Hair Tools

[Bigblue&Goldie]

I just got my hair cut and got to talking to the lady about the scissors she uses. I noticed she turned a knob that adjusts the blade tension, so I asked her about them. She said she's been having problems ever since she dropped them and they need to be sharpened and tuned up. Apparently there are people that travel to salons and barbershops tuning scissors like a tool truck.

She said the scissors run about $700 a piece, but she has had hers for 10 years. Most of the girls had a couple of pairs for various tasks. The price varies anywhere from $200-$1,500 each! I asked her about the trimmers and she said they cost about $100 a piece and only last about 7-8 months in a high use environment. I was taken back by the cost, but professional tools cost money, no matter what industry you are in!

Not your typical tool thread, but every now and then we need to talk about something other than COO and HF vs. Snap On.

 

[Caddybill]

I will be the first to say it. I bet the scissors at HF cut just as well and are cheeper. Lol.

 

[kctyphoon]

Unless they say Klein, Jonard, Wiss, or Milwaukee on them - not sure how many takers you will have with this.. lol.. good luck.

 

[NoahG]

Man, and I thought my pair of Gingher scissors (don't you dare use them to cut anything than fabric!) were top of the line.

 

[928'er]

She said the scissors run about $700 a piece, but she has had hers for 10 years. Most of the girls had a couple of pairs for various tasks. The price varies anywhere from $200-$1,500 each! I asked her about the trimmers and she said they cost about $100 a piece and only last about 7-8 months in a high use environment. I was taken back by the cost, but professional tools cost money, no matter what industry you're in!

And you can bet they're not used for opening clam shell packaging or cutting cardboard....!

 

[928'er]

Man, and I thought my pair of Gingher scissors (don't you dare use them to cut anything than fabric!) were top of the line.

When I was in HS I worked in a haberdashery and we had two German tailors doing the alterations. One of them showed me how a pro uses (sharp) scissors - just holding them open in a "V" and gliding through the fabric - rather than using the ********** action we're used to doing.

Years later I was visiting friends and watched them struggling to cut Xmas wrapping paper. I said "here, let me show you how to use scissors" and cut a straight line in one pass. Girl's jaw fell open - she had no idea what you can do with a pair of scissors if you know how to use them.

 

[Tim37]

I had a similar conversation with the woman that cuts my hair. In the end its pretty much the same with any profession.

 

[d.mcfarland]

The people who travel and sharpen hair cutting tools usually charge $25 per scissors.

Your hair stylist exaggerated how much they cost, but she isn't far off. Even really good ones are around $300. A $1000 is the same scissors, just different features or finish.

The electric trimmers come in all different styles, with ones available at Wal-Mart for $20 all the way up to pro stuff that is around $200. Again, just different features or finish plus warranties for the more expensive stuff.

Why do I know this? The girlfriend is a pro in the Pittsburgh area.

 

[dlcwent]

**** BigBlue, you just came up with a more interesting thread than I just started. Never thought about this before. Food for thought. We all use different tools.

 

[90zcar]

He's not kidding about the price of scissors. $300 is a mid grade pair if you are lucky.
My fiancé also just got a new pair of clippers and they ran around $170 for a pair of oster 76's. The cost only goes from here tho because the metal guards can cost 30-40 a piece


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[Indexmill]

My neighbor is a professional hair cutter.

Professional hair cutters value their scissors just like we value our ratchets and wrenches. Like a previous poster said, its the same in any profession.

the next time you get your hair cut or go with the better half, ask to look at their scissors. Good ones are magnificent.

 

[Rico.]

Wow... a Grand for a pair of scissors... Who would have thought.....


Mind you, I have been shaving my head, every few days, for the last
25 years... So I guess I'm little out of the loop on this one...

My hair cuts cost me £7 per year on razor blades...

