Thinning Shears

Q: I have a client who has a friend whose haircut is done with thinning shears. I was curious which type of thinning shears is needed to do a sort of pixie-ish, flippy-back, etc. My client has fine hair and I've notched and or chipped into the ends throughout.

I really think the addition of highlights will make the difference just to show different dimensions. Her friend, not a stylist, said it has to be done with thinning shears. If so, do you first do the haircut and then thin shear each section half way up and near the end?

A: Generally speaking, thinning shears are used after the haircut in order to remove excess bulk or to add texture to the look of the finished style. Without being able to actually see the haircut in question, I cannot possibly make a judgement as to how to duplicate the look.

That being said, it would be possible to perform a cut using thinning shears, but it will take considerable care in plotting how to complete the cut without ending up with a ragged looking result.

Many stylists who like to use thinning shears will keep at least two pair of shears on hand: one pair that uses a set of fine, evenly spaced teeth and cuts about 35% of the hairs with each snip of the shear. The second pair of shears will usually be notching shears with large, widely spaced teeth which are more suited to use on very curly hair or to remove chunks of hair for a choppy, textured look.

As for using the thinning shears, please note that typically a section of hair only needs multiple snips along its length when the hair is very long. Shorter hair generally needs only one snip of the thinning shear per section.

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See also:

How to use thinning shears

What's a good number of teeth in one sided thinning shears?

Hair pointing and slithering

Can you explain how to cut wispies at the neckline?