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How do you shave your nose and ears?
Yeah, seriously.
As someone approaching middle age but in denial, I am bothered by nose and ear hairs. I bought a trimmer but I swear all of them I have seen are garbage, or are at least very cheap. Is there a trimmer that isn’t bad? How do you take care of your nose hair?
Yes, I am aware that women also get hair there, but i haven’t heard anything from any women about it ever.
I use tweezers.
Masochist!
Hah. I’ve stress-pulled some of the external ear hairs but the inside ones are far too sensitive for that. And also far too numerous…..
I should clarify - I use tweezers for the stray ear hairs along my lobes. I've got one in particular that's like piano wire when it grows out. I don't get any funky inner-ear hairs creeping out (yet).
I also use tweezers for hairs that grow on the tip and bridge of my nose. For hairs in my nose, I have a nose hair trimmer attachment for my beard clippers that is similar to ones already recommended throughout this thread. I also occasionally pluck the long hairs that try to crawl out my nostrils.
Not only does this keep them shorter faster, since they have to grow back all the way from the root, but also the more you rip out a hair the less likely it is to grow back at all! Even if it does grow back, the root gets slightly weaker each time you pluck it so it gets easier.
I can personally attest to these facts, as I regularly epilate my entire body. (Yes, everywhere.)
I’ve only once been curious about removing the hairs growing on my toes, and learned quickly to no longer be curious about that.
I’m intimidated by your pain tolerance if you also have (had?) hairy toes
I wasn't overly hairy, but I am a man so they were hardly bald. Toes are nothing compared to armpits, though. Surprisingly, the front of the thigh is the second worst!
It's worth it though to me - random example, I no longer have to wear antiperspirant since the high-rise luxury bacteria suites that were my armpit hair no longer exist.
Oh, fascinating! Yeah I hadn’t even thought about armpits but yeah that makes sense to be way too sensitive too. Thanks for your insight!
...i also use tweezers, but about twenty-five years ago i learned that what works for ear, nose, and brow hairs does NOT work for beards: terrible ingrown hairs followed...
I’m currently using this ConairMan trimmer. It’s got a bunch of doodads, but I just keep the basic nose hair trimmer attached. Does the job well enough. You need to twist and move it around a bit to make sure all the hairs eventually poke through to the blade. Focus on the area just inside the nostril opening; you don’t need to clear the entire cave, and doing so can make it uncomfortable.
I use this trimmer set for nose, ear, and bear* trimming. The shape of the nose trimmer is different than what others have posted and works well for me, no pain.
I use the small trimmer (first on top row) for the hair that grows along the outside edge of the helix and on the tragus**. I don't go too deep into the ear canal, just get the hair that wants to stick out.
I use the long skinny trimmer (second on the second row) for the nose. I twist it and run around the inside. I find the most important nose hairs to trim are right at the tip because they don't have far to grow to be visible.***
The adjustable guard for the beard trimmer works pretty well, though after seven years it doesn't stay on the chosen depth very well and several of the fins are missing from being dropped in the shower. I think I know what I'm getting for Christmas.
I have a plastic**** mirror on a suction cup in the shower and do all the trimming there. I still try to catch most of it in a small trash can to spare the drain, but it keeps the ones I miss from littering the bathroom. I can also see better because I can stand very close to the mirror.
Footnotes (having way too much fun with this post!):
* beard, but the autocorrupt is too funny to change.
** tragus ... which I have been calling the frenulum until today. Don't google that one at work.
*** It sucks to get old, but it beats the alternative
**** Do not hang a glass mirror in the shower with a suction cup! Ask me how I know.
That one got a grin out of me…
…but this one legitimately has me cackling. 😂
Lingual frenulum is safer, but not what you meant either 😅
I use a similar-ish Wahl one. Wahl stuff is generally both cheap and well made in my experience. I like the small profile too, easy to take with me when traveling.
For some of the nose hairs that are close to the opening of the nostril (near the center of the nose), I have to pluck them with tweezers. It's annoying but it's also a good way to clear out your sinuses from the resulting sneezes!
I am also in the device camp. I use a Philips nose hair trimmer which cost less than AUD 30 and is simple to use and clean.
I've tried grooming scissors before, but found they required much more focus to do a good job and avoid injury.
Pulling out the hairs is not only painful and uneven, but also leads to infection. Avoid for sure!
Not trying to make anyone paranoid, but a neighbor got nose cancer after pulling nose hair out.
At least it's what he said. Probably the nose cancer was already there and the pulling just jumpstarted the symptoms.
I have a cheap, battery operated one I've used for a long time and scissors for my eye brows since I now have about six hairs that just keep growing long. I also keep some scissors in my travel bag just in case.
Oh cool, good to know I’m not the only one! My left eyebrow has I think four hairs that are thicker and less flexible than the rest, and usually pale or silver (the rest of my bushy eyebrows are still dark brown, no sign of greying yet) and they seem to grow just forever! Easily twice the length of the others if I haven’t trimmed or yanked them in a while
Sigh, same.
