Nose Hair / Ear Hair Trimmer Reviews

This is not something that we like to talk about, but as a man you find hair growing in all sorts of places other than your scalp or face. The nose and ears are common culprits and if left unchecked you’ll have little tufts of unattractive hair sprouting from your nostrils as you start coasting over age 30.

Both foil and rotary shavers are excellent at trimming the actual mustache area, but if you (like me) have ever tried shoving an electric razor up your nostrils in an effort to get at those hairs you’ll know it’s a futile effort and not very effective.

Of course you could try both plucking and nose hair scissors, but the first option is literally an eye watering experience and the second one is simply too scary from my point of view.

So here we have the most elegant solution. An electric nose-hair trimmer. These little marvels will get tight in there without any risk and quickly take care of any hairs that are too long. Unlike other facial trimmers, the idea here is not to shave the hairs off completely, but simply control their length. Believe it or not, the hairs inside your nose have an important filtering function, so getting rid of them entirely is not the best idea. Instead we just want to keep them out of sight and from becoming a sneeze-inducing irritation.

Here we have ten of the most popular nose and ear hair trimmers on the online marketplace today. They range in price and quality, but for one reason or another each of these sells in large numbers. I’ve given each one a close look and, based on customer feedback and the listed features, I’ve chosen the ones I think are the best and put them at the top. The rest are not in any particular order.

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BEST OVERALL:
Panasonic ER430K Ear & Nose Trimmer

There are few brands that have the sort of clout that Panasonic does, but in recent years it has lost some of the premier association that it used to have. Still it’s hardly a bottom-end company even now that the new kids on the block have started to take over the market.

This ear and nose trimmer certainly looks like a quality piece of equipment and I would be more than happy to have it in view of anyone who would care to look at it. Black and brushed silver is a combination that will never go out of fashion, if you ask me, and Panasonic has pulled it off well here.

This is a battery-operated unit and like most products of this type the battery is not included. It uses a single AA battery and it is your choice whether you want to use a disposable or a rechargeable.

This trimmer not only handles nose and ear hair, but the duel-edged blades can be used to detail facial hair such as the beard and eyebrows. The blades themselves are curved and made from a hypoallergenic stainless-steel. While having a hypoallergenic facial shaver is nice, when shaving inside the nose it’s a great comfort, since that’s one of the last places you want to deal with a rash or other adverse reaction.

Some of the interesting features on this trimmer include a micro-vacuum to suck up the tiny shaved particles. Once again, this is something I don’t really care for on facial shavers, but inside the nose or ears small bits of shaved-off hair can be a terror of coughing, tickling, and sneezing. So I applaud adding this feature.

This is a completely waterproof and washable design, which makes maintenance and use that much more convenient, even in the shower. For all of this the price is just right, verging on the cheap side. I think Panasonic has put together a really nice package here. How does it do in practice, however?

First of all, the good news is that the vacuum feature works. Lots of people are praising it for doing away with the problem of sneezing while using a nose hair trimmer. Honestly, this is a genius move by the company and I want to see this become a more standard feature on this type of trimmer. It’s also worth noting that this trimmer avoids the other dreaded problem with nose trimmers – yanking. Almost everyone agrees that the blades do not yank out hair from the nose, which is really important. Nothing would make me put down the trimmer permanently faster than nose hair yanking.

Of course, there will always be problems. While most people have no problems, build-quality and durability issues seem to crop up from time to time. Luckily, return policies are good these days, so there’s not much risk in trying it out. The price is fair (even on the cheap side), the majority of customer reviews is positive, it’s waterproof, versatile in use, and it even comes with its own vacuum. What more do you want in a nose trimmer?

SECOND BEST:
Creation Springs Electra-Trim
Nose and Ear Hair Trimmer

This is one of the few nose hair trimmers I’ve seen that aren’t complete bargain-basement models, although it sometimes comes on sale to put in in that same bracket. Anyway, for the modest increase in total price you certainly get a lot of nice features.

