.

And given our experience with BaByliss, we think the product really is exceptional. The BaBylissPRO GOLDFX Collection features:

• An Italian-designed motor, that can cut through hair of all textures and thicknesses;
• A 5-detent taper, which is a fancy way of saying “a taper lever that you can adjust to five different positions,” which is pretty impressive, when most high-end clippers feature two or three positions at the very most;
• Titanium-coated blades, which resist corrosion and remain sharp, and are better even than stainless-steel blades, which is what most high-end clippers have;
• A lithium-ion battery that can run for up to two hours; and
• Have we mentioned this? An absolutely gorgeous look to them.

Of all those features, the most impressive are the motor (designed for precision cuts), the blades (designed to remain sharp for longer periods of time), and the taper (probably the best taper we’ve ever seen). The taper is our favorite feature, because having five different taper positions allows you to execute fades and blends to a far greater degree than a single or double or even triple taper can afford you. Yes, it will take you some time to go over five different taper lengths, but there’s really no substituting that type of accuracy.

And, best of all… it’s a corded/cordless model, which is why we’re discussing it 🙂

If you like high-end, luxury models, these are the clippers we’d recommend—they are, by far, the best cordless hair clippers out there. They’re not for everyone, clearly, but if you’re looking for “the best of the best,” these are the pair we’d suggest.

6 Features to Keep in Mind When Selecting Cordless Clippers

We realize that not everyone thinks about hair clippers as much as we do, so if you need a little help selecting a pair, here are the features you need to keep in mind:

Battery Life: This is Important on a Set of Cordless Clippers

If you’re getting cordless clippers, it’s most likely because you want to run them off the battery without plugging them in. Therefore, you definitely want a model with a good, technologically advanced battery. This means considering a couple of things.

First of all, check what type of battery the clipper model uses. These days the best type of battery is lithium-ion. Lithium-ion batteries have long run times and they hold their charge a lot better when they’re not being used. Plus, lithium-ion batteries maintain their capacity even if you don’t charge them all day, drain them all the way, or if you leave them plugged in.

This isn’t true for the older nickel batteries. With these, they’ll lose their battery capacity if you leave them plugged in after they reach full charge, which makes them bad for dual-use. Plus, they’re more susceptible to damage and can lose their capacity in other ways as well. They also don’t have run times as long as lithium-ion batteries.

Speaking of run times, this should be another thing you look at when considering cordless clippers and their batteries. This is especially true if you’re a hair care professional. A longer battery life means you can use the clippers on more clients without having to recharge them.

Even if you’re using the clippers on yourself or your family, though, a longer battery life is still more convenient. It means you don’t always have to plug the clippers in after using them and can store them away more easily.

Waterproofing: Keeps the Model AND the Blades in Working Order

Waterproofing is a great feature to look for on cordless clippers. Water and cutting hair go hand in hand, so it makes things a lot easier if you don’t have to worry about getting the clippers wet. Plus, it means the clippers are just more durable in general.

Specifically, look for an IP rating. This rating will be followed by two numbers. The first reflects the clippers’ resistance to dust, but the second reflects their resistance to water. The higher the number, the more resistant.

However, even if a set of clippers doesn’t have an IP rating, it can still have a certain level of water resistance. Specifically, check to see if the blades are waterproof. This means you can rinse them off without having to worry about corrosion. They’ll be both clean and sharp.

Included Attachment Guards and Guide Combs

Most cordless clipper kits come with included guide combs, but there are a couple things to keep in mind. First of all, look at how many are included. This determines how many different lengths you can cut at. With more lengths at smaller increments, you can create better looking haircuts because you can blend the lengths more seamlessly.

Additionally, pay attention to the quality. You want attachment guards that aren’t going to snap or break while you’re cutting someone’s hair. Similarly, you don’t want the attachment to break or come loose making them unstable on the blades.

We also have to mention color coding. This is a really helpful feature you occasionally find on cordless clipper models. It’s beneficial for a couple reasons.

First, color coding is nice for professionals because you can easily grab the guards without having to double check the lengths. This saves you time so you can fit in more clients.

It’s also great for families because it makes it easier to remember who likes what lengths. Plus, kids like getting their haircut a lot more when they get to choose the “color” they want their hair cut by.

Taper Adjustment Lever: What It Is and Why It Matters

A taper adjustment lever is a little switch on the side of the blades that lets you adjust how close the two blades are together. This determines how close you can get the blades to the skin for getting really close trims, and more specifically, fades and line-ups and etches.

Additionally, the difference created by the taper adjustment lever is minimal, usually just around a millimeter or so. The result is that you can use the lever to get detailed fades and blends.

Along with a taper adjustment lever, check to see if the clippers can be “zero gapped.” This means you can set the blades so that when you flip the taper adjustment lever, both blades meet at exactly the same point with “zero gap.” This causes them to cut exactly along the skin, important if you’re shaving your head bald, for instance.

You should only do this if you’re a professional or have extensive clipping experience because if you don’t do it right, the blade may cut or scrape the skin. However, if you do have the expertise to use a zero-gapped blade, it’s a great feature that allows you to create excellent fades.

