It's important when working with professional tools to regularly clean them, oil them and check the tension. Doing these things will help you get the best performance out of your shears and allow you to use them throughout your time in cosmetology school as well as after you graduate.

At the end of the haircut or at the end of a day start by wiping off the blades of the shear. This will get rid of any residual hair and products that could have stuck to the blades. To avoid cutting yourself pinch the blade between your fingers with the edge pointing away from yourself. Slide the cloth parallel to the direction of the blades and slightly away from yourself. After cleaning off the blades wipe off the backside of the pivot. Especially if you do a lot of wet cutting moisture can run down your blade to this area.

The Next step is oiling your shears. Just place 1-2 drops of oil behind the pivot area and open and close the scissor to work the oil through the pivot. The purpose of the oil is not to lubricate the shear but rather to help flush out water that could still be in the tension system. This will help you avoid corrosion.

Finally check your tension. Its not uncommon for a scissor to loosen up during the day especially on a newer scissor. There are plastic washer to help keep your scissor feeling smooth and early on with a scissor it will seat itself. To tighten the scissor use the included multitool and turn the knob clockwise or to the right. To loosen turn it counter clockwise or to the left.

As a note it is especially important to check the tension on your thinning shears to make sure they aren't loose. When a toothed shear like a thinner is loose the blades can cross over each other leading the blades to get stuck on each other and causing damage to the shears. Staying on top of your tension and checking it on a regular basis is the best way to avoid this.

We hope this information helps and if you follow these steps you will get the best performance out of your shears and avoid a lot of common issues like a "crunchy" feel or folding hair.