Less than the published figures suggest for a shave or a trim, which take minutes — so the charge time and the quick-charge figure matter more than the total. A haircut is the exception.
Runtimes across this site run from 40 minutes to 180 — the floor is the Grundig curler, the ceiling the Braun BT9545. At three minutes a use, even the shortest is several weeks.
What actually causes trouble is the morning the tool is flat. That is what a quick charge answers: five minutes for one shave on Braun and Philips, three minutes on Panasonic.
The second answer is corded operation, and it is the one that matters for a haircut rather than a shave. A full head takes twenty to thirty minutes, so a 50-minute clipper is one haircut and a flat battery halfway through is the end of it — which is why three of the four clippers here state corded or battery operation, and why running on the mains is the clipper question rather than the shaver one.
The figure to be wary of is a long runtime with no published charge time, and the clearest case is Braun: it states 45, 50, 80, 100, 120 and 180 minutes across its range here and does not publish a full charge time anywhere. Against that, the Remington MB5000 publishes both — sixty minutes of use on a two-hour charge — which is what a complete pair of figures looks like.
Check your own manual before you follow anything here. Temperatures, water ratings and supply voltages differ from model to model, and the maker’s own figures take precedence over anything written on this site. A supply of the wrong voltage is a failure rather than a slow charge, and the figure is printed on the tool — not inferred from a connector that happens to fit.
Last reviewed August 22, 2026