Possible TMI but if it makes you feel any better
Anyways, to manage I have a pair of small trimming scissors that get the job done easily. I’ve always been kinda nervous of the idea of an actual nose hair trimmer, and a nice tiny pair of scissors I can use with two fingers just works for me.
Same here. I don't like owning too many specialised tools, so some good old trimming scissors and tweezers get the job done.
Likewise, I just use small scissors for the noise.
I just grab the longuns and yank em outta me nose.
Does it make you sneeze? I get intense sneezing fits when I yank nose hairs.
Sometimes if I am lucky :D. You gotta get a really good grip, and then yank with as much jerk as possible. Anything less and you get 1-2 that stay in and hurt, and the third starts a sneezing fit.
I like manual hair trimmers. This is one I have and it's better than any electric, it doesn't seem to yank hairs out at all. You can run it over your ears, as well, to cut the hair there back.
Oh, this looks good. I think I will ask my husband to get me that one for Christmas. What do you think of their bullet shaped ones? They seem to be a bit more of a pain to use since they need two hands….
Bullet-shaped like this?
I goofed up, I have one of the bullet-shaped ones and like it. My dad has one of the pinchy ones and recommended it, but I wanted something that had fewer points of failure. From what I remember trying it (just the motion, it was in his nose) the pinchy ones control fine, but the bullet ones are easy to use. I actually like that I can guide it with one hand then turn my other to operate it.
Agreed. I have this one. It’s dead simple to use. Also, it isn’t likely to break and won’t ever need a battery replacement like other more complicated models. It’s an embodiment of the Unix philosophy of devices: it does one thing, and it does it well.
Nose trimming is easy, but ear trimming took me some time to get used to because of the more difficult topography.
Also, @Akir, I’m in the same boat as you age- and body-wise, so just a heads up in case you need it: don’t neglect your eyebrows! I don’t know what it is about getting older that gives me rogue hairs, but I have to trim my eyebrows so much more often now because one or two follicles seem to grow at 10x the rate as everybody else up there.
That thing looks like a torture device.
Minimalist approach: Round trip curved scissor(link removed) for folks who don't want anything electric.
Edit: oops expensive link removed see below
That shows a price of over 80 dollars... No way that's worth that much
Edit: oops I googled a random photo of what I have at home, not an endorsement for this particular ultra pricy one
They're usually couple of bucks
Alternative cheap option: https://a.co/d/708kM8W
I've been using one of these Panasonic er-gn30's for ~15 years, and have gone through most every other option I've seen posted here on my way to it. Its safe. Its effective. Its fast. Its easy to clean.
The er-gn30 has an electric motor powered spinner with 2 blades that rotate very quickly just inside the slotted metal dome (see link). The spinner is very very low mass, and thus very very low momentum, even for how fast those blades are moving. I most frequently use it kind of mindlessly while watching videos in my home office. Possibly TMI but there are some nooks/crannies in my snozz where hairs are kind of a pain to get at. My go to move is to forcefully jam that trimmer up in those nooks/crannies and rotate violently (b/c pushing harder makes things work better DUH). In weekly use over 15 years, I've yet to ever encounter any sort of pinch/pull/pain. I honestly don't think its possible to hurt yourself with it. Note: if you're worried you might stab yourself in the eye with it, you are not a member of my intended audience for this review...
It works great with ear /ear lobe hair too, though it can get a bit loud while I'm digging deep in the inner ear.
It's also nice for trimming the bit of my mustache that's too close to my nose for my regular mustache clippers to deal with reasonably.
I have managed to cut myself with one of these manual trimmers, but I was really digging at a stupid nose hair that was taunting me and laughing in my face...
Look… you’ll need to trim more things as you get older. Eyebrows, etc. I have had this Philips Norelco one (or very similar) for over 10 years and it is excellent. It has attachments for all the things. https://a.co/d/1QLm2Qw
Edit: I think I have the MG7770/49 with 25 pieces. It came with a charge cord and I think it’s waterproof.
Ugh, why do you have to be so realistic? You’re gonna make me look up how much laser hair removal costs. 😮💨
Life is easier if you just accept aging and stay healthy. Sure, trim your eyebrows and nose hair and ear hair, but I don't know... I guess I end up thinking that the people who go out of their way to do unnatural things to try to look younger end up just looking silly.
i have a Panasonic ER-GN30-H. it takes a AA battery and is easy to clean. it’s really cheap, too.
My nose and ear hair came in hard during my late 20s.
I just use a small pair of scissors when I feel the need to clean up.
I'm using a previous generation of this model https://a.co/d/bM9XAlT and am very happy with it. Good for the nose and ears, the battery holds for ages
The one I am using right now is pretty similar to that one. In fact I’m pretty sure it’s the exact same body as that one. But the head is different; the blades are rotated 90° and are double-sided. It misses hairs quite a lot and as a result I have to make many passes and sometimes it makes the skin irritated.
When I go get my brows waxed I ask her to do a quick yank on the nose lol. I can't remember how long I go before I once again dislike the state of hairiness in my nose though.