Wednesday, 14 December 2016

BaByliss For Men Super Hair Clipper Review

I had the BaByliss Super Clipper for several years and overall they had served me well. They are powerful, have great cutting ability, build quality and have a decent weight with low vibration so they also feel good in the hand. Cutting hair can be a tedious chore for other people in the family so having a good and easy to use clipper is helpful in encouraging them to give you a quick trim.

With that said, I do have one criticism regarding a  fault that happened within the first couple of months of ownership with regard to them cutting out. Being a typical bloke I had thrown the manual out and searching online for the reason didn't yield any initial results either. Therefore, I thought it was my own fault for not charging them for the correct amount of time. However, one pattern I did notice is that if you fully charged the clippers and then started cutting immediately, they would start cutting and then cut out after a few seconds. If you fully charged the clippers and then let them cut out 4 or 5 times first they would eventually run continuously. I had always used this clipper cordless so to completely eradicate a power issue, I left the clipper plugged into the mains and got the same result. The real problem is that you wouldn't know when it would run continuously so if you put them in your hair prematurely and they cut out you would end up ripping some strands of hair out of your head. Ouch  !! 

Although it sounds ludicrous to put up with this for a few years it  was relatively consistent and therefore predictable so we just worked around it. It was only when I was researching getting a new clipper that I saw other people online saying that this is a known fault with the clipper and it had happened to them. In some cases the clippers had stopped working completely after a few days.




So I think overall we were lucky. Another factor is I have afro hair which seem to cause clippers a lot of problems due to it's thickness/curlyness. Having previously tested a few clippers (Babyliss For Men Home Cutting Kit and  Babyliss for Men Pro Power Carbon Clipperbefore settling on the BaByliss For Men Lithium XTP Super Hair Clipper, I was aware that not only would some clippers not cut my hair but they are so badly made that if you turn them at the wrong angle they can actually cut your head and cause bleeding. I had that issue with two Wahl clippers I had ended up returning. This only happens if you are not using an attachment obviously. I have my hair on a grade zero 'close cut' so there is no plastic guard between my head and the moving metal blade of the clipper.)

One day when I was due to have my haircut so I went through the usual routine of charging fully and then stopping and starting the clipper. At a certain point the clippers gave up and refused to startup again. Thankfully I didn't have anything important to go to the next day so I could afford to spend the time looking around for a new set of clippers.

In the end I purchased the 'BaByliss For Men Lithium XTP Super Hair Clipper'. This is very similar to the Super clipper shown above in terms of weight, power and cost but does not have the issue of cutting out.

In summary the Babyliss Super Clipper is a fantastic set of clippers in terms of its cutting ability, build quality, weight and power however the cutting out issue definitely put me off buying another one especially when the Babyliss Lithium XTP is available.

Technical Specification

Brand: BaByliss For Men
Model Number: 7475U
Colour: Black with Chrome
Item Weight: 0.261g (Clipper) / 0.114g (Guides)
Product Dimensions: 193mm (H) x 50mm (L) x 3.8mm (D)
Cord Length: 2.5m
Guarantee: 5 year
Box Contains:
1 X Hair Clipper
10 X Comb Guides
1 X Cleaning Brush
1 X Oil
1 X Adaptor
1 X Instruction Booklet

If you have purchased the Babyliss Super Clipper and and have had a similar experience and would like to share your experience please add your comments below.