Foil shaver Use if you want a particularly close shave. It uses oscillating blades that sit under a mesh cover. Is your product defective and the manual offers no solution? Go to a Repair Café for free repair services.

We also test the strength and cutting capabilities of each trimmer by cutting dense brush bristles (both soft and tough ones). We trim them to short, medium and long lengths, measuring a sample of the cut bristles to get a detailed picture of how accurate and precise each trimmer cuts.Detail or edge trimmer A smaller trimmer head to make finishing touches. You can use it to neaten up beard lines, trim sideburns, a goatee or your moustache.

Nose and ear hair trimmer A cylindrical attachment that can more easily fit in your nostrils and ears to trim this hair. Slowly insert the trimmer – you don't need to force the head into your nose. The grinding noise you hear will tell you the trimmer is removing hairs. There's nothing worse than needing to freshen up to find your trimmer is out of juice. We charge each trimmer, from empty, for five minutes and time how long it runs for.

Rating

All trimmers are noisy, but some are noticeably louder. We find higher-pitched trimmers more irritating to listen to while using them. Some are noisy enough that you cannot hear whether your hair is, or isn't, being cut. Being able to hear this is useful because you can tell if you’ve got all the hair. What's the difference between a hair clipper and a trimmer? We also use a Cambridge Simulation glove, which allows the wearer to empathise with those who have hand mobility issues such as arthritis, to assess each trimmer.