Remington Short Cut Clipper Rechargeable, Cordless, Haircut Kit
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List Price: Our Price: $29.99 You Save: $5.00 (14%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Health Care See more product details |
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Customer Reviews of Remington Short Cut Clipper Rechargeable, Cordless, Haircut Kit
Customer Review: Fire the Jerk Responsible for the Build Quality
Summary: 1 Stars
I've been using Amazon for a VERY long time, but I've never felt compelled to write a review for a product...until now. The concept of this cutter is pretty good, but the execution is absolutely terrible.
Since I started balding I've kept my hair cropped pretty close. When I saw this product I thought, wow this a good way for me to keep my hair neat by myself and not spend about $20/mos. on hair cuts--that's $240/year for what is essentially just someone occasionally running a trimmer over my hair. The product does a pretty decent job, when it's working. It won't do the full job--you'll need a small trimmer to get around the ears and something more manageable to crop very close around the neck, but with a little patience and a little planning you can get a pretty good close crop. I normally start with a 3 setting with the normal comb over the entire head and work my way down to the balding comb tapering along the way. In concept it makes it easy for someone like me to trim their own hair.
Unfortunately, the build quality is terrible. My second clipper just crapped out. The first one died after just two cuts (i.e., less than two months)--it wouldn't hold a charge and the charging light wouldn't light up. Remington replaced it (I sent it to Remington and never heard anything--after a couple of months I had to call them up and ask them about my clipper and they had no record of my sending it back) and this one lasted about 9 months--figure maybe12-15 cuts, certainly less than 20. Over time it had more and more difficulty holding a charge when finally it dies almost immediately. I suspect that this may be a case of battery polarity reversal after it's discharged completely. This is really frustrating, as I really could use a product like this but it is a major hassle and just very poorly executed. On the Remington site one reviewer claims that the newer SCC-100R that replaced the SCC-100 fixes the problems. Well...if lasting a mere 20 cuts over lasting 2 cuts is "fixed", then I guess it is. Most people would not consider this a "fixed" product.
This product is a great concept. Why can't Remington make this product work!?!?!? I'd easily spend three or four times as much for a durable quality build product. Remington, don't try to save $1 on build quality. You're frustrating your customers, eating into your profit margins on returns and repairs, and causing significant brand damage. Please fire the people responsible for ruining this potentially great product. What sort of company puts this crap out and then keeps shipping it with such obvious problems? What it says to a consumer is that YOU CAN'T TRUST Remington.
BTW, why does this product ONLY work off of the terrible rechargeable battery? If it, at least could operate while plugged in I could get more life out of it. Perhaps it has something to do with the product being "washable"--they don't want it plugged in while it's running under the faucet, I guess.
Customer Review: Does what it says! If you're patient...
Summary: 4 Stars
Edit 11-18-2009: I've used this thing three times now and it's worked very well each time. That's $60 in savings on hair cuts so far, so it's more than paid for itself.
This thing really gets the job done once you get used to it.
If you currently have medium to long hair or if your hair is dense I highly recommend getting a haircut at a barber before you start using this thing. Otherwise, you're probably going to run out of battery power before you're finished. The battery on my Short Cut ran out just as I was finishing up the back. I had charged it all night and all day (sixteen hours as recommended in the manual). Yes, that's right, when you buy this thing you have to charge it for a full sixteen hours before the first use to get maximum battery life.
I had medium to long hair when I started and the trimmer kept getting bogged down when I tried to comb it through my hair, so I had to make lots and lots and lots of passes to get it trimmed down to where the trimmer was fully functional even on the 4 setting (the longest setting).
What I love most about this thing is when I go to the barber they never cut my hair the way I want it cut -- they can only give me a "number two" or a "number one" etc. unless I go to an expensive stylist. I'll tell them "I want a crew cut" and they'll trim off half an inch and go "is that short enough" and I'll say "no, shorter. Crew cut. Do you understand what that means? I want it short, like an army haircut" and they'll start over and do the whole thing again, taking off another quarter inch until I get tired of asking and just go home with my hair longer than I want...