This is another trimmer that uses the very versatile rotary cutting head with the weird claw-crennelation-looking shield over the blades. It may look like something from Dr. Who, but it’s probably the best overall design unless you are going to buy something with swappable cutting heads.

Almost every trimmer like this has some sort of party trick. In this case, just like our overall best pick above, it’s a vacuum system built right into the trimmer. This is a feature that rarely works right in full-size electric razors, but in the nose trimmer I’ve seen it in before, it was a genuinely useful feature and prevented a lot of unpleasant sneezing issues.

I really like the fact that this trimmer is ruggedized with rubber and has an impact resistant plastic case. I’m not sure that I will be doing any nose hair trimming in a hazardous environment, but it’s good to know that there is a bit of pointless manliness at work here. OK, in all seriousness, we drop stuff in the bathroom all the time. So I do get the value proposition here.

The blades are the expected stainless steel ones, but Creation Springs boldly proclaims that their motor is the strongest and most reliable you can get in a nose hair trimmer. How they would prove this is beyond me, but I’ll give them a point for enthusiasm.

This is also the first one I’ve seen that includes a disposable battery. I guess we’re in the big leagues now. The trimmer is waterproof, washable, and, incredibly, the company says that you’ll get “months” of use from a single AA battery.

The verdict is overwhelmingly positive from customers who have bought this little guy. It’s certainly a step above the ten dollar trimmers and more or less keeps the promises it makes. There are a small number of complaints about build-quality, but nothing serious. I’m very impressed with the price, features, and performance of this little-known brand and have to give it my second best pick.

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Buy on Amazon

TOP BUDGET PICK:
Philips Norelco Nosetrimmer Series 3300

If you thought the series 5100 trimmer from Philips Norelco was cheap, wait till you see the 3300. This little guy knocks almost half off the asking price. It’s overall design is very similar to the 5100, but you notice some immediate differences. The little accent around the cutting head is orange and there is no metal finish on the lower half. It also comes with much less in terms of accessories. Specifically, you just get two eyebrow combs.

It also has quite a few features that we saw with the bigger, more expensive brother. It’s also rinsable under the tap and also has the ProtecTube technology so you don’t cut the inside of your nose or yank out the hairs. Which is a very, very good thing.

The blades are chromium steel. Philips says there is no reason at all to oil the blades and provides a 2-year warranty on the trimmer, which gives lots of peace of mind.

Apart from the usual number of people who get duds in the mail, it seems that most customers describe this trimmer at least as “good enough” and for many it’s a product that gives perfect balance of price versus quality.

Personally I think that the 5100, even if it gives a bit more, is actually a lower value proposition. The 3300 gives you just enough to get the job done at a price that does not feel like exploitation. That is why it gets my nod as the top budget pick.

Modern Man® Nose Trimmer

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Modern Man nose trimmer. Clearly Neanderthals and any more primitive hominids need not apply. This is a trimmer meant only for homo sapiens sapiens.

Jokes aside, this is another low-cost trimmer that’s vying for your small change, so let’s see if it is offering anything different for the “modern man”.

First off, let’s talk about the styling. This trimmer definitely stands out from the crowd, but perhaps not for the best reasons. The first thing I think when looking at this is not “modern grooming device” but something more like “smoothie stick”. It definitely looks like it should be in a modern kitchen rather than a bathroom. I may be out of line here, but those are the vibes I get from the design. I’m also not a fan of the transparent cap. If a trimmer comes with a cap I prefer it to be the same color as the rest of the device – it just looks more seamless.

The blades are stainless steel, which I think at this point can be considered a standard consideration. It’s also wet and dry, which is also basically standard when it comes to nose hair trimmers. This means that you can take it in the shower and trim your nose hair like some sort of showering weirdo.

This is an example of a rotary cutting head rather than the more common reciprocal head, and Modern Man says this means it will never cut you, pull your nose hair, or otherwise cause pain or discomfort. This also makes it usable on the eyebrows and other parts of your facial hair that need detailing without the need for any sort of comb attachment.

