How Often Should Scissors Be Sharpened?

There is no such thing as a self-sharpening pair of scissors, so how often should you sharpen your hairdressing or barber shears?

• Your hairdressing and barber scissors need to be serviced at least once a year to avoid permanent damage.
• If you cut hair with your scissors everyday, then we recommend a professional sharpening and servicing more than once a year.
• Both hair cutting and thinning scissors need to be sharper every two to four months by professionals for the best performance. 
• Cheaper scissors made from stainless steel require sharpening more often.
• Higher quality Japanese scissors require sharpening less often if they are well cleaned and regularly oiled.

Hairdressing and barber sharpening services point out the obvious that cutting more hair means the scissors will go blunt faster, so you need to watch when the scissors stop cutting sharply.

It is hard to know how often you need to sharpen your scissors, as only the hairdresser or barber will know when.

Japanese hair scissors use premium Cobalt, 440C and VG10 steel that require sharpening less often.

If you buy a cheap pair from Priceline or Chemist Warehouse, you will find these going blunt within one to two months.

These cheaper scissors require sharpening a lot more often and will eventually cost you more than the overall price of a Japanese hairdressing shear.

So save yourself the high cost of sharpening too often with a premium shear.

The average cost of sharpening scissors is $50-$100, and a cheaper $100 pair of Shears made from basic steel requires sharpening four to six times a year. At a minimum, you will eventually pair $200-300 a year to maintain their performance. 

Now an expensive pair of Yasaka Shears costs up to $400, but if you clean, oil and main these well, they only require sharpening once or twice a year. This saves you $100-200 a year. Well worth the investment for a pair that doesn't require sharpening often.

How Often Should Scissors Be Sharpened?

Here we talk about all the factors to that decide how often you will need to sharpen your hair scissors. Depending on the quality, maintenance and everyday use, your scissors can be sharpened once a month or once a year!

This incorporates cleaning and oiling, alongside right strain and change. Different components are the hair surface, dry versus wet, number of cuts performed throughout some stretch of time and nature of the scissors.

This is one of the most posed inquiries. At any rate once every year is a decent rule.  A ton is basically founded on consideration and upkeep. Day by day care and upkeep should be performed.

This incorporates cleaning and oiling, alongside right strain and change. Different variables are the hair surface, dry versus wet, number of cuts performed throughout some undefined time frame and nature of the scissors.

Better scissors require honing less frequently

For dependable sharpness, search for cutting and diminishing shears that:

• Higher quality steel is more expensive to buy, but they hold a sharper edge for longer
• The cheap hair scissors from KMART, TARGET, AMAZON, etc. Will become blunt fast and also cause damage to your hair
• Premium scissor steel from Germany or Japan are Hitachi ATS 314 or VG-10 steel
• Have hand-produced, hand-honed, tempered Japanese arched sharp edge

The hardness of steel uses a Rockwell HRC hardness; where the expensive steel is around 52 HRC and the cheaper steel is around 44 HRC.

Scissors from the Japanese 440c steel (estimated 48-52 HRC) and VG-10 are some if the most popular for professionas.

How are you using your scissors?

Everyone uses hair scissors differently, and they way you use them is a big deciding factor to how often you should sharpen your scissors.

Your scissors should remain sharper if you are following:

• You are cutting damp and clean hair. Avoid rougher dry and dirty hair.
• Cutting more than ten times a day, 5 days a week, and you will need to sharpen your scissors often!

Also, avoid cutting hair extensions, or treated hair that has chemicals, liquids, conditioner or gels that are left in.

Scissors you care for end up lasting longer!

Like most things in life, the more you care and maintain your scissors, the less often you will need to sharpen them.

To avoid sharpening your scissors often, make sure to care for them with the following:

• They are well oiled (scissor or knife oil) routinely and cleaned.
• Avoid leaving your scissors moist or wet.
• The cutting surfaces don't get scratched or scratched. Avoid physical damage.

Conclusion: howoften should I sharpen my hair scissors?

The main deciding factors on how often you will need to sharpen your hair scissors are:

• The quality of your hair scissors
• How you use them and how often
• How well you care and maintain your scissors

If you purchase a high quality pair of scissors and cut hair more than 10 times a day, you can expect to sharpen these every 2 to 4 months.

If you purchase a cheap pair of scissors with poor quality steel, then you could be sharpening them every few weeks or months.

Most professionals will sharpen every 500 to 800 haircuts, depending on which hairdressing or barber scissors they use.

Read more on hair scissor steel here!