April 2009 Archives

In my review of the Remington Shortcut, I mentioned that there's a reason why they won't ship it outside the United States. Well, it is because the power supple is 120 volt and does not work in most of the rest of the world which uses 220 volt electricity. In the room where I stay, we have a converter that drops the 220 to 110. So, I figured I would just make sure I always plugged it in there. Yeah. The second time I went to recharge the Shortcut, I plugged the power supply into the wrong outlet and couldn't figure out why it wasn't charging.

Amazon to the soldier's rescue once again. I found a universal power supply that is very handy for deploying solders and travelers in general. The Velleman Compact Universal AC Adapter Power Supply can be used in place of most power supplies. It can be plugged into 110 volt or 220 volt which is what I needed. It comes with a number of tips that attach to the cord. And, the output voltage is switchable to match the device you are trying to connect it to. It is important to get Velleman part number PSSMV1 and not PSSMV1USA if the 110/220 capability is important to you. PSSMV1USA only does 110.

It sounds confusing, right. It's really not. Use the selector switch on the side to select the output voltage. Check the device you plan to plug it into which should have the input voltage clearly labeled. The Remington Shortcut requires 4.5 volts of DC.

Select the tip that fits into the device. This is pretty straightforward, it either fits or it doesn't. Match the polarity. Check the device you plan to plug in, in the same location where you found the voltage there should be an illustration; a dot, a circle and two lines. This illustration tells you whether the center pin in the plug should carry positive or negative electricity. Each of the tips that comes with the power supply has CEN marked on one side. The output plug on the power supply has a '+' symbol on one side, a '-' symbol on the other. Make sure the CEN is on the side indicated by illustration on your device and you should be good to go.

I currently use the Velleman to charge my phone and the Remington Shortcut. It works great. I think it is important to note that if the device you want to plug into the Velleman power supply requires any kind of special plug, most electric razors and modern cell phones for example, the Velleman will not work. I'm very happy with it at this point. Does exactly what I need it to.

For a long time out here on FOB Hunter, we had no barber. That did not preclude us from adhering to military grooming standards. There are a number of barracks barbers on the FOB with varying degrees of skill. The most common approach is to simply get a “butch” haircut, one in which the hair is a sixteenth of an inch all over. I really hate the way that looks on me but not as much as I hate really bad haircuts. I decided to look at the options out there that would allow me cut my own hair in some reasonable fashion. Amazon to the soldier's rescue.

A search on Amazon turned up a few possibilities but the only one that got decent reviews was the Remington Shortcut. When I tried to purchase it through Amazon and have it shipped to my APO address, Amazon would not allow me to order it using that ship to address. Turns out, there was a reason for that. I had it shipped to the house and asked my wife to forward it to me out here. That made it take a while longer but it did finally arrive.

The Shortcut comes with two comb attachments. One is apparently for doing butch haircuts. The other used in conjunction with the dial on the Shortcut lets you adjust the length to which the hair is cut. This was the feature that I wanted. I like my hair cut nearly skin tight on the sides but I like to have about quarter inch or so on top. Having read the reviews on Amazon which made it very clear that reading the instructions was important, I read the instructions before I used the Shortcut for the first time. Sounded pretty straightforward.

I started on the sides with a setting of 1. The Shortcut does require that you go over an area several times in order to get all the hair cut. It's a lot like brushing your hair. After the sides were done, I set it to 1 1/4 and went over the curve from the side of the head to the top to give a reasonable transition to the longer hair on top. Last, I set the Remington Shortcut to 2 and trimmed the top. Once I was done, I got into the shower to get all the hair clippings off.

I now do this once a week. Friday morning is my haircut, right before I jump in the shower. It works great. My hair always looks decent. It's not the flat top that I where at home but my hair meets Army standards and I don't cringe every time I catch a glance of myself in a mirror. I have to say I'm quite happy with the Remington Shortcut. At less than $40 if it lasts the entire deployment I will have gotten my money's worth out of it. I'll put it in the deployment box when I get home and probably not use it again until my next deployment.

For the complete details of what comes in the box and the specifics on how to use it go to the Remington web site. My only intent here is to let people know how I use it and that it does a great job for what I need.

[Update: 24 Apr]
The Shortcut is a great idea. The implementation, not so much. The device requires approximately 20 hours to charge and then lasts for about 3 to 5 minutes of run time. Long enough to cut my hair but only just. Very disappointing. I am now looking for a similar device from a maker other than Remington.

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