When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Like an Etch-a-Sketch that grows out of my face, my beard regenerates indefinitely into a blank canvas on which to practice the art of shaving. Don’t like how I shaped it one day? Just gotta wait a little while and the blank canvas is back to start anew.
Videos by VICE
Or maybe it’s more like Wooly Willy, that road trip toy with the metal whiskers that you manipulate with a magnetic wand to give Willy a full head of hair and then, like nature, to take it all away. It’s the toy that first taught most of us about the cruelties of aging.
Either way, the important takeaway here is that my face is like a cheap game you can buy at Cracker Barrel. And a key tool for keeping that cheap game looking presentable in public is the Braun Series 9 beard trimmer I picked up last year.
no bite!
Other shavers I’ve used in the past had a tendency to bite me. Now, when I’m saying bite, am I saying these machines showed actual malice and, dare I say it, immorality? Or just poor function? Both, honestly. The bastards bit me habitually, and I never forgave them for it.
There was a corded Andis adjustable shaver, gleaming polished metal, that I used for a couple of years on the recommendation of my then-barber. It was a professional model aimed at people who cut hair for a living. What could go wrong, right?
The Andis plastic guides that I bought separately for it had rough edges that tended to scrape and cut my neck.
It happened just infrequently enough for me to keep using it and hoping I’d get through the day without pain, but frequently enough that I began to develop an involuntary cringe every time it got close to my face.
Then, fast-forwarding a few beard trimmers, I used a Braun Series 3 All-in-One Grooming Kit for a while because I was trying to balance my long-term preference for Braun shavers with my long-term preference of being a fiscal cheap ass.
Braun uses a particular naming convention to denote which model is top of the heap. Series 3 is the bread-and-butter model. Then Series 5 is bit better, and Series 7 a bit better than that, and the Series 9 is the cream of the crop.
The Series 3 had a sweet adjustable head, operated by an integrated dial on the body of the shaver, with a pair of plastic shaver guides included in the box. The guides themselves weren’t sharp-edged like the Andis’, but the shaving head had a tendency to periodically pull hairs.
I’d be shaving, not particularly fast or all willy nilly, and every once in a while I’d feel it yank a beard hair right out of my face. I don’t know if you’ve ever had it happen, but beard hairs are thick. It hurts several orders of magnitude worse than yanking out a head hair.
I began to develop the same fear-based hesitation I’d had with the Andis. And despite the fact that the box said “all-in-one grooming tool,” I wasn’t thrilled that I had to use other tools to finish off my shaving ritual each day.
There was no fine-detail head for shaping my beard. There was no nostril trimming tool to make sure I didn’t leave the house looking like my nose was holding Chewbacca in a headlock.
Thinking (a)Head
I haven’t had a clean shaven face for a day since I was 18, and even after owning a few Remington, Andis, Wahl, and Philips Norelco shavers and beard trimmers over the years, too, I steadfastly preferred Braun.
I’ve been using my Series 9 for a bit over a year, and it hasn’t scratched me or yanked out any hairs yet. Finally I can shave without feeling like in a hostage situation with my trimmer.
The trimmer body is plastic, but solidly built enough. The textured back does a good job of improving grip so that I don’t fumble it when my hands are damp after having gotten out of the shower. It’s comfortable in my hand and fairly ergonomic.
There are two plastic guides that slip over the head when you want to trim the length of whiskers, one for lengths between 0.5 mm and 10 mm and another for lengths between 10.5 mm and 20 mm. You then spin a rotary wheel to set the length in 0.5 mm increments.
There’s a lock that’ll keep the length from being accidentally changed. In the past, with a trimmer that didn’t have a lock, I screwed up a nice playoff beard this way. The lock is a very welcome feature. Go ahead and trim your eyebrows without worrying you’ll accidentally shave one off.
On the cheaper Braun Series 3 trimmer I had before this, the numbers eventually began to wear away on the rotary wheel after daily use. Time will tell if that’s an issue on the Series 9, which has the same dial, but after a year so far there’s no noticeable wear.
Without the 0.5-20 mm guides, you can use the bare metal head to get close to a smooth shave. This is more for shaping and outlining the edges of your beard than going clean shaven on your whole face.
The mini-foil head is fine for taking small areas down to smooth skin, but it’s not as good as the foil heads on a Braun electric shaver. Frankly, I don’t use it much, as I have a separate shaver for areas I want clean shaven, such as my neck.
The narrow, fine-detail head gets a lot of use for me in shaping the angle where the muttony-choppy part of my beard meets my jawline, and shaping the whiskers below my lip. It cuts as close as the bare main head, and it’s nimble. It’s a major pro in recommending this trimmer.
There’s also a T-blade, a wider version of the regular head, that functions identically but is a bit wider, perfect for making long, straight edges, such as on the neck and near the jawline. By needing fewer passes, there’s less chance you’ll make an uneven edge.
The body guide head is plastic, rather than metal, but I’ve used the regular metal one for that and have never snagged an edge or hurt myself. It glides like butter, so the plastic body guide seems unnecessary.
Go ahead, get attached
There are a pair of plastic guide attachments for fades, which slant upward from 1 to 5 mm. One guide does this left to right, and the other right to left. It’s only useful if you want that very particular fade. These guides are nice to have, but not crucial for most people.