All I want is a short, "crew cut," and this thing gives me exactly the cut I want. It cuts all of my hair uniformly to the same length, all around. For the cost I'm probably going to save a lot of money and annoyance.
As mentioned in the other reviews, you'll want to get a trimmer for the sides and around the ears. They can be had pretty cheap. I didn't try the one on the Short Cut but because of the shape of the Short Cut I decided it'd be too awkward and I might botch the job. Speaking of botched jobs, you'll want to have a few bucks on hand the first time you use this thing so you can go to the barber and have them fix it if you mess up too badly.
Note that even though you can cut your own hair with this thing you'll probably want to get someone else to trim up the back and behind your ears. The first time I used it, I forgot I had taken off the adjustable comb and went to finish up the back, and cut a huge nick out of my hair down to the skin. Fortunately it was far enough down that my roommate was able to use my trimmer to shore it up.
Finally, hair will go everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Fortunately hair is easy to vacuum up.
Overall, I'm happy with my sigourney-weavermatic.
Customer Review: Good for short-all-over cuts, not for blends
Summary: 3 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I've been cutting my own hair for 15 years... ever since a particularly bad haircut from a barber in 1993. I don't use anything except a standard Conair-type clipper and the trimmer function on the back of my electric razor. The whole process is a little time consuming and there are many times when I make blind cuts, which is basically using my fingers to determine length while not being able to see any of the action.
When I saw this Remington Short Cut Clipper online I thought I might have stumbled into a perfect solution for my hair cutting needs. The design is very innovative, allowing for cutting with either hand that goes more quickly because the blades are wider and they're shaped to follow the contour of the head.
After receiving the product and trying it on my own hair, I have to give it just an average rating. Here is what the Remington does right:
1. The fact that it's cordless is a huge plus. No cords get in the way, which has always been an issue with traditional clippers.
2. The bi-directional cutting is wonderful, and combined with the ambidextrous design this makes the clipper equally useful in either hand and in both directions.
3. The pop-up trimmer is the perfect size to trim around the ears. It is longer and narrower than typical back-of-the-electric razor trimmers, which makes the hard-to-reach places and angles much easier to navigate.
Here are the issues I have with the Remington:
1. Unless you want a true short-all-over cut, this clipper isn't for you. My hair is longer on the top, but very short on the sides and in the back. I like to start short on the bottom and then blend it with longer hair as I move up. That strategy doesn't work well with this trimmer. My personal attempt resulted in choppy cuts that had to be smoothed over with regular clippers.
2. The contour shape of the plastic length attachment and the blades are only good for the round parts of your head. The sides of my head don't happen to bulge out in a rounded fashion, so it made trimming the sides of my hair very difficult. Navigating around the ears was also trouble.
3. The plastic attachment quickly fills up with cut hair and needs to be emptied. I would prefer that it just fell off and didn't accumulate in the clipper.
Maybe I am not the intended user for this product. If I just wore buzz cuts or crew cuts, this product would get 5 stars from me. With that type of haircut, you really will get a quick and clean cut. But I think others like me would appreciate a little more flexibility in dealing with blending slightly longer hair.
Customer Review: Amazingly, this product works great (although for short hair only)
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using this product for the past three months, and I couldn't be more pleased. It produces the same quality haircut as the barber shop, and it's as quick and convenient as shaving.
I have to admit, I did not have high expectations when I ordered this product from Amazon. After it arrived, it took me another month to work up the courage to use it. Finally, on the first day of my vacation, when I knew I would have time to grow out my hair a bit if the clipper made a mess of things, I took the plunge.
It turns out that the clipper is incredibly easy to use. Because of the curved design and bidirectional cutters, the optimal motion is very similar to shaving. You just "comb" the clipper back and forth around your head until you've covered all areas. It's amazingly simple and produces very even results. You can literally use it with your eyes closed.
