How To Choose The Right Length And Blade For Your Hair Cutting Shears

Hair cutting shears can have a significant impact on the way that you can channel your skills into results. So, finding the right length and blade of hair cutting shears for you is going to be crucial. Many people assume that the key factor in making these kinds of choices is the size of your hands. However, this shouldn’t be a determining factor.

 

The right blade for your hair cutting shears

The general rule is to go for quality when it comes to choosing your blade. You’ll also have to work out which blade type is likely to be the best choice. There are two main types of blades for hair cutting shears:

1. Beveled edge – this blade is the most common, the most traditional and often the cheapest. It can get the job done but it requires more thumb pressure to cut and it will need to be sharpened sooner than a convex blade. (see below) A beveled edge may also be serrated or corrugated. The purpose of the serration is to keep the hair from moving on the blunter bevelled blade.  This blade might be able to cut straight for a long time but it does it by giving a rough cut that is damaging to the hair. It’s kind of like tearing hair against the blade in a foil box, versus slicing it cleanly.

1. A convex edge – the outer edge of the blade is curved like a clamshell  and the cutting edge of the blade is a sharper angle. This means that the shears will cut more smoothly and with precision that does not require serration.. Convex edges also slide cut much better and they last longer between sharpening than bevelled edges.

The right length blade for your hair cutting shears

Blade length is measured from the tip of the blade to back  the finger ring, usually in inches. The average blade length size is 5.5” to 6”. These can be great for cutting the hair palm to palm. The key factor in choosing the right blade length is actually the use that you have in mind for the blade, not the size of your hands. For example, there are a number of cutting techniques that will always require you to use a longer blade, such as slide cutting, using a shear over comb, cutting on skin and cutting around the face.  A 6.5” or 7” is best for these techniques and will save you time on every haircut.