The ear and nose attachment, though, is the cherry on top. I can’t say how it performs on ears, since that region is a barren desert rather than a lush rainforest, but for trimming the nose it performs well enough. Not as well as a standalone unit, but I prefer its convenience.
With this attachment, I need to make a higher-than-average number of passes. But it doesn’t pinch, nick, or pull hairs, so I’m overall happy with it and glad not to need yet another separate nose trimmer taking up space in my drawer.
Removing and installing the various included heads is easy and smooth. The pieces are plastic sliding into plastic notches, so we’ll see about durability as the years pass by, but every day I remove and pop on at least three different heads, and I see no wear after a year.
Regardless of the heads or guides on it, I never had to make a bunch of passes over an area of beard, especially compared to cheaper trimmer where I’d need to take a lot, and it cuts very evenly at all lengths.
Even when I’m not shortening my beard, it’s great for maintaining a uniform appearance and mopping up all the stray long beard hairs that come with not trimming for a few days.
Braun says the “ProBlade” metal head is their sharpest, and as much as I tend to squint my eyes in skepticism about claims like that, I can vouch that the bare heads of the Series 9 do cut closer than cheaper Braun trimmers I’ve used.
It’s Portable af
The padded, zippered organizing case that holds everything is pretty sweet. Every time I want to call it bulky I have to remind myself of how much is packed in there. Only the charger doesn’t fit inside.
Sometimes the fade guide attachments slip out of the fabric pockets, and the ear and nose trimmer rides sort of sidesaddle in an afterthought of an area, but for the most part all the pieces stay securely in place.
Last year I took the whole shebang on a one-month, off-road motorcycle journey across Southeast Asia. Inside a bag strapped down to the back of my Honda dirt bike, it withstood a few wipeouts. Nothing inside took any damage, so I’d consider it pretty bombproof.
Braun says you can get up to 180 minutes of shaving time. I’ve never shaved myself for three hours continuously, and God willing I never will.
I’ve used it for a solid 30 minutes at a time and barely dented the battery charge, though, so it’s unlikely anyone will lose so much charge that they have to stop shaving before they’re done, as long as they’re not starting with a close-to-depleted battery.
The internal, non-removable lithium ion battery charges much more quickly than the old nickel-metal hydride batteries of older shavers.
If you leave your charging stand plugged into an outlet 24/7, then charging time might not mean much to you, but if you lack outlets in your bathroom like me, it’s a godsend to top off the charge on a nightstand for 30 minutes before leaving the apartment.
The Series 9 is waterproof, so you don’t have to worry about errant splashes killing your new toy. Some folks shave in the shower and require a waterproof trimmer. I find I get a better cut when I trim right after a shower, though.
Other PRoducts you might Consider
Braun Series 9 All-in-One Grooming Kit vs. Braun Series 3 5-in-One Grooming Kit
The Braun Series 3 has way fewer attachments, so it doesn’t do nearly as much. The heads don’t cut as closely, and there’s no lock for the length adjustment. Then again, it’s a third the cost. In its price range, it’s still a forerunner, but if you have the coin, go with the Series 9.
Braun Series 9 All-in-One Grooming Kit vs. Braun Series 9 Shaver
Confused? Well, that comes down to Braun’s naming convention, which is shared by its trimmers and its shavers. It has a different purpose. As a one-trick pony, it’s for going clean shaver. It cuts more closely than the trimmer, and that’s all.
You may find a use for both. I use a shaver on my neck and the tops of my cheeks, which I want clean shaven, and a trimmer for the rest.
Braun Series 9 All-in-One Grooming Kit vs. Wahl USA Pro Series High Visibility Skeleton Style Trimmer
In our Wahl USA Pro Series High Visibility Skeleton Style Trimmer review, the tester said “the HVT’s thin body and excellent grip makes it pretty easy to control,” and the way the head is situated makes it easier to see all four edges of the blade as you maneuver it.
Both trimmers score high in our book. The Braun, though, has more attachments and therefore more versatility. So there!
the five o’ clock shadow
Now, any beard trimmer I’ve used is no substitution for an electric shaver when you’re trying to take whiskers all the way down beyond stubble and get a baby smooth shave. The two are complementary, not rivals. Whether rotary or foil head, a shaver is for being clean shaven.
When it comes to retaining some whiskers and maintaining their length, though, the Series 9 trimmer is top of the mark out of anything I’ve used before. It can help maintain shorter hairstyles, too, or the sides of your head if you keep them cut shorter.
As a bodyscaping tool and fine-detail beard trimmer, the Series 9 also shines. Add to that the ear and nose trimmer, and you have a full kit. In the past I’d need a regular beard trimmer, a fine-detail trimmer, and a nose trimmer. With the Series 9, I don’t have to buy all three.
It’s a pricey trimmer, but given that it can replace several standalone trimmers, it makes financial sense for all but the most basic needs. And it nails the two most important things: uniformity in cutting performance, and not hurting the user.
You can stare at specification sheets all day long to compare trimmers, but none of them will tell you how any trimmer performs on these two fronts. The Braun Series 9, in actual day-to-day usage, ticks all the boxes of what I’d always wanted from a trimmer.
Up next: our guide to the best beard care products (to keep that freshly trimmed mane looking majestic).
