Choosing Hairdressing Scissors By Size & Style

Quick Summary

What Size Hair Scissor Should You Buy?

Before you get started with shopping online for a new pair of hairdressing scissors, follow these steps to measure the right hair scissor size for you:

• Get a ruler or an old pair of hairdressing scissors
• Open your left hand and place it on the palm of your hand
• Measure the full hair scissors or ruler against the palm of your hand
• Put the tip of the blade or the ruler on the end of your middle finger
• Measure the blade or ruler against your middle finger

Which Scissor Handles Are The Best For Me?

What style of cutting suits your hairdressing style?

The Hairdressing Scissor Blades:

If you are looking forbeginner scissorsfor practicing on mannequins, students and apprentice hairdressers and barbers, look for serrated scissors (micro serrated scissors) as they tend to grip the hair and create a simple straight hair cut. These hairdressing scissors cannot be used for slicing (slice cutting) or chopping.

If you are looking for professional-gradehairdressing and barber scissors hair scissors then the Convex edge blades are perfect for you as they have excellent edges that produce the smoothest and sharpest cuts that are perfect for slice cutting and chopping. The convex edge blade requires hardened steel which is usually found in Japanese hairdressing scissors, as the quality of Japanese Steel is superior.

The way you hold the scissors shows how you create cuts…

Mixing up the style of how you hold your hairdressing scissors with how you cut is important and understanding the type of scissors that align with your cutting styles and techniques is what makes you stand out in the salon or barbershop as the most experienced and talented hairdresser.

How you hold the scissors:

ForBlunt Cutting (bobs and one length), then you will need the hairdressing scissors to sit flat to the neck of the client. Your hand and fingers need to be positioned so your fingers not in the way while cutting. For these styles of blunt and bobs hair cutting style, we highly recommend thecrane stylefull offset hairdressing scissors.

When do I need to sharpen (Sharpening) my scissors?

It is a difficult question to answer, however, looking at how often professionals use their hairdressing scissors and what type of blade (convex or bevel edge scissors) will also change how often you need to sharpen your scissors.

All hairdressing scissors should be sharpened and serviced at least once a year to ensure they are well maintained, but ensure that the professional hairdressing scissor sharpening service you use is experienced, so as not to damage your tools.

Hairdressing scissors should also be maintained by the hairdresser and barber with oil and cleaning cloth to ensure they last as long as possible.

Read more about The Best Scissor Sharpening Services!

Best length for hair cutting scissors

The best length for hair cutting depends on the hairdressing and barbering techniques. The majority of hair cutting techniques require scissors with a length of 5.5" or 6" inches.

Barbering techniques such as Over The Comb require hair shear lengths between 6.5" and 7" inches.

Home hairdressing techniques for men and women only requires hair scissors with a length of 6" inches.

The best length of scissors for almost every hair cutting technique for men and women is 6" inches.

So what hairdressing scissors should I buy?

If you are looking for professional hairdressing scissors, take a look at the below recommendations.

• Juntetsu Offset Hair Cutting and Thinning Set with Japanese Steel
• Yasaka Offset Handle Hairdressing Shears (5.5” inch and 6” inch)
• Ichiro Offset Hairdressing Cutting and Thinning Scissors Set 6” Inch

Here are our wonderful recommendations for barber scissors:

• Yasaka 7” Inch Barber Scissors from Japan
• Mina Sakura 7” Inch Barber Scissors
• Ichiro K10 Hair Cutting and Barber Scissors 7”

Take a look at our beginner hairdressing scissor recommendations for apprentices, student hairdressers, and barbers:

• Pre Style Ergo Cutting and Thinning Set
• Mina Matte Black Offset Scissors Set
• Mina Sakura Cutting and Thinning Set

Thank you all for taking the time to read up on how to choose, maintain and look after your hairdressing scissors so you get the best cuts and keep those excellent edges on for a long time.

Entry Level Scissors Compared To Professional Shears

Finding the right pair of hairdressing scissors is like finding your soulmate…

To perform at your best in the hairdressing industry, you will need to find the right pair of scissors, and with this, you need to know what cutting styles and techniques you are interested in.

This will help determine what shape and size of scissors will align with your hair cutting techniques.

With the above image you can get an idea of the different sizes of hairdressing scissors, as they tend to range from 4.5” inches to 7” inches, however, recently the 5.5” inch and 6” inch scissors are more common and widely used by hairdressers and barbers.

The 4.5” inch to 5.5” inch scissors tend to have more precision and create a precise shape when cutting hair.

The 6” inch to 7” inch longer hair scissors are used for over the comb techniques and simple trims, these longer(barber) scissorsare very popular for barbers.

When looking for the right hairdressing scissor size that suits both your style and your hand size, try measuring the blade against your middle finger and the total length against the palm of your hand to see if it fits.

Scissors between 4.5” inches to the larger 8” inches are suitable for many different techniques in hairdressing.