One really neat feature is the inclusion of an LED light to help you see the spot that you are trying to shave. This is such an obvious feature that I am actually blown away by the fact that no one else seems to be doing it at the moment. LEDs are small, bright, and cheap so it seems obvious in retrospect. Still, it remains to be seen if it’s actually a useful feature or not.

While most people who bothered to say anything about the experience of using this trimmer felt it was OK, there are some serious criticisms. Parts such as the battery door would break, which I think makes the waterproofing claim a little problematic. There are also complaints that the motor is to weak to actually cut hair properly. Overall though, I think this nose trimmer has some great features and is worth a look.

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Buy on Amazon

Philips NT5175/49 Norelco Nose Trimmer 5100

Philips Norelco is a titan in the electric shaving world. They have so many models of shaver and trimmer out at every available price point it is impossible to avoid the company. So it is no surprise that the company doesn’t just have one or two nose and ear trimmers on the market, but several series of them. Seriously, do the designers at Philips Norelco never sleep?

The first thing I noticed about the 5100 model is how low the asking price is. At about twenty bucks this seems like a giveaway, quite frankly. It looks fairly modern too, if you can handle the slight weirdness of the design with the bit that goes in your nose all brightly colored like that.

The other surprising thing about this trimmer is the number of accessories you get with it. Philips says that it can be used to trim your nose, ears, eyebrows, neck, stubble, and beard hair. It almost sounds like you don’t need to bother with an electric razor at all. The box includes two eyebrow combs, a beard comb, a soft pouch, a cleaning brush, one AA battery and a regular brush. This is all made possible thanks to the fact that this trimmer cuts from the side rather than from the end of the tube.

The 5100 boasts what the company refers to as “Dual Cut” technology, which basically just means that the blades were sharpened twice, to make sure that the blade edges are uniform and precise.

The blade tips are also rounded, which should help to avoid the horror of a nick or cut inside your nose, which I can also confidently say is no fun at all. There’s a group of features Philips refers to as “ProtecTube” which apparently all work together to stop nicks and cuts from happening.

While the 5100 is not waterproof, it is water resistant, which means you can rinse it under a tap. Just don’t drop it in the bath.

So what’s the verdict from those who now presumably have very short nose hairs? It’s seems to be good in general. Philips has maintained their reputation with this trimmer. It’s effective, versatile, and cost-effective.

There are a a couple of weird problems some people mention though. A significant minority of people say that it just doesn’t trim hair at all. I find it hard to believe that the majority of customers are simply fooling themselves into believing their hair is being trimmed when it isn’t, so I have no idea why these people are struggling. The other worrying thing has to do with build quality. Quite a few customers are saying that the product gives up the ghost within a month or two. Trimming your nose hair is, however, not a daily thing, so I wonder how heavily they were using the product.

Either way, this is a really cheap trimmer and you can return it within the warranty period if it does keel over, so if you budget stretches no further than the asking price I see no reason not to buy it.

Panasonic Ear and Nose Trimmer Review

Hey look, another trimmer from Panasonic. This one is not as pretty as some of the others that I’ve been looking at. It looks a lot like an electric screwdriver with that stubby shaving head. I almost feel like it looks too short to reach into the nose or ear far enough, but that’s probably an illusion.

This trimmer comes with a dual-edged blade which Panasonic says is precision-machined for a better cutting action. The blades are curved and hypoallergenic, so hopefully you won’t get a rash or something on the inside of your nose, which is a horrifying idea; I really can’t say that enough. If you want to use fear and horror as a sales method this is the way to do it folks. Until you tell me the nose trimmer is hypoallergenic I had no reason to even think about why I would want that.

The cutting head of this trimmer is rather interesting. The combs around the cutting head almost look like the crennelation you get on a castle. I think it looks a bit futuristic actually, but there’s a very simple practical reason behind the design. As you push the cutting head into your ear or nose it guides hair from the front and sides directly into the blades. It’s very clever and sounds like it should work better in practice than the side-mounted cutting heads. However, if that holds true in real life remains to be seen.

