I need a pair of thinning shears. I really only have two requirements. They need to be short, short, short and light. My instructor in BS had a great pair that she picked up at a hair show and I have looked every where for a similar pair. I cut with Centrix c2 5.25. I am not looking to invest and insane amount of money as this is not a tool I use often.

Any suggestions?

A word on shears...Since the 1960's when Vidal pioneered the 'precision cut' hairstylists have been obsessed with using the short shears that he used. This is a concept which has long passed it's sell-by date. Consider that we have come through the choppy Billy Idol look, the slithered-ends looks, the shattered interiors, to the age of the razor cut (which is rapidly fading, but that'sanother story) and hairstylists are STILL such in the short-shears mode...It's ridiculous, and another example of monkey-see, monkey-do. It's time to free up your minds and try to move past the tool of 45 years ago. I laugh to watch hairstylists attempting to do scissor-over-comb cutting with short shears, they create more steps than they know how to fix and it takes forever...This is a Barber technique, go watch a barber cutting...you'll see that he/she uses only long shears, lifts the hair with the closed blades and over-directs the hair upwards to avoid steps, and cuts BIG sections. Hairstylists are so caught up in the expense and design of shears that they have completely ignored the FUNCTION...

You can buy perfectly good shears for under $100.00, I believe that beauty school students who buy $250.00 shears are like student-drivers who drive Porsches, it's just foolishness. Remember that Vidal sassoon became the most famous haircutter in the world using scissors (that's what they were called then) that cost $20.00

I first brought up this topioc here a few years ago and have since had a number of e-mails from hairstylists who changed their minds and their tools and are thrilled. Hairstyling is supposed to be about the new isn't it? Time for some new thinking regarding shears.

well since I am the one using the short shears, and I am the one that started this thread... I am gonna reply to that attack...

I am about to graduate BS, I also apprentice. I started using a pair of short shears as a complete fluke...  fell inlove. I dont cut with them because of a monkey see monkey do, I cut with them because I LIKE THEM, and they work for me dot period

He means.."monkey see monkey do for the whole industry GeorgiaStylist...not just you.  Most of us started with short sheers in beauty school ...and yes, we all LOVED THEM.  What Brit is trying to share is experience, you can read him wrong and take it personally or you can take the posts for what they are and learn something.

Maybe after cutting hair for 10 years and your Dr tells you you have tendenitis or carple tunnel you will remember this conversation and try a pair of longer sheers.  It is one of the best things I ever did.  Anyway...not an attack just a little heads up.

Copa girl...I understand what you mean, I used to feel that way about my short scissors too, however, it became obvious that my cuts were becoming limited to what the tool could achieve, not what my creativity could achieve. Of course a different tool will feel strange at first but you'll quickly adjust and find that your cuts will change and new shapes and ideas will flow.

 Perhaps 20 years is long enough with a tool, I'm betting that they actually limit your creativity not enhance it?

How can you cut comb-over-scissor with 4 1/2 inch shears? Well, you can't.

Besides, think about the practicality of the work...If a new client is in your chair who has massively thick, coarse hair, perhaps a Latin hair type or a Northern European type...what's the point in using a tool that's obviously wrong for the job? It's like trying to cut the lawn with a switchblade. Tools should be appropriate to the job at hand, not determined in advance, one size does not fit all in this trade.

I graduated Beauty school ages ago and the school supplied scissors were long, maybe 6 or 6.5. Right after that (actually during, but my school's owner was older and not real trendy) the short shears became all the rage. I've always used both, and actually use both on the same head to this day. I can't tell you how much more work I found shorter shears created when I needed to cover ground and had plenty of area to work in. Because of that I never used my short shears when I had room to work and an abundance of hair. (Yes during those years some thought my longer sheers gangly but they weren't behind my chair in my space while I used them, so I let it go.) I use short shears when hair is thin though, and I use them when holding hair up with my fingers in tight spaces like the nape.  Now if you think about it, supposing you have a client with abundant thick wavy hair. Your doing an all over one length (just for a mental image). With long shears you can follow a curved guide rather far and take larger sections. (You might learn to do that with one stroke.) You have less to match up, and in checking the hair, you might actually find less to correct. The larger sections made it easier to see your guide, made the hair you cut at the same time all the same length with less margin for error. Well, it does for me anyway and I find the additional weight when measured against how many less strokes are needed a good trade off. The longer shears are less work for me when covering ground on thick hair and I am a 5'4" woman with small hands. They may not be for everyone though and I can respect that. I will say that I am glad my long shears aren't being laughed at anymore. Long shears don't eliminate the need for short ones and I've always had some of those to not only use, but help calm the chuckles.