 

[mingus2112]

My barber (i've been going to the same old Italian barber shop since I was a little kid in the '80s) has pretty ordinary looking (but sharp) scissors. I wouldn't doubt that they were expensive when they bought them (the shop has been open since at LEAST the 1960s, maybe earlier), but i'm sure my barber would be shocked at a $700 pair of scissors. I'm fairly certain they sharpen their own scissors and razors as i've seen sharpening tools in the back. Speaking of razors, I once went to a "salon" where they "thinned" out my hair with a special pair of crimped looking scissors. My regular barber can and has always done this with a straight razor - with much more precision than the stylist.

What struck me to answer from your post was the comment about the clippers. I'm 100% sure that the electric clippers they have are the same ones that they had when I was a kid in the '80s. Makes me wonder why premium, non-disposable options are no longer available. Seems to me it would be worth it to spend a few hundred on a clipper that would last for several years and have the ability to be repaired.

 

[ARFLY]

No matter the profession, a quality tool makes the job easier and faster. You will pay for quality, but for professionals that means money in the bank. I use to be a commercial fly tier and it was the same in that industry. I had many different types of scissors that I paid some good money for, not to mention the vises and all the other tools.

 

[Macgyver_ga]

Man, and I thought my pair of Gingher scissors (don't you dare use them to cut anything than fabric!) were top of the line.

Lol I can relate to that statement. My mom had her own drapery business when I was growing up and she had some scissors (i think they were Gingher) that she practically kept under lock and key. If we cut anything but fabric with them, we were in big trouble.

 

[General Geoff]

I work at a computer repair shop, and there's a salon next door. One of the girls who works there stopped in a few months ago with a hair dryer, saying it was broken and asking if we could fix it. Not something I would typically work on, but neighbors are neighbors. So I cracked it open and discovered that there was an electrical break in the power cord. Ordinarily, hair dryers are disposable items that you can buy new for under 50 bucks. This particular one was a very high end tool, made in Italy, with a retail cost of close to $300. So I lopped off a few inches of the power cord and re-spliced the connections inside (the break was very close to the appliance end). This was obviously a tool that was meant to be repaired, because everything was held together with phillips head fasteners and the electrical connections were screw down terminal blocks.

No charge for the neighbor.

 

[90zcar]

Fiancé just brought home her clippers from the shop to trim my hair up last night. Here's her oster Classic 76's special edition mustache clippers. They make special limited run items just like snap on does with a 95th anniversary impact wrench.
The hair supply stores which you need a license to purchase items usually only get one or two of these in and then they are done

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[pendragon1998]

I am not a barber, but I have cut my own hair (basic buzz cut) for 10-15 years, and will do my son's hair too, once the 'baby' wears off him and my wife quits weeping every time he gets a haircut.

I also have an Oster 76 classic (made in USA), which I bought after years of using cheap wahls and whatever I could find at the box stores. I got mine on amazon, and it is a very nice, smooth-running power tool.

For scissors, I bought a nice vintage German pair on ebay, probably from the 1960s, and polished and sharpened them myself. Cost
was about $8. I use them for light hair cutting tasks - around ears and my beard, mostly. They are wicked sharp, and sharpening them is easy - just use a small saw file. Paul Sellers has a good scissors sharpening video on youtube.

I think a lot of these younger barbers have no clue how to sharpen, simply because they were never taught. Furthermore, they get suckered into the slick marketing and feel like they have to buy $300 pairs of scissors, when they could probably do just fine with an old school vintage pair (or two or three) that they could restore and use. Barbers were doing perfectly fine with those vintage scissors for many years, and taking a half hour to learn how to sharpen them could save these folks quite a bit of money. Its not like they make that much money to begin with, so I think it is very foolish not to learn how to resharpen their own scissors. The sharpening services try and pretend that it is a mystical process that can only be done by experts, but that is a self-serving lie.

 

[Ditchdigger]

My wife teaches hair at beauty schools. She cringes any time people call them scissors. In the industry they are only called "shears"

Her favorite Joe Well shears run from $200-300

 

[d.mcfarland]

Speaking of razors, I once went to a "salon" where they "thinned" out my hair with a special pair of crimped looking scissors. My regular barber can and has always done this with a straight razor - with much more precision than the stylist.

