The Toolkit Concept
Shears designed to make it possible to get better results for different parts of haircutting and to do it in a fraction of the time. Now that these shears exist, it is possible for a stylist to build a toolkit that can make their work look better and at the same time it will save time and also save wear and tear on their main cutting shears.
Here is how it works:
2 CUTTING SHEARS: 1 SHORT, 1 LONG
First it’s a good idea to have at least two main cutting shears. So if you drop one and nick it badly, you have something to keep working with. What we recommend is since you need two shears why not have two different lengths. A 5.5” or 6” are ideal for cutting hair when you are holding it between the fingers of your other hand. That is all the blade length you need to get to your second knuckle. For your second shear however, we recommend you choose a longer size like 6.5 or ideally 7” This shear you use for shear over comb, cutting on the skin, and other techniques where you’re not holding the hair between your fingers. Face framing is easier with long blades as it gets your hand away from the clients face.
THINNING/BLENDING SHEAR
Now the next shear most stylists have used since beauty school is a thinning or blending shear. This is the best tool for removing weight without creating volume. It is the tool to use to blend out weight lines that you see and to remove weight without creating visible texture. Many stylists unfortunately are afraid to use their thinning shears. This is because almost all other thinning shears leave cutting marks in the hair and they pull hair if you try to comb out with the blades closed after cutting. These shears leave no cutting marks even in fine hair and they never pull the clients hair.
POINTCUT TEXTURE SHEAR
Next, it can really improve your work and save you time and wear on your cutting shears, if you have a modern PointCut™ Texture shear. Now many stylists spend their whole day point cutting to create negative space in sections in a way where you don’t see the point of origin of the negative space. This technique causes stylists to make thousands of extra cuts which is hard on their hand and it wears out the tips of your scissors as much as 10 or 20 times faster than if you only used a cutting shear for regular blunt cutting. With these shears you cut across the section at the level you want to create the negative space and it looks like you just point cut 10 or 14 times into the section. These are not like older texture shears from other brands. These leave no visible cutting marks or ‘castle walls’ in the hair. Use them for all your texture, or continue to point cut in the fringe but use these in the interior of the cut. In either case they can save 5-10 minutes or more per hair cut.
SLIDE CUTTING SHEAR
Finally, let’s talk about finishing your cuts. Most stylists agree nowadays that it is best to finish cuts dry so you can see how the hair will lay. The last thing you want do in dry hair is cut hard lines. This is where we recommend you add a DRY/SLIDE shear to your toolkit. This is a shear that can not cut a straight line but it ideal for free form cutting and slide cutting in dry hair. They are also the shear to use for all motion cutting techniques like slide cutting Anytime you move your blades against the hair, these are the shears to use. They will not pull at or tear the cuticle of the hair. They give you confidence slide cutting because if you accentually close them while sliding the hair slides away instead of creating a hole in your haircut.