I have not had the problem noted by another reviewer of clogged blades. I keep my hair trimmed short (about 1/4 inch, or the No. 2 comb on a traditional hair clipper), and the short hairs just fall away. I suspect that this trimmer is really only suitable for short hair.
Two issues you should note, though:
1) The trimmer comes from the factory with the balding comb attached. You need to pop it off and replace it with the comb that let's you set hair length. This is a silly way to ship the clipper -- unless you read the instructions carefully, you might miss this important detail and end up with an essentially shaved head. Remington should ship it with the safer comb and let you switch to the balding comb.
2) The trimmer doesn't have a battery gauge like many shavers, and it cannot run directly off AC power (it won't turn on when plugged into the charger). This can be inconvenient if the trimmer runs out of power half way through a haircut. I've made it a habit to charge the trimmer once a month whether it needs it or not. A batter gauge would be nice. [Update 19 March 2011: The clipper is now about 2 1/2 years old, and the batteries don't seem to hold a charge as well any more. The clipper still works fine, but now I need to charge it after every use, or the battery dies half way through the next haircut. I wish the batteries were replaceable. I bought another one last month in case the batteries on the original fail completely.]
Bottom line: This clipper has exceeded my expectations. It allows me to cut my own (admittedly short) hair at home as easily as shaving, rather than having to make trips to the barber shop. It has already paid for itself, let's me cut my hair more frequently (and therefore avoid the "hey, you got your hair cut" syndrome when I'd let it get too long before cutting), and is super convenient. What a nice surprise.
Customer Review: Short cut to great looking hair
Summary: 5 Stars
I buy way too many "gadgets". Most of them sound like cool toys and usually end up at the bottom of a drawer or in the trash. Of the gadgets I've bought that I can't live without, regardless of the price I paid, are my GPS unit, phone headset, Tivo and a handful of others. The first time I saw the Remington ShortCut hair trimmer I didn't think twice about it and walked away. It is a gadget that's designed for a very limited and specialized target market ... those who like to have their hair cut very short and evenly across their entire head. It's also a gadget that has zero necessity, because there are all kinds of hair clippers on the market, and only a small percentage of people cut their own hair. So I thought the idea was silly. Then I started looking at my hair in the mirror and noticed that there are always some wayward strands that grow faster and make my haircut look less-than-fresh. And, to get away with the close-cropped look, it really has to be trimmed every few days to keep it even and orderly. That would get pretty spendy at a barber shop. What I've been doing until I discovered the Remington ShortCut is to use regular electric barber clippers with one of those cheesy plastic guides that is supposed to cut your hair at an even length. It is definitely not easy to use single-handedly and the length of my hair after clipping is always just a tiny bit too short. With low expectations I tried the ShortCut. My first impression is that it has a pretty good build quality. It comes pre-installed with the balding comb. CAUTION: if you don't want to look like an egg after your first trim, be sure to take the balding comb off and replace it with the adjustable comb! The adjustable comb has 5 preset stops ranging from about ¼" to about ½". What Remington doesn't say is that you can really set it to anywhere in between if you are careful not to press it too hard against your scalp (which you shouldn't do anyway). After charging the unit overnight I was anxious to try it and swiped it a few times casually over my head. I was impressed. With a few simple motions, the same as using a hairbrush, the job was done and my hair was very neatly trimmed, with no pesky strands of longer-than-usual hairs poking out. A few minutes every few days is all it takes to have your hair perfectly trimmed 24/7. In my judgment, that is what make a product a necessity rather than a gadget, and makes it worth whatever price you pay. Except the price for the ShortCut is dirt cheap. This is one of the most highly recommended items I've reviewed and earns a solid 5 stars. For maybe 95% of people, they would have no need for the ShortCut, but for me and guys like the new U.S. president it is a total winner.