Someone else’s impression
My first haircut from the Remington HC-912 was met with a less than enthusiastic greeting. I usually go with a pretty short buzz in the summer time. I do my best to grow a mullet in the winter (fortunately I never succeed). Nonetheless, I walked into the locker room last spring with my cool summer do. (I mean cool literally here as in not sweaty as opposed to the more common use of cool as trendy).
Now hockey locker rooms aren’t typically notable for conversations based upon other player’s hairdo. Frankly, taping up a stick is more important than what type of haircut anyone else has. I didn’t really expect, or want any special attention paid to my haircut. Nonetheless, as I sat down a fellow player commented, “Scott, you look like you just escaped from the mental ward.” Another of my peers nodded, adding sarcastically, “Yeah, nice hair.”
The problem
My hair was indeed drastically and tragically short. The HC-912 doesn’t come with the longer comb guides that the Wahl trimmer it replaced had. I didn’t really think too much about it until I was partially done defrocking my head. I would have gotten the razor out and finished the job had my wife not protested so vehemently. Apparently she doesn’t find bald men as attractive as I had hoped she might.
Why the Remington?
I was very happy with my
Remington MB-40 beard trimmer. That thing is built like a tank. It works for a year on a single charge and does a fantastic job. The Wahl hair trimmer I had was a piece of junk in comparison. It didn’t hold a charge long enough for a single hair cut and broke after a year.
I figured Remington made a good beard trimmer so it wasn’t much of a jump to a hair trimmer. In fact, I attempted to use the beard trimmer as a hair trimmer. It proved ineffective. The comb is somewhat different in a beard trimmer. It was a sad day to find it didn’t work for hair since I don’t have a beard anymore.
Features
One downfall to selecting this was the lack of choices that I had. This would be entirely my fault since my wife was heading out the door and asked if I needed anything from Target. I told her, “Yeah, a Remington hair trimmer.” This is what she brought back.
The HC-912 is a corded trimmer. I would have preferred cordless, but I didn’t mention that detail. That’s pretty much my fault there.
It does have oil-less blades which are nice. The Wahl needed to be oiled before every use. This combined with my lack of vigilance in oiling it were certainly major contributions to its early demise.
The HC-912 comes in a rather crappy plastic carrying case. Included with the trimmer are three length guides measuring 1/2-inch, 1/4-inch, and 1/8-inch. There are also a pair of guides to help taper the hair around the ears from 1/8 to 1/4-inch. Also included are a pair of scissors, a couple of hair clips and two cleaning brushes. One brush is to clean the person having a trim, the other to clean the trimmer itself. If you’re using this to cut your hair, the clips are some sort of joke I think.
The trimmer is solid and well built. In and of itself, I would expect this unit to last for many years. It operates quietly and effectively. It is high enough quality that I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see in the hands of a professional. One interesting function is a lever that slides the blades allowing a 1/8-inch adjustment in length without changing combs.
Shortcomings
Besides having a cord (I like to trim my hair in the car and while jogging) the only real flaw in the unit is the lack of longer guides. I like to keep my hair an inch on top and 3/4-inch on the sides. With a maximum length of 3/8-inch, the HC-912 just didn’t cut it for me. (ack, my apologies for the pun, I just couldn’t stop typing in time to prevent it).
My first thought was to simply order a set of longer guides for the trimmer. No amount of searching has produced evidence that such items exist though. So the trimmer has given me exactly one haircut that frightened little children and drew the criticism of my peers.
Final Thoughts
If you do like your hair very short, this is a solid unit that I would recommend. The three choices of
Almost Bald, I Wish I Still had Hair, and
Slightly Fuzzy just didn’t work for me.
© 2005 Scott Noble – All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