For anyone interested, a while after I got my license I got interested in show dogs as a hobby. Now you want to see some fancy ultra long 9-10 inch shears, take your selves to a dog show and watch the groomers under the grooming tent as they turn a poodle into a giant powder puff or take what looks like Benji and turn him into a cocker spaniel. These show people are very talented when it comes to sculpting hair and making it look like the hair grows that way. It doesn't, it is all blended and completely trimmed and sculpted not only into a cut but to camouflage body faults, they even camouflage how the legs move, if not in a straight line. As a tip for anyone wanting those types of shears some of the better ones are Giebs. In fact I have a 15 year old, long,  (maybe 7-7.5 inch) pair of 46 tooth thinning shears from them that are still my favorites. In dog thiners they cut more hair than other companies counterparts (which needed several cuts to take off the same amount of hair) and blended better. Of course now there are lots of thiners being made for human hair to compare them to.

I agree. If one only utilizes one tool for his or her craft, that's a rather limited experience.

Long shears do serve many purposes. As stylists, we really should be open to any tool or implement that better helps us to do our jobs to the best of our abilities. It not only makes us more well rounded, it helps us to experience all our trade has to offer. 

I am very reluctant to limit myself to any one particular way of doing hair. Whether it's cutting or coloring or styling. This trade is all about keeping up with today's trends. We must do what is necessary to be able to carry that out.  

"The truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is."
Winston Churchill

I'm understanding what you all are saying about using new tools, but since I've never used longer shears I'm not getting why they are better, aren't they just longer?

They are better for certain cuts because of the nature of certain heads of hair and the mechanics of cutting those heads of hair.

I was taught that you only use the first inch of the blade anyway.

And you are just going to leave it at that?

I can do scissor over comb very well with short ones,

Have you ever watched a Barber do it? It's a barber technique after all. They stand back from the head, at arm's length and let the shears do the work. I'll bet that you stand quite near the head, shoulders hunched, arms bent? Using short scisors creates too many 'panels' and consequently too many ridges between them which have to be gone over to blend. It's better to cut as much width at one pass as possible, firstly it's quicker but it's also more efficient. 

what would be the difference if they were longer?

See above...

How does the size of the shears limit creativity?

Short scissors make the cutter into an architect, joining the dots or the angles to create a style...Long shears allow the cutter to be a sculptor, standing back to see the shape emerging, not using geometry to get from place to place on the head, it's much more free-form. many hairstylists mistakenly believe that they are sculptors, when in reality they are architects. There's far less art in architecture than in sculpture...which are you?

Maybe I need to try some??

Now you're using your head.

 Get some 7" and have some fun, I guarantee it will free your styles up immensely.

You are going to love it, I think that unless you are doing an absolutely precise geometric cut, (which I don't really offer, except to young girls who have never had one, but not for anyone middle-aged as it just makes them look like old-fashioned, tired, soccer moms) you don't need short scissors. As for the anal retentive need to clean up every stray hair and 'finish' every cut, that's architecture, and it's really boring. I don't know how you have all coped with the razor trend unless you have given up some of that need to 'perfect' every cut, it's the lack of precision that's attractive today. The idea that something is 'out of place' is just what I'm talking about...Can you free yourselves up enough to allow things to be un-perfect? That's modern styling, although look out because I think that blunter looks are coming back some because most people are tired of the choppiness, although 'Precision' cutting is not what I mean. I think there will be lots of quickly-cut bluntish looks, done with the razor, I've been doing them for a while anf the clients love it.

'Precision cuts' is what every $10.00 haircut place says that they offer, it's tired.

Forget the days of taking an hour to do a cut, the clients have had that and they are so over it, my clients marvel that i'm done in 10 minutes or less, as long as they love the results they are happy that it's done. Give up that old-fashioned idea that they  want you to spend all day cutting their hair, they don't, that's so 20th century.

