Why Do Shears Fold Hair?

Show Notes

And today I want to talk about shears that are folding hair. There are a few reasons shears will fold hair. Let’s go over those…

The first being, they’re dull. Just get them sharpened and they’ll work just fine. The other are nicks in the blade. They’ve been dropped or you’ve cut through something you shouldn’t, you get little nicks in them. You can kind of feel them in there too.

That’ll cause it to fold hair. I recommend just putting a rubber band around them and setting them aside until you can get to your sharpener.

The next one is tension. If you open your shear up and it just slams shut - there’s not enough tension and the blades are being pushed apart when you’re trying to scissor instead of cutting hair, they’re just folding it. 

You want to open your shear and have it drop but you don’t want the slam always set. You want a little bit of gap in there when it closes. That’s the perfect tension for these shears.

Another you don’t see as quite often but does happen as a misalignment issue or as we sharpeners call it - they’re being out of set. Maybe they got dropped, or stepped on, or got kicked around it causes the blades not to work properly against one another. 

What is Sharp Edges Oklahoma?

Say hello to the Sharpening Specialist.
My name is Jessie Jaggers, and I own and operate Sharp Edges. My family owned a grooming salon and boarding facility in a rural community and couldn't find a sharpener to service their equipment, so I started this business in 2017.

Good afternoon groomers,

This is Jessie with Sharp Edges in Oklahoma.

And today I want to talk about shears that are folding hair.

There are a few reasons shears will fold hair. Let’s go over those…

The first being, they’re dull. Just get them sharpened and they’ll work just fine. The other are nicks in the blade. They’ve been dropped or you’ve cut through something you shouldn’t, you get little nicks in them. You can kind of feel them in there too.

That’ll cause it to fold hair. I recommend just putting a rubber band around them and setting them aside until you can get to your sharpener.

The next one is tension. If you open your shear up and it just slams shut - there’s not enough tension and the blades are being pushed apart when you’re trying to scissor instead of cutting hair, they’re just folding it.

You want to open your shear and have it drop but you don’t want the slam always set. You want a little bit of gap in there when it closes. That’s the perfect tension for these shears.

Another you don’t see as quite often but does happen as a misalignment issue or as we sharpeners call it - they’re being out of set. Maybe they got dropped, or stepped on, or got kicked around it causes the blades not to work properly against one another.

That’s something the sharpener should be able to take care for you. That will definitely cause hair to fold.

Anyways, I hope this helps. Thanks a lot