The 9 Best Nose & Ear Trimmers

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This wiki has been updated 41 times since it was first published in June of 2015. If the extent of your grooming routine is regular haircuts and the occasional shave, you might not be putting your best foot forward. Unruly nose and ear hairs should also be maintained, making a dedicated trimmer an essential part of anyone's toiletries kit. These options are well made and easy to pack for travel, ensuring that you can look tidy at all times, whether at home or away. When users buy our independently chosen editorial recommendations, we may earn commissions to help fund the Wiki.

1. ConairMan Battery

2. Zorami Clipper

3. Nooa Blue

Editor's Notes

August 06, 2021:

Most of our current recommendations are just fine, and a lack of any major new releases means we haven't made significant changes to Wiki during this update. None of these are terribly expensive, but users with heavy hair growth will want to splurge at least a little for something reliable like the Norelco 5100. The ConairMan Battery is another good mid-range choice that nearly all users will be happy with, but if the forests aren't too thick, the Zorami Clipper should realistically be plenty.

February 25, 2020:

This update necessitated a pretty extensive overhaul, replacing six of our entries with more reliable and higher quality options.

For our new top pick, we added the ConairMan Battery. It includes a AA lithium battery, and its quality and durability, plus a dual trimmer/shaver attachment, really set this model apart from the competition.

To add some more variety in terms of charging options, we included two products with USB charging capabilities. One of these additions, the Nooa Blue, is especially versatile. It features an LED to light up your working area, is totally waterproof for easy cleaning, and has a nice sleek design that doesn’t scream “nose hair trimmer” as other models tend to do.

The advantage of USB charging really becomes apparent during travel. Instead of carrying a bulky adaptor for a wall outlet, USB cords are smaller and easier to store and organize. The majority of hotel rooms have USB ports, and even if they don’t, a laptop or power bank will do the trick as well. They also tend to eliminate the need for disposable batteries, making them both convenient and better for the environment.

4. Norelco 5100

5. Panasonic ER115

6. Panasonic ER430K

7. ToiletTree Professional

8. Cleanfly Professional

9. Groom Mate Platinum XL

Just What Is That Thing Doing In My Nose?

It's as though the regular debris that falls through the pan are your nose hairs, and the gold is your sensitive nasal membrane.

Imagine you're a gold prospector in the days of the gold rush, and you've got yourself set up by a small river. You use a pan with a slew of little holes in it, rather like a colander for draining pasta, to examine the contents of the river and look for nuggets of gold.

That pan works in a similar enough way to your nose hair trimmer to make the operative functions of the later a little clearer to you. It's as though the regular debris that falls through the pan are your nose hairs, and the gold is your sensitive nasal membrane.

When your hairs pass through the pan, instead of falling back into the river like the debris does, they meet a set of blades that cuts them down to size.

Now, if you spin spin that blade at a higher rate of speed with the aid of a simple motor, one that can easily run on a single AA battery, you get faster, more comfortable cutting.

Seal that motor housing against water, and you've built yourself one of the water resistant, electric nose hair trimmers we've been looking at here today.

Stop The Nasal Violence!

Figuring out which trimmer is right for you is going to be based in part on your current lifestyle and in part of your physical sensitivity.

Figuring out which trimmer is right for you is going to be based in part on your current lifestyle and in part of your physical sensitivity.

Let's start with the manual vs. electric conundrum. Which is right for you? Well, I, personally like to have the manual trimmer in my main road kit along with a travel tooth brush, nail clippers, etc. It never leaves that little bag if I'm at home, and when I use it on the road, it goes right back in the bag when I'm done with it.

Why the discipline? I lose everything that's smaller than a four door sedan, that's why. If I didn't put it right back in the bag it'd end up at the bottom of the Atlantic next to the Heart of the Ocean.

At home, I've got an electric trimmer, and I'd recommend that set up for anyone.

If you're the kind of person that shaves and brushes their teeth in the shower, you're going to want a water resistant trimmer, since you apparently do everything in your shower, even your important conference calls.

Even if you don't confine all your morning preparations to the shower stall, a water resistant setup is going to be much easier to keep clean than a unit you can't get wet.

A Wahl Of An Invention

Before 1975, if you wanted to trim your nose hair, you'd have reached either for a pair of tweezers or for the smallest pair of scissors you could find.

Little did I know that Wahl had invented the nose hair trimmer before I was even born.

Up until last year, I was personally using a small pair of cuticle scissors for the task, which worked alright, but admittedly resulted in a few more stabbings than I'd care to recall. Cuticle scissors are sharp.

Little did I know that Wahl had invented the nose hair trimmer before I was even born. Their electric rotary trimmer was built and operated much the same as modern incarnations do.

This is one of the rare instances in modern technology where the electric version of a device precedes its manual counterpart, as the powerless nose hair trimmers didn't come around until the early 90s.

As the 21st century grinds on, men's grooming is poised to continue its meteoric rise, making the more versatile grooming devices like the multi-tasker that made it into our number one slot seem all that smarter a purchase.


Christopher Thomas
Last updated by Christopher Thomas

Building PCs, remodeling, and cooking since he was young, quasi-renowned trumpeter Christopher Thomas traveled the USA performing at and organizing shows from an early age. His work experiences led him to open a catering company, eventually becoming a sous chef in several fine LA restaurants. He enjoys all sorts of barely necessary gadgets, specialty computing, cutting-edge video games, and modern social policy. He has given talks on debunking pseudoscience, the Dunning-Kruger effect, culinary technique, and traveling. After two decades of product and market research, Chris has a keen sense of what people want to know and how to explain it clearly. He delights in parsing complex subjects for anyone who will listen -- because teaching is the best way to ensure that you understand things yourself.


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