I still remember being a trainee hairdresser, having just qualified and my instructor told me to go out and purchase a pair of hairdressing scissors. An easy task you might think? I mean, scissors are just scissors surely, they have two blades that open and close, allowing you to cut things like hair? How wrong I was!
When i walked into the hairdressing supplies store, I was literally overwhelmed with choices - Did I want a thinning scissor or a texturiser, or a standard scissor? Was I interested in offset handles, Semi-Offset or Straight? What length blade did i want? The questions literally seemed exhaustive, and I couldn't believe how complicated it all seemed to be, Which is why I hope that this article will be useful for you.
The first distinction to be made, is the type of hairdressing scissors that you want to buy, The most obvious is the standard cutting scissor - but there are also thinning scissors which are designed for taking some of the thickness out of the hair, and Texturising scissors which all add texture. Thinning and texturising scissors are essentially specialist scissors which are only used for certain cuts, so for the purpose of this article we will concentrate largely on what to look for in your standard hairdressing scissor.
As i mentioned earlier in the article, One of the primary considerations is The type of handle that you are looking for. There are two types that you really need to consider, the first type is the most popular straight handle, this is one in which the two handles of the scissor are parallel to each other, the same distance away from the pivot. These are by the far the most popular and the scissors that you would probably want to consider first. Secondly there are offset scissors, this is the type in which one of the handles is shorter than the other, hence giving the scissor an "offset" design. This type of scissor is not as popular but some people, particularly those with longer fingers, may often find this type of hairdressing scissor more comfortable.
Another major consideration when looking to invest in a quality pair of professional hairdressing scissors, is the most basic, but important and that is the length of the scissors. This is the total length, not just the length of the blades, and generally ranges from 4.5" to 7" in length. Blades longer than 6" are considered to be more specialised and are designed for particular barber cuts don't really have much use in standard hairdressing, which leaves you to choose from 4 sizes, 4.5", 5", 5.5" and 6". I wouldn't hesitate to suggest that the most popular size of hairdressing scissors is definitely 5" and this is probably what you may want to try first.
The budget that you are working with is a major factor in which scissors you will end up purchasing, with a massive variety of scissors on the market, you can be working with anything from right up to 0 - so be sure to go to the suppliers with an idea of how much you are willing to spend already in your mind. As a starter, or a recently graduated hairdresser, I would recommend spending around - , with which you can purchase some super ama scissors, a great beginner, before possibly working your way up towards joewell scissors.
