6 rookie mistakes when sharpening hairdressing scissors

Despite the high risks and fail stories, many stylists still attempt to sharpen their hairdressing scissors by themselves. Sadly, most of these resulted to further damaging their shears, wasting their hard worked investment.

While we discourage untrained professionals from sharpening hair cutting shears, if you’re really determined to try it out, try to avoid these six unforgivable mistakes.

1. Using aluminum foil

You may hear a lot of talk about using aluminum foil to sharpen your shears, mostly because it’s the cheapest available option. The results, however, are as poor as the money you put in. Using aluminum foil tend to round the cutting edge of the blade, losing its ability to work effectively as before.

2. Cutting through sandpaper

While using sandpaper or even an emery board to sharpen your scissors’ dull blades may sound like a brilliant idea…. Well, it’s not. This won’t just alter the shape of your blades, it could permanently damage its inside structure. Even if you bring them to a professional service right after, it would require taking away or removing more metal to fix the damage. In worst cases, it would mean having to replace your shears.

3. Treating hair scissors sharpening the same as knife sharpening

Just because they look the same on the outside, doesn’t mean they are. Many have suffered from making the mistake of using their kitchen sharpening tools to sharpen their hairstyling scissors. The blade shape and quality of knives are different from your hair cutting shears so make sure things that are meant in the kitchen, stay in the kitchen and out of the salon.

4. Poor shear knowledge

Technical knowledge is a must when you’re sharpening scissors. There are a lot of factors that need to be considered if you want your tools to stay in shape. An expert would know what shape would make maximize their target cutting style, or whether there is a damage to the ride line. Also, professionals who take their careers seriously know that each particular blade is unique, and knowing which sharpening technique to take is something you learn from careful study and extensive experience.

5. Using DIY home sharpening equipment

It seems like everything has a DIY home kit these days, and that includes scissor sharpening equipment. There are a lot of procedures required in the process of sharpening your scissors to its best shape, and these steps use equipment that cannot be bought at a simple hardware shop. Using these DIY tools could result in bad sharpening, thereby doubling your costs.

6. Not asking for professional help

Scissor sharpening is a technical job, requiring the services of a certified technical expert. We are here to help you avoid mistakes, save your investment, and help you make them last longer. Just as a car needs to be serviced, your haircutting scissors also need the best treatment. You not only rely on them for your job, they are also the key to unlocking your career’s longevity. For this, you owe it to your tools to give it the best possible service.