A hair cutting device (100) comprising: a housing (106); a detector adapted to detect motion of the device with respect to a skin surface (400) against which the device is juxtaposed; a hair cutting head (300) having a heated wire (260) suitable for heating hair growing from the skin, the hair cutting head being movable between a first, hair cutting position and a second retracted position at which the wire is removed from the vicinity of the skin; a controller (118) adapted to move the cutting head to the first position or to the second position when it does not responsive to said detected motion.