Thinning Shears

Thinning shears
Photo: Anetlanda/Shutterstock
Q: Your site is great and has explained a lot I already wanted to know. However, now I want to purchase a pair of thinning shears and I am confused because they come with double teeth blades as well as one tooth blade and one flat.
 
What are the purposes for each? If you have the mixed shears which blade goes on the top, the teeth or the flat blade?
 
A: When it comes to thinning shears, a good rule of thumb to remember is that the more teeth a pair of thinning shears has, the less hair is usually removed.
 
Some shears have double rows of teeth in order to make certain that only a small amount of hair is removed with each "snip" of the shears. These are generally great for "fine tuning" an area of a cut that needs just a little bulk removed. Other thinning shears have relatively few teeth only on one blade of the shears and these will generally remove hair in "chunks" depending on the width of the teeth.
 
As for the placement of the solid blade when using thinning shears with a single row of teeth, you need simply to pay attention to the construction of the shears. Most haircutting scissors and thinning shears are made of two bladed metal pieces with a thumb grip at the end of one and a finger grip with a tang at the end of the other. These two pieces of metal are joined using a pivot bolt allowing the shears to be opened and closed by moving the thumb and fingers.
 
Even when there is no tang on the finger grip, the holes for the fingers and thumbs are generally different sizes and the placement of the shears in the hand is determined by the position of the finger and thumb grip-holes.
 
In cases where there is no difference in the size or shape of the holes of the finger grips, you should hold the shears in whatever manner is most comfortable for you. The position of the solid blade in relation to the hair being cut (top or bottom) is not relevant to the finished effect.
 
©Hairfinder.com
 
See also:
 
How to use thinning shears
 
How to thin out hair
 
Thinning gone wrong
 
Should people with naturally curly hair have it thinned?