Included Accessories: Knick-Knacks A-Plenty

Along with attachment guards, the best cordless hair trimmers come with a number of other accessories like scissors, combs, cleaning brushes, blade oil, and sometimes even a barber’s cape. Before choosing your clippers, consider the accessories you’ll need and check if the kit has them. These accessories can often be hard to find otherwise, so this will save you a lot of hassle.

If you’re just getting the cordless clippers to cut your own hair or your family’s, we actually recommend getting as many accessories as possible. For example, you’ll need some scissors and a barber’s cape.

If you’re a professional barber or hairdresser, on the other hand, you’re more likely to already have these items. Plus, even if you don’t, you’re more likely to know where to get them or have specific models in mind, so these accessories might not be as important.

Worldwide Voltage: What It Is and Why It Matters

Most people know that if they travel abroad, they’ll probably have to get an adapter to plug their devices into foreign outlets. What they don’t often realize is that they may also need to use a different voltage.

For example, while the US grid uses a voltage of about 120V, Europe uses 230V. This means that if you plug a set of clippers designed for the US grid into an outlet in Europe, it’s going to go shooting out of your hands and end up damaged.

The best cordless clippers, though, have worldwide voltage, which means they work with a wide range of voltages and can handle the grid in pretty much every country. This is a great feature to look for if you do a lot of traveling, specifically long business trips where you’ll need to use your clippers in various countries.

How to Maintain Cordless Clippers So They Last a While

Some cordless clippers are more durable than others. Still, you definitely have a say in how long they last. Maintain your clippers with the following tips, and they’re likely to last you much longer than otherwise:

Tip #1: Brush Off Hair Clippings

Many cordless clipper kits come with a cleaning brush. You should use this brush to remove the little bits of hair from the blades and around the head of the clippers. This keeps the blades moving smoothly.

Tip #2: Clean or Rinse the Blades

Unfortunately, you can’t do this with all clipper blades. However, many come with waterproof blades made of stainless steel that you can run under water. This helps remove any excess clippings that you couldn’t get with the brush as well as small bits of dust.

If the blades aren’t waterproof, you can sometimes find specific blade cleaning solutions made with alcohol that are safe for use. Make sure they’re rated for clippers first. If so, you use this solution to sanitize the blades so that they’re less likely to cause irritation if they scrape the skin.

We can stress this one enough—whatever haircut you’re trying to execute, whether it’s a buzz cut or a fade or even a fully-shaved haircut, you’ll need clean blades to do it properly.

Tip #3: Oil the Blades

Along with the cleaning brush, the best wireless hair clippers also come with blade oil. Using this to oil your clippers’ blades is the most important part of maintenance. Specifically, you should oil the blades before every use. This helps the blades move against each other smoothly and prevents corrosion.

To oil the blades, lightly apply a few drops of oil along the length of the blades and let it run in between the two blades. Once it seems to have gotten down in there, turn the clippers on. Let them run for about 30 seconds. This will distribute the oil evenly across both blades.

Tip #4: Replace or Sharpen the Blades When They Get Dull

Even with proper maintenance, all clipper blades inevitably get dull after enough use. As this happens, they won’t cut hair as well and can cause skin irritation because they yank on the hair.

When this starts to happen, you have two options: replacing the blades or sharpening them. In both cases, your best bet is contacting the manufacturer. They likely sell replacement blades or offer a sharpening service.

Tip #5: Store the Clippers in the Right Place

Many people often overlook this essential part of clipper maintenance. You need to keep your clippers in a safe place if you want them to last a long time and keep working haircut after haircut.

This is because if you just throw the clippers in any old place, they’re likely to get knocked around. Moreover, the blades may be exposed to water or other liquids that will corrode and dull them.

Professionals usually choose to hang their clippers off the wall. In fact, the best cordless clippers for barbers usually include a hanging loop on the bottom of the clipper housing. This is great because it not only keeps the clippers safe and away from water, but it keeps them out of the way so you can use valuable storage space for other things. At the same time, they’re right at arm’s reach whenever you need them.

If you can’t hang your clippers somewhere, use a storage case. Many cordless clipper models also come with one of these. Whether soft-shell or hard-shell, a carrying case helps protect the clippers if something falls on them or they get jostled around. Plus, it lets you keep all the accessories organized and close at hand and transport your clippers and accessories wherever you need them.

If you don’t have a carrying case either, make sure you store your clippers in a safe place. It should be a dry place where the clippers aren’t likely to get wet. Moreover, they shouldn’t be exposed to too much jostling.

For example, if you just stick the clippers in a drawer, they’re likely to knock against the sides anytime you open the drawer for something else. This can damage the motor or the blades. A much better option is a small box or container that doesn’t move.

The Last Word on Cordless Clippers

There you have it! Cut the cord and be on your way. We wish you all the best.
If you have any questions for us, or just to drop us a line and tell us how much you hate corded clippers, jump over to our “Contact” page and let us know how you feel.

Until then, be good, have fun, and happy cordless clipping!