Wahl’s Cordless Designer Clipper is a mid-range professional hair clipper. Its famous for its light body at 0.63 lbs, compared to the usual barber clippers that go beyond 1 lbs.
If you suffer from hand fatigue as many barbers do, then this is just the right weight to give your aching hands a break. Using a lightweight clipper can also reduce the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome.
The first thing you’ll notice when you check the Designer is its vivid red color. Just like a predator, ready to sate its hunger with your hair.
Indeed, this Wahl professional clipper has the reputation of a powerful hair cutting machine with solid performance no matter the hair type.
Wahl’s Cordless Designer Clipper Review: An Overview
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Body that puts other hair cutting machines to shame
For me, Wahl’s Cordless Designer clipper is very pleasing in the aesthetics department. As mentioned earlier, it’s like a hungry predator ogling your (or your clients’) strands of hair, ready to jump on them.
All in all, the hair cutter is 6.25″ long and weighs 10.2 oz. An outstanding weight given the elongated design.
Red looks aside, these Wahl professional clippers are stunningly ergonomic. Don’t mistake them being a tad lighter with you possibly lacking a grip with them.
They strike just the right balance, not tiring on the hand, yet comfortable to cut hair with. The cordless Designer is way easier to work with, as the corded version on Amazon.com is significantly heavier at 1 lbs.
A few ounces one way or the other might not seem like a lot. But, trust me when I tell you that at the end of the week, you will see that it does indeed make a difference. Reducing hand fatigue is very important for you to be a barber long term. In addition to that, it will also make you more money. When your hand is tired, you move more slowly and end up doing fewer haircuts. The more efficient you are with your quickness the more money you will make over the long run.
You’ll receive a total of 8 Wahl guards (1/8″ to 1″ in size), red blade protector, clipper oil and a cleaning brush for your convenience.
Wahl 85910 Cordless Designer Review – for experts, by experts
The Wahl Designer clippers are a great pick both as home hair clippers or as a hair cutting tool for barbers.
The model is equipped with a 1005 universal blade. It’s one of Wahl’s higher end blade types and will cut through any hair type, no matter the thickness.
While not as great as the cordless Magic Clip‘s crunch blade when it comes to fades, the Designer performs solidly in general cuts.
Every shop has a different type of clientele. Where I work, we do mainly regular business haircuts, so the blade of the 85910 is more than good enough for my needs. You may work in a shop where you need to be doing lots of fades and will probably appreciate the crunch blade. Of course, you can always swap out those blades if you don’t want to buy a new clipper.
I can’t stress this next point enough to new barbers. You have to expect to be going through many different kinds of clippers as you progress through your career. Pick these ones up for a good budget hair clipper that excels at regular haircuts. As you start to see that you are doing more of a different type of cut, say a fade or flat top, then you’ll need to evaluate your clipper and maybe upgrade.
I like to have two main clippers. My primary set of clippers is the Oster 76. Then I’ll keep a second clipper to do various types of different haircuts. They seem to change often since I like to try a variety for the sake of this blog. But, the Cordless Designer is a good secondary clipper in my opinion.
In fact, why not check how it glides through hair in a quick overview video like this:
Boss cordless performance
What really makes a difference between the two Designer models is the cordless action this one offers you.
You have up to 90 minutes of runtime on the 85910 cordless Designer clipper. The Lithium-ion battery life is comparable to the higher priced Magic Clip.
In fact, both hair cutters go well beyond the industry average. With most cordless cutters in this price range, you’ll get 40 to 60 minutes of runtime.
As you can guess, this makes the cordless Designer clippers great for barbers. You can perform quite a few client haircuts without the need to switch to another tool.
If you plug it in between haircuts, you can likely get the entire day without the battery dying even if it is your primary clipper. If it does die on you, then you can use it with the cord so you don’t miss a beat.
Home users will be satisfied too as you can go a few weeks without even grabbing the charger. If you prefer going corded, you can always use this model plugged in too.
Whether you are using it professionally or at home, if you need to do kids haircuts, then having a cordless is a lifesaver. Kids can get spooked by so many little things during the cut, so not having a cord that could add to the anxiety is very nice. This is especially true if you find yourself needing to cut autistic kids hair as they have a lot of different sensory issues to deal with.
