Background: Preoperative hair removal from hair bearing areas is widely practiced as this helps to facilitate surgery and postoperative management of the operative site. Razors are widely used in poor resource settings like ours but there are concerns that their use may be associated with a high rate of surgical wound infection. In contrast, clippers are not commonly used in poor resource settings because they are expensive, but are thought to be associated with lower rates of wound infection. Most studies done on this subject are in Caucasians and extrapolating the results to black populations may be inappropriate as it is known that there are significant racial differences in hair and skin. In addition, clean surgical operations are known to have the least wound infection rates. There is a need to define the relative roles of razors and clippers in our environment with regards to wound infection following clean surgical operations. Objective: To compare effectiveness of depilation and wound infection rates following the use of razors and clippers in preoperative hair removal in clean surgical operations. Methodology: A randomized controlled study was carried out over 1 year among 158 operative sites in 146 patients who met the inclusion criteria. The 158 operative sites were randomized into two groups; the first group had preoperative hair removal using razors while the second group had preoperative hair removal using clippers. The site of hair removal was observed for adequacy of hair removal and presence of skin injuries in both groups. The participants were then monitored for 30 days (when no prosthesis was used) and 90 days (when prosthesis was used) for the occurrence of wound infection based on the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) criteria. The total cost incurred was determined for each participant by adding the cost of the hair-removal device and cost of managing any resulting wound infection. The data was subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS version 21 and a p value < 0.05 was considered significant. Result: Seventy-nine operative sites were assigned to each group. Ninety-six percent of those in the razor-shaved group had complete hair removal compared to 82% of those in the hair-clipped group and the difference was significant (p=0.005). Twenty-nine percent of those in the razor-shaved group had some degree skin injury compared to 5% of those in the hair-clipped group. The difference was significant (p=0.000). The total rate of wound infection was 5.7%, however, the razor-shaved group recorded 8.9% wound infection rate compared to 2.5% in the hair-clipped group and the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.167). Finally, the mean cost incurred in the razor-shaved group was approximately N 587 ± 1,644.60 compared to N 1,272 ± 883.46 incurred in the hair-clipped group. The difference was statistically significant (p=0.001). Conclusion: Razors were more effective in hair removal compared to clippers but they caused more skin injuries in the process. The use of razors was also associated with a higher wound infection rate although this was not statistically significant. Clippers however cost more than twice the amount associated with razors, and this difference was statistically significant. The use of razors and clippers in preoperative hair removal are both acceptable in clean surgical operations, but razors may be preferred when cost is a constraint. Key words: Razors, Clippers, clean surgical operations, wound infection.