Wahl All In One Trimmer Review – Two Very Different Beards Put It to the Test
When I was asked to try the Wahl All In One Trimmer, there was one fairly obvious problem. I don’t have a beard. Fortunately, I do have two willing testers in the house, and actually they turned out to be ideal people to test it because their facial hair couldn’t be much more different.
Stuart is usually clean-shaven or with slight stubble. If he hasn’t shaved for a while, he ends up with longer stubble rather than anything you’d really describe as a beard. Ben, on the other hand, has a proper bushy beard that needs trimming, shaping and generally keeping under control. Occasionally he cuts it all off for a while before regrowing it!
So rather than me attempting to tell you whether a beard trimmer is any good based purely on its specifications, I handed the Wahl All In One Trimmer over to them and let them put it through its paces.
Between them, they tested it on very different lengths and amounts of facial hair, which gave me a much better idea of who this all in one trimmer would suit.
What is the Wahl All In One Trimmer?
The Wahl All In One Trimmer is designed to be more than simply a beard trimmer. Wahl describes it as suitable for haircuts, beard trimming, and body grooming, as well as removing unwanted nose and ear hair.
It comes with two interchangeable heads and eight guide combs, giving you cutting lengths from 0.5mm right through to 25mm.
That range was one of the things that immediately made sense to me after Stuart and Ben had both tried it. They have such different grooming needs that a trimmer with only a few short settings would have been much more useful for Stuart than Ben. Having the longer combs means someone with a fuller beard isn’t forced to cut it much shorter than they actually want.
There’s also a rotary nose and ear attachment included, along with a beard comb, cleaning brush, blade oil and storage pouch, so you get quite a lot in the kit rather than simply the trimmer itself.
Charging the Wahl All In One Trimmer
Something both Stuart and Ben liked was how straightforward the all in one trimmer was to charge and use.
It has a lithium-ion battery and charges via USB-A, which I much prefer to appliances that come with yet another very specific charger that you’re guaranteed to lose at some point.
According to Wahl, a full charge takes around 210 minutes and gives you up to 210 minutes of cordless use. That is three and a half hours, which is quite a lot of beard trimming!
In reality, most people aren’t going to sit there trimming their beard continuously for three and a half hours unless something has gone spectacularly wrong. It means you should be able to get quite a few uses between charges.
It also makes it handy for travelling. You don’t necessarily need to take another bulky plug with you and, depending on how long you’re away, you might not need to take the charging cable at all if you’ve charged it before leaving home.
Stuart’s experience – using it on long stubble
Stuart generally prefers to be clean-shaven, so his test of the all in one trimmer wasn’t about carefully maintaining a magnificent beard. He used the Wahl when his stubble had grown longer and needed tidying up.
For this sort of job, he found it really easy to use. The trimmer has a wide T-blade, which means you’re covering a reasonable area with each pass rather than repeatedly going backwards and forwards over the same bit. When you’re basically trying to remove a few days’ growth and tidy everything up, you don’t particularly want the process to take forever.
He found it comfortable to hold and straightforward to manoeuvre around his face, and importantly it dealt with his longer stubble without making the job feel complicated.
That’s something I think is worth mentioning because not everyone buying a trimmer is someone who carefully maintains a particular beard style. Plenty of men simply want something they can grab when their facial hair has grown a bit too long.
If that’s you, you don’t necessarily need twenty different gadgets and settings. You want to attach the right comb, switch it on and get on with it. That’s pretty much how Stuart used it.
Ben’s experience – tackling a much bushier beard
Ben gave the Wahl All In One Trimmer a completely different challenge because his beard is much longer and bushier.
Rather than simply removing growth, he needs to be able to control the length and shape his beard without accidentally taking huge chunks out of it.
We’ve probably all seen the result when somebody slips while trimming their beard and suddenly has to make the rest match!
This is where having eight different guide combs becomes much more useful.
The combs range from 3mm through to 25mm, so Ben could choose a longer length that allowed him to tidy and shape his beard rather than simply cutting it short but then decided after trimming it that he just wanted to take it all off this time anyway!
He found it easy to move through his beard and useful for getting the overall shape looking neater. He could take some of the bulk out where necessary while keeping the length he wanted elsewhere.
For me, this was probably the most useful part of having two people test it. Stuart showed that it works well as a straightforward stubble trimmer, whereas Ben demonstrated that it isn’t limited to short facial hair.
If you’re somebody who switches between stubble and a longer beard at different times of the year, you wouldn’t necessarily need a different trimmer for each. Ben found the trimmer to easily get through his thick, bushy beard without getting stuck or pulling.
Is the All In One Trimmer good for shaping a beard?