Cordless Designer vs the corded Designer
Some weaker points of the wireless Designer
Let’s be honest in this Wahl Professional Cordless Designer review and good thing it lacks many severe bad points. What might be of concern to some people is the cordless hair clippers’ vibration. Wahl’s models as a whole tend to vibrate a bit more than other brands in my personal experience.
However, the Designer’s vibration is smoother so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Especially if you’ve been around for a while. Even if you’re a beginner, I’d say you’d need a short time to adjust to the hair cutter “jumping” in your hand.
This is not unique to Wahl clippers though. Just about any electromagnetic motor will vibrate and even be noisy. It’s something you need to get used to or go with other clippers that use a rotary motor like Oster products. There is the Pro Alloy XTR from Andis that seems to have solved this problem for electromagnetic motors.
There’s one severe disadvantage for a specific audience, though. If you’re looking for a balding clipper, you’re not going to find it here. A better pick would be the 5 star balding clipper (for close cuts or bald fades.)
Lastly, I find the box this Wahl professional hair clipper comes with rather ugly. Wahl should really step their game up with these soft plastic storage boxes…
Wahl Cordless Designer Review: Final verdict
Wahl’s Cordless Designer is an all-around very solid choice for both home use or as a professional clipper. You surely want to look in the Designer’s direction if you:
are in search of a flexible, maneuverable professional clipper
value aesthetics
are a busy professional who needs ergonomics and good battery life
want to have a good set of guards included with your purchase
I’ve elaborated on the many reasons Wahl clippers are my choice to go to usually. And after doing this Wahl Professional Cordless Designer review, I’d say the Cordless Designer is yet another addition to the universe of Wahl professional hair clippers – without a doubt, a very worthy addition indeed.
Wahl Cordless Designer
Good points
- Lightweight
- Battery life
- Ergonomics
- Quiet
Bad points
- Vibration
- Possible bulkiness
- Storage box
- Not the best for fading
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I have this clipper and lost the recharger cord moving. Cannot find a replacment cord that specifically says it works for this model. Help!
Hello Susan!
Sorry to hear that…Honestly, the only thing you could do is just contact Wahl Support. I haven’t seen recharger cords being sold online on Amazon or similar sites.
Thankfully I’ve had only good experiences with their support so they will surely do their best to help you too!
Maybe this could be helpful: https://home.wahl.com/support/service-repair
They should have something lying around for you in the service center nearest to you!
Best of luck,
Alex
If I understand correctly, there are two 1005 blades: one advertises a 1-3 mm taper capability, the other does not. Which blade comes with the designer, and do both blades support the 1-3 mm taper?
Thanks!
Hello there, Skip!
Did you see that somewhere on Amazon? There should be only one #1005 Adjusto-lock blade and it’s indeed the one with the 1-3mm taper feature.
You can also see it on Wahl’s official site here: http://wahlpro.com/products/blades/1005-3-hole-blade/
Any #1005 blade Wahl clipper (including the Designer) should come with these specifications mentioned above. Probably somebody was lazy to write down the additional information!
Cheers,
Alex
I also noticed a difference but no explanation from Wahl or anywhere. On Wahl’s site, it shows the above #1005 as 3 HOLE CLIPPER BLADE – STANDARD – 1MM-3MM. It looks to be the Senior stock blade. However, they also have #1005-100 as 3 HOLE CLIPPER BLADE – DESIGNER. Physically they look different, the #1005 guard is ridged on the flat area similar to the #1006, while the #1005-100 is completely smooth like the #1045. My Designer came with the smooth #1005-100, but the actual angle of the cutting area looks similar as the #1005. No one seems to be able to answer if there’s any practical difference between the two. I wouldn’t think they would differ in cutting performance as they are both taper blades, but it’s unclear if there are any other differences like sharpness or composition.
Hi John, sorry it took so long to get back to you! You’re right that there is little discernible difference between the blades. They both do the exact same thing. The one difference though, as you said are the ridges. The ridged #1005 is to reduce drag against the head and keep the blade cool. The other one is flat and if you’re working on a customer with damp skin then it might drag a bit. Wahl clippers can heat up when you have been working for a while and the blade with ridges should help with that. Only slightly though. As I said, the main thing is there is less surface area so there is less metal against the skin and usually makes for an easier cut.