Another clever feature is the cap that protects the cutting head when the device is not in use. Panasonic has made it so it also clips onto the end when you are using the trimmer, extending the grip and making it more comfortable to hold for those of use with bear paws for hands.

Panasonic is touting this trimmer as a solution not just for the nose or ears, but also for your eyebrows and other facial hair. There doesn’t seem to be any specialized combs or anything included towards that end, so I suppose the idea is to use this cutting head design as a universal solution.

It’s also completely washable and waterproof, which I think is an essential convenience in a nose trimmer. You don’t want to spend time brushing it, that’s for sure.

In general the Panasonic and its novel design impresses those who use it and not many people have serious complaints about the machine. Those who weren’t very happy with it feel that the build-quality feels cheap and that it broke too easily.

To be fair, though, when you spend ten dollars on a nose hair trimmer you have to manage your expectations.

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Buy on Amazon

Wahl Ear, Nose and Brow Trimmer

Wahl is undoubtedly a top-tier brand, but they don’t just make expensive stuff. They make products almost right from the bottom of the price range to the top-end professional gear.

While there are some Wahl products that I do not like the looks of, in general the company makes inoffensive products and some of them look downright attractive. This trimmer is closer to the attractive end of the spectrum in my opinion. Simple, brushed silver coloring makes for a perfectly fine design that will look clean in any toiletry bag.

At 9.3 inches long I’m a little skeptical of the claim that this is “compact”, but I guess it is not huge either.

This is a wet and dry model, so no worries about keeping it clean. The blades are referred to as being made from “hygienic steel”. I’m not sure if that’s actually stainless steel or not, but I have to assume so.

You also get an eyebrow comb, so that you can use this to keep those bushy eye-caterpillars at bay.

The main party trick of this trimmer is the fact that you get three heads that can be swapped out. One is a rotary trimmer head, the second is a detail trimmer, and the third is a reciprocating head. Between these different head attachments you’ll surely be have almost all your facial hair detailing needs covered.

So what’s it like in practice? The news is good in general. Mostly people are happy with the value proposition of having three different heads to use and the overall build-quality of the trimmer. There are reports of people using this trimmer for more than five years before the blades start dulling. The motor is also praised for its power and how easily it cuts hair.

I wonder, however, if the build-quality of this trimmer has not gone down over time. More recent reviews seem to be more critical of the build quality, with complaints that the trimmer breaks far too easily. It seems that the days of using this one for years is over and so I can’t recommend it.

Conair Nose and Ear Hair Trimmer

Over the course of looking at literally hundreds of grooming products in lots of different categories, I’ve come to have a good deal of respect for Conair. Despite being some of the cheapest grooming products on the market, they are generally not bad. Not great or exceptional, just good enough to do the job and not suck.

Here we have a nose hair trimmer from Conair that literally costs less than the price to ship it. Seriously, Conair is almost at the point where they are paying us to use their products.

Let’s get one thing out of the way. Conair spent exactly zero money on the design of this product. I’m 99% sure that this is actually made from old electric toothbrush parts. If it isn’t, it means someone was paid money to design something that looks like it was made from old electric toothbrush parts.

Also, at this price it could look like literally anything as long as it trimmed my nose hair without causing physical pain.

Conair says this can be rinsed under water, so that’s one important check against the list of things a proper trimmer should do. It uses a single AA battery, which is not included at this price point, but that’s not such an important issue. Batteries are cheap after all. Bundled batteries tend to be terrible, off-brand ones anyway.

The blades aren’t fancy or anything, but they are still made from stainless steel. Conair also provides a limited 2-year warranty, although, honestly, if this broke a year in I wouldn’t think claiming the warranty would even be worth the effort.

So the big question is if this ultra-cheap trimmer actually works or not. It turns out that eight times out of ten this is a perfectly good trimmer. The other two times it doesn’t cut your nose hair and breaks pretty quickly. If you’re OK with those odds and have only a few dollars to buy a nose hair trimmer, this is your guy.

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