It might seem like even the best nose hair trimmer is a needless indulgence for anyone who already owns tweezers. But there’s a really good reason to avoid plucking your way to a well-groomed schnoz: your nostril hairs serve a distinct purpose: They filter out all the dirt and dust in the air you inhale every day, so you’re not just sucking grime into your lungs. You don’t want to go scorched earth and simply pluck them into oblivion. A good nose and ear hair trimmer will cut your hairs down to one standard length, keeping them well out of view while still in prime functioning and filtering condition. (Also, it just hurts a lot less.)
Which means it’s worth picking up a dedicated gadget to do it with. The shaver you use to tame your facial hair isn’t going to cut it—nor will the clippers you rely on for at-home touch-ups. (Never mind trying to wedge some scissors up there.) To properly tame any errant nose and ear hairs, you are going to want a machine specifically designed to get up in the contours of your nostrils. Sticking just anything else in there is ill-advised at best, and downright dangerous at worse.
Thankfully, even the Rolls Royce of nose hair trimmers is like fifty bucks—and decent models can be had for way less. How do we know? Because we rounded-up every one of ’em here, your one-stop guide to the best nose hair trimmers on the market right now.
The Best Nose Hair Trimmer
Panasonic sets the standard when it comes to nose and ear hair removal. The brand’s easy-use wet-dry trimmer delivers crisp cuts with stainless steel blades, and a vacuum makes cleanup painless.
The Best Trimmer for Contouring
The standout detail on Conair’s ergonomically designed ear and nose trimmer is a beveled blade system that allows for particularly close—and even—trimming. It also seamlessly it transitions to a sleek contouring tool if the edges of your beard need a touch-up.
The Best Deep-Canal Trimmer
Wahl’s multi-use tool comes with interchangeable heads built with hygienic trimming in mind. It’s tiny and portable, but also a powerful one-stop shop for easy inner-canal trimming, eyebrow evening, and facial-hair detailing—all at a price that’s tough to beat.
The Best Budget Trimmer
Wahl’s second appearance on this list comes via the brand’s sleek, hyper-functional trimmer, a super-streamlined tool designed for peak portability. The trimmer’s duo of attachments will help you reign in errant noise and ear hairs and detail your brows or beard, while its anodized aluminum shell will stand up to whatever you—or your nostrils—throw at it. This is the device to whip out if you’re pressed for storage space and can only allocate a ballpoint pen-sized amount of room to your trimmer.
The Best Multi-Purpose Trimmer
Philips Norelco’s fully-washable trimmer features the brand’s signature dual-cut blades, which are sharpened twice for a smoother trim and cleaner edges. Interchangeable heads and guards are especially conducive to a wider variety of grooming functions, including touching up sideburns and rear neck hair. If you’re ever in a pinch and can only grab one device for all your trimming needs, you could do far worse than stuffing this one in a Dopp kit with the knowledge that—at the very least—your ears, nose, eyebrows, and edges will be set.
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No matter whether you’re maintaining a perma-stubble or growing out a massive beard, you’ll want a beard trimmer to keep it clean.