What to buy first

One: the machine, chosen on its guards

Buy the clipper whose guard set steps finely enough for what you want to do. Two clippers with identical motors are different machines if one gives you eighth-inch steps and the other half a millimeter on a wheel. The guard list is in the specification; the motor figure is on the box.

This is also where nearly all the money goes. The two hair clippers here that publish a price are $90 and $200, and everything else on this page comes to $43 together.

Two: the things that decide where the hair goes

A cape and a neck brush. Neither is glamorous and both decide whether a haircut is a haircut or an afternoon of cleaning.

Some clippers include them — the Remington HC5811 arrives with a cape, a neck brush, a comb and scissors in a case — and if yours does not, that is the second purchase. The capes and mats shelf starts at $5, and a $7 cape is the whole of what this step requires.

Three: the oil

A clipper that pulls hair often just needs oil. A $6 bottle holds 4 oz, lasts many months, and nothing else on this site postpones a purchase so cheaply. Wahl publishes the dose on the label — two drops left, two right, one in the middle, every few haircuts — which is more than most of the shelf does.

If this step is skipped, the first page you will want is why your clipper pulls.

Four, and only then: a comb with a handle

Once the one-length cut works, a cutting comb is what lets you blend between two guard lengths — clipper over comb — and it matters because guard numbers step an eighth of an inch at a time, so there is nothing finer to buy instead.

The Hercules Sägemann 7643M at $30 is 8.5 inches with a handle, wavy teeth and a scale printed along the spine, which is how the second side of a head is matched to the first.

Prices quoted in this text were read on 2026-10-12. The live price is at the top of the page.