Full metal jacket - momentarily

Review: Philips grooming kit

The Philips grooming kit.

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There's something that makes you feel vaguely staunch standing in the bathroom and shaving your head. It's very military, very Full Metal Jacket.

Then ... the family walks in. One daughter doubles over laughing, the other runs screaming in fear that her locks are next, and the wife starts shouting about the mess.

Anyway, back to Saving Private Ryan with the Philips 7-in-1 grooming kit: It's a cracker, easy to use and saves you however much you'd normally shell out at the barber. And it's fun.

It has:

• A mini shaver - I prefer blades for my face but I gave this a go when I was in a hurry and it was surprisingly smooth, leaving none of that rawness that so often comes with an electric razor.
• A full size trimmer blade - I only used this with the comb attachment.
• A nine-position hair clipper comb - This is what led to my family's outburst. It's superb. I thought I'd end up with heaps of rogue hairs of varying lengths but it was simple to use and cut evenly - Although I did need to get my wife (once she'd calmed down) to help out with the back of my head. You might want to experiment a bit with the nine-grade comb, as I ended up going just a tad shorter than planned.
• A nine-position beard and moustache comb - Similar to the hair clipper and, not having a beard or a moustache, I just had a play with it on my sideburns.
• A nose and ear trimmer - To be honest, I was a little frightened of this. It looks a little like a sharp beak and I wasn't too keen on shoving it up my nose or in my ears. But I presume that, as I start to age and the hair falling from head begins to settle in my ears, I'll find this a very valuable attachment.
• A precision trimmer - Good for that final tidy-up around the edges.

You'd have to fully charge the kit before using it each time - well, at least for doing your whole head - but it didn't run out of charge during the process. It would be great if you could use it plugged in but you can't. The kit has a 10 hour charging time, for 35 minutes of operation.

With all the different attachments, it's pretty easy to sculpt around the ears, fringe and neckline. No one laughed when I arrived at work the next day so I guess I did a professional-enough job.

The whole kit all sits nicely in a tidy storage stand.

One of the best things about the Philips product is that you can just run it under the tap when you're finished. Although that doesn't help tidy the bathroom floor.....

- Mark Stevens

- © Fairfax NZ News