How To Trim Arm Hair: 3 Essential Techniques To Make It Look Natural

This post is all about how to trim arm hair. Having excess arm hair can be unappealing. Thankfully, you can trim it and reduce the height to a more appealing length simply and easily. I mean, if I can do it, you can do it too. That is what this article is all about: managing your arm hair to acceptable levels for appearance and social acceptance.

So, all you gorillas out there, keep reading, and I will show you how simple it is.

My Arm Hair – What I Deal With

I remember driving with my grandpa when I was little, looking over at him driving in his truck with the window rolled down and seeing his long arm hair moving in the wind. It wasn’t super long or slightly more than you would normally see on a man.

Even back then, I thought it looked weird and thought to myself, if this ever happens to me, “I’m cutting it if it gets that long.” Lo and behold, sure enough, I got a pretty good amount of hair on my arms when I grew up. I sometimes trim it with scissors when I thought it would get too long. It is not a method that is very practical at all, and I would avoid doing it if at all possible.

My arm hair is rather light in its color, but it does get rather bushy and tall. Thankfully, I have a method that works great for just trimming arm hair down to just the right level and still having arm hair.

Shaved Arms?

I have never shaved my arms and don’t think I ever will. Nope, it’s not for me.

It is not a look I want to go for. I don’t have any problem with men who shave their arms; I prefer to have some hair on my arms and the look it gives me. Plus, it is a lot of upkeep, shaving your arms every couple of days to maintain that look. I have enough problems with all of the other grooming habits I have that I don’t want to add more work piled on top of everything else.

Plus I don’t like shaving because of the stubble that shows up after a day or two and to me it is annoying. Stubble is generally very sharp and annoying to deal with.

Trimming Arm Hair

My preferred method of dealing with excess arm hair is to use clippers. Either a hair clipper or any of the body hair trimmer/clippers, beard trimmer, and even a groin trimmer. They all work!

I probably have around 30 different electric trimmers in my collection at home, and they all work. There are too many trimmers from all the reviews I do on this website.

These just work fantastically to remove just the right amount of hair without looking like you had to do anything at all. No dead giveaways to people that you had to groom your arm hair, thus blending seamlessly into the fray. I don’t want to explain my grooming habits to people in public.

Another great feature of using this method is it takes little to no time at all to simply make a couple of swipes on each arm and be done. I would say, at the top, it would take 5 minutes in total to trim your arm hair. For me, I only have to address this every month and a half, and then I don’t have to worry about it for a long time.

Guide Combs Are Our Friends

Now, just having a pair of shears or clippers isn’t enough to make it all work seamlessly. You’re going to need the guide combs that probably came with the trimmer. These guide combs are the blenders that take hair off but don’t make it obvious in appearance that you did anything at all. They fit over the blade of the trimmer and provide a varied length of the height needed.

Guide combs come in different sizes. Generally, the lower the number, the more it will take off; 1 is really short, and 15 is really tall. If you are new to using a trimmer/clipper, I would suggest you start out with the highest number you have and work down to a lower number from there until you find the length of hair you desire. This is really important to remember because you can always take off more hair, but you can not put more hair back on.

So take it slow and start with the highest number of guide combs you have and work down. If you don’t hear the hair cutting, the guide comb is too big, and you will need to drop in the number of the guide comb.

Forearms

I often wear short-sleeved shirts, so this is the area I use the guide combs on and also pay the most attention to. Since this is what is normally presented to the public. I usually use a number 3 or two to trim my forearm hair.

Upper Arms

I get longer hairs on the back of my upper arms and some on my shoulders, and I take this stuff right down to skin level with either the trimmer with no guide comb or a dedicated back shaver. This hair is quite unsightly, and it must go immediately. I also have back hair, and I usually take care of the upper arms when I am shaving my back.

You can either shave or use a quality hair trimmer. For shaving the upper arms, I would suggest a good back shaver. It would only take a couple of swipes with a good back shaver on both arms.

Tools I Use

For Forearms

I have a lot of great rechargeable trimmers and a couple of plug-in clippers. Even my less desirable trimmers do a great job at trimming forearm hair. You don’t need anything fancy to get the job done.

I have a page here, What Is The Best Men’s Grooming Trimmer? 5 Best Trimmers. I list the best trimmer I have used and recommend.

Shaving Upper Arms

For shaving the upper back of the arms, nothing beats the Bakblade 2.0 Elite Plus Back Shaver. It will quickly make short work of the back of the arms in no time. Plus, if you have back hair, it will easily take care of that too. My favorite and most highly recommended back shaver, hands down.

You can read more here: Bakblade 2.0 Elite Plus Back Shaver Review.

The Final Thoughts On How To Trim Arm Hair

Trimming your arm hair is what I prefer and it is super easy using a guide comb attached I hope you give it a try and see how effective it is at solving the problem of having too much hair on your arms.

In the comment section below, let me know what you use to trim your arm hair down.

Any comments or questions are always welcome.