How to maintain your hairdressing scissors

Learning how to maintain your hair scissors is the smartest way to prolong the lifespan of your hair scissors.. When  hair cutting scissors have a lifetime warranty guarantee, nothing in life lasts forever unless you maintain the hair scissors to last a very long time.

Your hair cutting scissors are meant to serve you a good while, So just like that song by Irene Cara.. "I'm gonna live forever, I'm gonna learn how to fly".

Your scissors want to last for you! But I'm sorry they will probably never fly.. but I'm sure you get the general idea right?

So Let's continue to read on and see what we recommend for you to maintain that hair cutting scissors.

Why do we need to maintain our shears?

Why do you need to maintain your shears? Well these are the tools of your trade and it's important to upkeep your tools because you don't need a tool making your job harder, you want your tools to make cutting a breeze.

Would you go out and buy a Lamborghini and then let Joe up the road who has no real car experience to service it for you? I Don't think you would..

Same goes with your hair cutting scissors. If you have invested in expensive hair of shears, you don't want to then go replace them in 5 years because you didn't maintain your hair scissors properly.

Same goes with even cheaper pairs of shears.. you may have invested in those shears because that was your budget, but if you don't look after those shears, would you have accounted to replace those hair scissors quicker than you anticipated because they have not been taken care of?

Nothing in life will last forever and no shears will, but you can get a good 20+ years using the same shears if you had just taken the time to maintain those hair cutting scissors.

Steps on how to clean my shears

1. Using a small amount of rubbing alcohol based cleaning liquids and your cleaning cloth. Remove any dirt, loose hair and sticky residue from the scissors and around the pivot point of the shear.
2. Take a paper towel and remove any moisture excess of the shears and again around the pivot point.
3. Apply hair shear oil to the blades and around the pivot point
4. Carefully place them back in your scissors case while not using and store away for any wet areas.

Avoid letting your scissors soak in any Barbicide, so you don’t risk causing rust on your shears. With Proper cleaning you should never have to soak your hair scissors as well.

How to check the Tension

It's super important to know how to tension your shears for a few different reasons, one being if your Scissors are too tight it can create hand fatigue and the Hair cutting scissors can wear. Where if the tension is too loose then loose scissors can fold the hair and not cut the hair properly. When your Scissors have the right tension cutting hair, then you are provided with the ultimate cutting performance.

Steps on how to check Tension

1. Firstly make sure the tension ring faces you and hold the blades in the air with your hand firmly holding the right handle.
2. Hold the right handle at the bottom with your left hand up vertically. Using your left hand.. raise the left handle up to a 180 degree and then drop the hair scissors to close.
3. If the scissors completely closes it too loose, If the scissors move anything just over an inch it's too tight.
4. Ideally you want the scissors to drop and close an inch away from closing.
5. Keep adjusting and testing until it drop an inch or less away from closing

Remember its right to tighten.. and left to losen, when tightening or loosening your scissors.

How often should I sharpen my scissors

You should always use a professional sharpening service at least twice a year, depending on how often you use your haircutting scissors. By using a reputable and professional sharper you will ensure your scissors will not get damaged through the sharpening process and having your scissors stay sharper between services.

You should never wait for your scissors to go blunt to sharpen them, your blade edges should always be nice and sharp.

Scissor blades are like any blades that can go blunt over time and need professional sharpening. If you are a hairstylist that owns barber scissors or any type of cutting hair scissors then having those blade edges up kept and sharpened regularly means you will get the most potential out of your cutting tools.

As well as having your scissors sharp we have also discussed always checking the tension and using your maintenance kit for proper cleaning your scissors correctly and regularly to maintain their best cutting performance.

So there you have it as a step by step guide on how to maintain your professional haircutting scissors.

Happy Cutting