Scissors

[shockinglength]

How do you know when you need to sharpen your hair scissors?

[Carolyn]

When they get dull. They will eventually stop cutting cleanly and sharply through the hair. Well sharpened scissors will cut cleanly and quickly without a lot of effort. Dull scissors will kind of "chew". Have you ever had paper or sewing scissors get dull? The same kind of thing will happen with hair scissors.

[motormuffin]

I sharpen mine when it feels like the hair is scooting and not grabbing.

[BunnyBee]

I sharpen mine when it feels like the hair is scooting and not grabbing.

How do you sharpen your hair scissors? Or do you get them done professionally?

[SHELIAANN1969]

How do you sharpen your hair scissors? Or do you get them done professionally?


I have a pair of sharpeners that I bought at WalMart for about 15$ (I think). Of course, I haven't had to use them yet, but I think some butchers can sharpen them too. I swear my Gran used to have her scissors sharpened at the butchers, or else my memory is failing.

[motormuffin]

My husband sharpens them for me. He's got grinding tools at our shop.

[halo_tightens]

If you know how, you can do it by hand with a stone... My Grandpa taught me how to sharpen knives and scissors on a hand-held whetstone when I was a very little girl.

(I always wanted to 'whittle' with him and had my own little pocketknife.:) )

[Sissy]

My husband sharpens them for me. He's got grinding tools at our shop.

My husband has some tools, what sort of tools does one need to sharpen scissors?

Personally, I think this is a very good thread as I have often wondered if my scissors might not be sharp enough because I get such frequent reoccurring split ends... it almost seems as though trimming them off makes them come back worse sometimes! I spent around $35 on a very decent sounding pair of FROMM scissors from Sally Beauty Supply too... so it's not like they were $4 cheapies. I don't know if this problem is just in my head (me thinking the splits are reoccurring even though they are new splits in diff. spots), my hair, or possibly my scissors?

[motormuffin]

He says he uses a 4" angle grinder and does it by eye...I wouldn't recommend this for most folks. He's like Edward Scissorhands with his grinder. Bench grinder would be the more stable version.
He's actually in one of Makita's ads with a grinder in his hand.

[ericthegreat]

Speaking as a apprenticing hairstylist, once your haircutting scissors go dull its time to throw them out and buy a new pair. For some things, you really can't save any money or you risk giving yourself a bad quality service. Dull blades with make split ends even worse than if you hadn't cut them at all. As with many things in life, you tend to get what you pay for. So if you invest in a higher quality kind of haircutting scissors, they will tend to last longer and work better on your hair.