Hair thinning techniques

Let's be honest, nobody wants a bad haircut and nobody wants to cut a bad haircut either. Your Thinning shears can either make or break a haircut and we think it's super important to know how to take weight out of your clients hair safely without compromising the haircut.

There are some curtail details to remember when using your thinning scissors. You need to know what zones or sections in the hair cut to use them with. You need to assess you clients hair type and see which sort of technique you will use and which haircutting technique works best in what section. you never want to remove too much hair and you always want to use those thinning or texturizing scissors on DRY hair. 

Nobody wants heavy and extremely thick hair, we are all searching for that happy medium. But we all want our hair.. intact on our head.. and not butchered or over cut with those thinners. So listen up because we are going to go through techniques and tips to master any thick client's hair.

Point Cutting

When point cutting you can use either a thinning shears or a normal shear. When point cutting with a shear you need to either bring the hair out to 90-135 degree angle around the head and always use the shears to cut on a 45 degree angle. by cutting on a 45 degree angle this means you are not cutting straight across and cutting on the angle to ensure you can't actually see the line where you have cut.

Point cutting with normal scissors is just picking up the ends and giving yourself 1-2 inches to point cut into.

Twist cutting

Speaking as a hairdresser now, this is my go-to hair cutting technique I love to do when using my Hair thinning shears. This is a finishing technique that you only cut with dry hair and I really go in and soften any areas that need a little bit of weight out and not so much the big bulk. So this is how you do my softening technique..

1. Take a medium size section of hair and twist the hair from roots to ends. make sure the twist is no thicker than say 1 cam.
2. Check the tension of the twist and make sure you are not holding it too loose and not not holding the twist too tight. (by holding the twist to tight you will find it hard to cut, and can also damage the hair)
3. Once you are happy with the tension, angle your scissor to a 45 degree angle and get ready to start your first cut near the roots area.
4. Make the first cut at the root area with only half closing your scissors.
5. continue cutting down to the mid ends with slowly closing your scissors more than the last cut.
6. when the make it to the very ends this cut your scissors should be completely closed

(You can make anywhere between 3-5 cuts per spiral, so you really just access how much hair you want to take out with your thinning shear)

Make sure you comb out each section before starting the next to see how much bulk has been removed.

When using this technique, really think about what you're trying to achieve here.. if it's so take some weight out of the hair and give it bounce to the hair like a fresh bouncy blow-dry, then this is perfect. But if the client has super thick hair then this may not be enough weight taken out for them and you should really wait to try this until at the end of the haircut when you have taken out most of their bulk.

Thinning from the roots

Thinning from the roots is a technique designed to remove maximum bulk. Some stylists take a very fine 1 millimeter section and use their regular scissors and cut straight at the roots. The way to do it with your thinners could be a larger or the same size section, but only doing one cut.

But be careful, this technique is not for the faint hearted.

We all want to have that "Slick Rick" and no baby hairs through our parting right.. so NEVER cut near the root area near the clients parting, because they will be "Slick Rick" no more.

Thinning curly hair

Firstly cutting curly hair with thinning scissors can cause the hair to frizz as curls need their weight to stay beautiful. If your curly hair goddess has thicker hair and needs some bulk taken out, the best way to do this is to actually use your texturizing shears. Use the texturizing shears towards the back sections near the roots for optimal weight removal. Never use those thinning shears near the mid length’s.

Curly hair can already be dry or delicate, so using a thinning scissor on this hair type can damage the cuticle more or cause it to frizz. These are 2 things no curly haired client wants to experience

Softening thin hair

when you pull out the thinning scissors it can be scary for that client who already has thin hair right? Just the name alone "thinning shear" can be enough for your client to ask you not to use them on them. But a hair thinning scissors does not always need to be an enemy for this client in the right situation.

I would never suggest taking out bulk from the root for this customer. But what about softening that heavy hair in the fringe area or very ends? food for thought really isn't it?

Texturizing shears

so we know this blog is about Thinning Shears but your texturizing shears fall under the same category right? So to add texture to any kind of punk rocker crazy textured haircut, these shears will be your best friend. But for any say any easy breezy beautiful haircut these scissors can leave holes.

So if any hairdresser out there has found a way to implement their texturizing shears into and everyday style of haircut, without leaving any grab or holes! boy is that something we would like to know.

These are a fantastic shear to own as they can do wonderful things.. but you need to be fully confident in all aspects of hairdressing to use these.

Just don't do it tips

This is not a Nike campaign, we want to make sure that there are some things so just should NOT do when owning Thinning Shears.

• Never cut with Thinning Shears when the hair is wet. Why? because you're going in blind and not feeling the hair and seeing how much you're actually taking out.
• Never use thinning scissors on curly hair.
• Never use blunt Thinning shears because you can damage the hair and split the ends.
• Do not leave those Thinning Scissors un-serviced. What this means is, clean them, oil them, and sharpen them at least once a year.
• Never get "Scissor Happy" with thinning shears, always make sure you're checking each section before you go onto the next to see how much bulk you have used.
• Never experiment on a customer and always try new techniques on a dummy head
• Do not over thin in one section, always under thin and check it before you go back in and thin some more (if it needed).

We all love our "Finishing Scissors" as we like to call them, because they really can finish and elevate any dull or heavy haircut. So if used correctly they can be your strongest tool. There are obviously many different ways of cutting hair, so you always have to choose the best technique that works for you. we hope you found this helpful. So Remember Happy cutting! Just don't get Scissor happy