Most fashion waves come and go. When I was young, extremely baggy jeans (JNCOs, in case you’re under 30) were super fashionable, but went out of style shortly before skinny jeans blew up; now, baggy clothes are beloved yet again. Platinum-dyed hair and bowling-style shirts—aka shirts Tony Soprano would wear—seem to be back as well. On the other hand, as far as I can tell, man buns are fairly out of style now (or should be, at least), and so are fedoras, which [cranks chaotic John Coltrane track to max volume] is probably good. Mustaches have waned in terms of being a signifier of the “hipster”; they have reclaimed their status of yore as simply a normal facial hair style for regular guys to have (which is great, IMO).
As a longtime bearded man, I’ve paid some attention to how society and culture have regarded facial hair throughout the years, and as far as I can tell, beard culture seems to only have gotten more powerful over the past few decades. Many guys (not me) still have, for better or worse, this notion that beards signify toughness, and that the more your beard is part of your personality, the more of a Real Guy you are. This has led to a massive uptick in beard care products like beard oils and creams, as well as an onslaught of trimmers made specifically for beards, like The Beard Club’s PT45, which I just refer to as James Harden’s beard trimmer (since he supposedly uses it). I reviewed that very excellent bad boy here.
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Still, it doesn’t really feel like most beard trimmers have fully caught up to the hype, at least not for me. Having tried many different trimmers over the past couple decades, I never found one that seemed perfect for my particular beard. For me, that means a trimmer that’s super precise, easy to control, and, most importantly, allows me to really see what I am doing. Recently, however, that changed.
Are you about to tell me that there’s a new beard trimmer worth knowing about?
Yep. I’ve always been a big fan of Wahl—I used its ultra-affordable Color Pro for maaaany years when I was younger—and was intrigued when I heard about its new offering, the Pro Series High Visibility Trimmer (known henceforth as the HVT). When I got a press box from Wahl that had a massive picture of a beard on front with text that said, “The face of men’s grooming is about to change forever,” I could imagine all the obsessive beardies out there losing their dang minds, doing backflips and chugging bourbon (or whatever these guys do when they’re excited). I thought, OK, I’ll see what this is about.
The ideal here is simple: the HVT has blades that extend out from the rechargeable base, letting you effectively see “through” the trimmer (hence the “high visibility” part). As a result, Wahl claims that this lets you groom in “high definition,” and that the HVT has significantly superior precision and visibility than other razors. For all my boys who’ve stopped to question their lives while trying to maneuver a clunky razor with your off-hand, praying you give yourself an even trim before you rush off to meet your Tinder date, this one’s for you.
Here’s what actually makes the Pro Series High Visibility Trimmer different
The HVT definitely comes hard with the features. First, Wahl—perhaps a bit pretentiously, though honestly I’m not mad when a brand goes this H.A.M.—calls its trimmer blade the “Forever Blade” (which I was sad to learn wasn’t the title of an upcoming Wesley Snipes film). Instead, the “Forever Blade” supposedly “lasts a lifetime” and cuts up to four times closer than its competitors. If you don’t intend to go forever, there are two other blades available: a regular foil shaver and a detailer; and there are also eight different comb lengths, in case you’re David Letterman (or just want to use it on your head). There’s also an ear and nose trimmer, because this MF thing just flat-out hates bad-lookin’ hair. It’s got the other qualities you’d expect in 2024, as well: It’s cordless, rechargeable, waterproof, and comes with a pretty nice storage case.
As far as looks go, the HVT actually has a very awesome design, IMO. In a hygiene-tech moment in which most new products look like they were birthed in an Apple store, Wahl’s HVT smartly embraces its thesis—that it’s not meant to be seen—and takes a super cool industrial-minimalist chic feel that reeeeally works for me. It somehow feels like if Austrian architect Otto Wagner had designed products for Interstellar. Additionally, the rubber grip covers about 60% of the body and gives it a classic, old-school men’s bathroom product vibe, making it look like it’s from 1982 but also 2040. Overall, this is one of the most attractive men’s hygiene products I’ve ever seen.
Sure, it looks cool, but how does it work?
I’m pretty skeptical of any product that leans this hard into its claim of being game-changing or even, frankly, having new ideas at this point, but Wahl’s HVT truly walks it like it talks it. I have a pretty unruly, wiry, curly beard, which can make it difficult to wrangle. Beard and hair trimmers I’ve tried in the past, while functional, always tend to feel unsuited for my particular face. This is because 1) they’re often pretty clunky and don’t let me see all of my wild hairs, and 2) the blades tend to be somewhat recessed, making it really hard to judge how close of a trim I’m actually getting. Surprisingly, the Wahl HVT does truly give you a clear view of your beard while trimming.
The HVT’s thin body and excellent grip makes it pretty easy to control, especially in your non-dominant hand. Wahl goes hard in claiming that its 360-degree “extreme visibility” offers five times the visibility of other brands and that its “Forever Blade” lasts, uh, forever, giving four times closer a cut than earlier Wahl models. I have yet to live forever (though I plan to), but as far as the visibility part goes, I have to say that the HVT is actually pretty incredible. It gave my ornery beard as clean a trim as it’s ever gotten, allowing me to control my angles and closeness incredibly well. In short, switching to this bad boy is like suddenly seeing your favorite movie—which you’ve only watched via compressed streaming—on 70-millimeter film. This thing is insanely easy to use and gave me one of the best beard trims I’ve had in years.
TL;DR: The Pro Series High Visibility Trimmer is is a great example of how design can really take a product to the next level—the HVT’s thin, industrial look does allow you to effectively see “through” it when trimming, making it a fairly boss upgrade for any dude looking for a tighter trim.
Buy the Wahl Pro Series High Visibility Trimmer on Amazon.
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