I use 5 inch shears. I am a little lady with little hands, my shears do what I tell them to do. They fit my hand. I like that. Their weight is perfect in my opinion. I do scissor over comb with them, carve hairlines with them, (the rounded edge helps). I do  thinning, chunking, whisping, texturizing, etc. with them comfortably.

My point to this babble is, you'll find what you like, and you'll find what you don't. Enjoy the experience of finding your own comfort level.

I've cut hair with just a razor blade. And was thrilled with the results. If I wasn't afraid of loosing a finger I'd toss my blade handle.

Be creative.

I use 5 inch shears. I am a little lady with little hands, my shears do what I tell them to do.

Not really, they can't cut a panel of hair wider than about 3 1/2 inches, that's not wide enough to be effective and practical, as heads are wider than that. Also they are pretty ineffective and wrong for a huge thick head of hair, you just can't hack the hair off to sculpt, you must join the dots and be a mechanic.

They fit my hand. I like that. Their weight is perfect in my opinion. I do scissor over comb with them,

I didn't say it can't be done, but that it's made harder by having to cut too many panels and also with short scissors your hand is in the way of the action...

 carve hairlines with them, (the rounded edge helps). I do  thinning,

Again, there are scissors which are created for thinning, they do the job better than a scissor designed for another purpose, and they do it quickly and efficiently.

purpose.chunking, whisping, texturizing, etc. with them comfortably.

Yes, I think that Cosmetologists have convinced themselves that the one tool that they were introduced to in Beauty School is the only tool to use... it wasn't too long ago that you'd be ridiculed for even mentioning using a razor, but now it's trendy. The reason is that the dogma about tools has been so strong in the past, that hairstylists tried to make one scissor do every job, (which was actually pretty inventive of them) rather than being open to using the correct tool for the job. We spent years 'slicing' hair with open scissors before biting the bullet and admitting that the razor was the right tool for that look. Ditto for the 'shattered' ends look...we could have done it so much more quickly and efficiently but we were married to those short scissors.

The excuses I hear and read for not trying something new remind me of the excuses that I heard many years ago from hairstylists who refused to blow-dry hair, or to give up teasing hair, or setting it, it was "It's working for me"...

Think about this too...every stylist in your town is using the same tools as you, and achieving pretty much the same shapes, there's just so many ways to skin a cat...Also, the client's interest is piqued when they see you using a tool that their previous stylist didn't.

Any of you who use the razor will know what I mean...until a few years ago, almost nobody had had a razor-cut for 50 years and the clients were fascinated when you began cutting with it, correct? They asked..."What's that, a blade'?

It set you apart...that's marketing too.

I'm on the same page as Brit on this one.  The other thing that's really important to me ...when I'm cutting thick or even long hair...with the bigger blade it seems to take less effort for my hand to close the blades. 

I don't have to work my right hand and arm as hard and with my tendonitis this is imperative.

Bows down to britboy.... you win.... your the guru.... I feel privileged you waste your time cutting and copying my posts to rip them up.

By the way everyone has an opinion.

Maybe there should be a world of cloned britboys.... everyone will think like you, work like you, and offend like you.

I enjoyed reading the boards, been a member for a while and was afraid to post. I don't come here to deal woth childish people, I come here because I enjoy what I do. I'll bow down, and find somewhere else.

Britboy pleasure to meet you. It will be a pleasure to not deal with you again.

I need to email you something and see what you think....how do i do that.....don't want to post on the boards...

diva

Don't leave!

I wrote a long explanation as to why you shouldn't and just erased it, because it would be better said this way:

DON'T LEAVE BECAUSE I LIKE YOU!!!

If you do leave just change your posting name and come back! Then there will be nothing for anyone to see that could bother you. But hey, I still like the name Amirage. When I read that I thought it was your salon name and it was (and you are) smart and at the top of the directory. If statik doesn't answer I think you can google his name and find his salon which probably has an email address.

Talking about thinning shears, does anyone use anything that looks like these:

They're a razor thinning shear in one I think they are called a fish bone or a razor back. The teeth become the comb guides when they are closed and the blade becomes the razor blade. Cool looking, if anyone has been using them what do you think?