In most states a barber and a stylist have two different licenses. One is cosmetology and one is specifically barber. The barber license allows them to use a straight razor. The stylist cannot use a straight razor on a scalp.

 

[mingus2112]

In most states a barber and a stylist have two different licenses. One is cosmetology and one is specifically barber. The barber license allows them to use a straight razor. The stylist cannot use a straight razor on a scalp.

Interesting!

 

[Monte]

1159 bucks

http://www.pro-clipper.de/080.010@9030/Tondeo-Sensation-Offset-5.5-Premium-Line.htm

 

[90zcar]

I am not a barber, but I have cut my own hair (basic buzz cut) for 10-15 years, and will do my son's hair too, once the 'baby' wears off him and my wife quits weeping every time he gets a haircut.

I also have an Oster 76 classic (made in USA), which I bought after years of using cheap wahls and whatever I could find at the box stores. I got mine on amazon, and it is a very nice, smooth-running power tool.

For scissors, I bought a nice vintage German pair on ebay, probably from the 1960s, and polished and sharpened them myself. Cost
was about $8. I use them for light hair cutting tasks - around ears and my beard, mostly. They are wicked sharp, and sharpening them is easy - just use a small saw file. Paul Sellers has a good scissors sharpening video on youtube.

I think a lot of these younger barbers have no clue how to sharpen, simply because they were never taught. Furthermore, they get suckered into the slick marketing and feel like they have to buy $300 pairs of scissors, when they could probably do just fine with an old school vintage pair (or two or three) that they could restore and use. Barbers were doing perfectly fine with those vintage scissors for many years, and taking a half hour to learn how to sharpen them could save these folks quite a bit of money. Its not like they make that much money to begin with, so I think it is very foolish not to learn how to resharpen their own scissors. The sharpening services try and pretend that it is a mystical process that can only be done by experts, but that is a self-serving lie.

You aren't going to get near most stylist with a file near their shears. A lot of them now are very unique and have some odd angles to them. There are also different types like thinning ones etc.


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[valentine]

Wifey has been cutting my hair and our Sons hair for about 20 years. It's important to use good tools for haircutting just like it's important to get good tools for any other job. Since my Sons and I only require buzz cuts, scissors are rarely used. I do think that a Grand for a pair of scissors sounds excessive. Coupla hundred bucks I can see but a thousand bucks? No way! Oster trimmers/clippers are the best, in my opinion. Still American made and replacement parts and blades are widely available. You do have to maintain electric clippers but, with proper care, they'll last a very long time. We have saved thousands of dollars by cutting our own hair.

-Valentine

 

[pendragon1998]

You aren't going to get near most stylist with a file near their shears. A lot of them now are very unique and have some odd angles to them. There are also different types like thinning ones etc.

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A fine saw file used to draw file scissors blades can create a very good finish. I wasn't saying to use a 16 inch coarse ******* file. You could also hit them with a superfine diamond paddle file, a fine grit stone, or some high grit sandpaper to refine the edge further, I suppose. How do you think the professional sharpener is doing it? Only so many ways to sharpen an edge.

 

[90zcar]

I briefly seen it one time. Was some type of horizontal placed flare stone disc type of machine.


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[djb2]

Someone has to bring it up: Harbor Freight has a trimmer. On sale for $7.99, normally $15.99. 20% or 25% coupon can be used with the sale price.

I bought one a few years ago. After a few minutes of fiddling with the magnetic adjustment, needed to work properly with the local line voltage/frequency, it ran well enough. (Better trimmers work over a broad range, while these needed to be set perfectly.) But it felt as if it was tearing the hair out rather than trimming, much like many other low-cost trimmers.

Curiously HF sells a higher priced kit... for pets. It's on sale for $18.99, more than double the human version. Pretty telling.