This was much more relevant to Ben than Stuart. When you’ve got a fuller beard, simply shortening it isn’t enough. You need to be able to tidy the edges and shape it, particularly around the neckline, cheeks and jaw.
Ben found the Wahl easy to control when doing this, and the different lengths meant he could gradually work on his beard rather than going straight in with a very short setting.
I’d imagine that’s especially reassuring if you’re relatively new to maintaining a longer beard. You can always take a little more off, but unfortunately there isn’t an attachment that puts it back on again!
The wide T-blade also helps when you’re working across larger sections of beard, while you can use the blade without one of the longer guide combs when you need more precision around the edges.
It’s not actually just for beards
Despite both of my testers concentrating mainly on their facial hair, the reason Wahl calls this an “All In One Trimmer” is because it can be used elsewhere too.
The same trimmer can be used for haircuts and body grooming, while the separate rotary attachment is designed for unwanted nose and ear hair.
I think whether you use all of those functions will depend very much on your normal grooming routine. Some people will use absolutely everything in the pouch, while others will probably find their favourite two attachments and never touch the rest!
What I do like is that the option is there. If you’re travelling, for example, you could potentially take this one kit rather than a beard trimmer, hair clippers and a separate nose hair trimmer.
What cutting lengths does it have?
There are eight guide combs included, covering 3mm, 6mm, 10mm, 13mm, 16mm, 19mm, 22mm and 25mm. Without the guide combs, the trimmer can cut much closer, with Wahl listing an overall cutting range starting at 0.5mm. I think the longer settings are an important feature here.
A lot of beard trimmers are fantastic if you want short stubble but become much less useful once you’ve grown a substantial beard. Going all the way up to 25mm gives you much more scope for maintaining something fuller.
That was certainly helpful for Ben, while Stuart could stick to the shorter end of the scale.
Cleaning it afterwards
Nobody particularly enjoys cleaning beard trimmers, so the easier this bit is, the better.
The blade on the Wahl All In One Trimmer is rinseable, and there’s also a small cleaning brush included for getting rid of those annoying little hairs that inevitably find their way into every possible gap. Wahl includes blade oil too and recommends cleaning and oiling the blades to help maintain them. There’s also a storage pouch for keeping the trimmer and its accessories together.
With eight guide combs and the extra attachment, I think the pouch is more useful than it might initially sound. Without somewhere to keep everything together, I can almost guarantee we’d have one guide comb in a bathroom drawer, another in a bedroom and absolutely no idea where the particular one somebody wanted had gone!
What did Stuart and Ben like about it?
The main thing both of them commented on was how easy it was to use. Neither felt they needed to spend ages working out complicated settings or constantly referring back to the instructions. Once they’d chosen the length they wanted, it was straightforward to get on with trimming. They also both liked the fact it was cordless and easy to charge.
What I found particularly interesting was that neither one’s experience highlighted a problem caused by their very different beard lengths. Stuart could use it for relatively short growth while Ben could use the longer combs to work on a thick, bushy beard. That versatility is probably its biggest selling point for me.
Who would I recommend the Wahl All In One Trimmer to?
After seeing both Stuart and Ben use it, I think this would suit someone who wants one grooming tool that can adapt as their facial hair changes.
Perhaps you’re usually clean-shaven but occasionally let your stubble grow longer. Maybe you have a full beard that needs regular shaping. Or perhaps you’re somewhere between the two and change your style fairly regularly.
The range of combs means you aren’t tied to one particular beard length.
I also think it could be a good choice for someone going away to university or travelling because you’re getting several grooming functions in one relatively compact kit, and the long battery life means you aren’t constantly hunting for somewhere to charge it. If you are looking for a gift for a teenager or young man who is yet to discover their facial hair preferences the Wahl All In One Trimmer would give them a lot of versitility to play around with different styles.
My overall Wahl All In One Trimmer review
Obviously, this review is slightly different from my usual product reviews because I wasn’t the person actually using it. Instead, I’ve had the benefit of watching the All in One trimmer being tested by two people with completely different facial hair.
Stuart used it on longer stubble and found it quick and straightforward. Ben put it through a rather tougher test with his thick, bushy beard and found it useful both for trimming the length and getting the overall shape looking neater.
Both found it easy to use and easy to charge, which is exactly what you want from something that’s likely to be used regularly.
I particularly like the fact that the range of cutting lengths makes it genuinely useful for different beard styles rather than claiming to be “all in one” while really being designed mainly for short stubble.
The battery life is another big positive. With up to 210 minutes from a full charge, you’re not going to need to remember to plug it in after every trim, and USB charging makes things simpler when you’re away from home.
Would Stuart and Ben both use it again? Yes. And given that one of them barely has a beard most of the time and the other could probably hide snacks in his, I’d say that’s a pretty decent test of how versatile it is.
