To prolong the life of your shears, and to extend the time that your professional salon shears stay sharp, every stylist should develop a daily shear-care routine. The steps in this routine should include:
- Wipe down your shears with a clean, dry towel. This removes product, hair, and chemicals from the surface of the shear.
- Oil your shears. Use a lightweight machine oil - not something gummy or heavy, and definitely not a food oil (vegetable and animal oils definitely do not work well).
- If your shears are held together with a screw fastener: place a few drops of oil around the screw head and open and close the shears a few times to let the oil soak down into the washer under the screw head.
- If your shears are held together with a finger dial: flip the shears over and place a few drops of oil around the back of the screw assembly (not the side with the dial - the other side of the shear). Open and close the shears a few times to let the oil seep into the screw assembly.
- Clean your shears. Place a few more drops of oil where the two blades overlap each other. Open and close the blades a few times and wipe them down again with a dry towel. Hair and product builds up between the blades, and the oil helps float that junk out from between the blades, keeping them working smoothly.
- Check that the finger rest and stopper between the finger rings are both in securely. If loose, a dot of super glue does wonders to hold them in better!
- Store your shears safely in a case in the drawer at your station, if you can. Otherwise, bring them home with you. It's preferable (if theft isn't an issue) to leave your shears at the salon because porting your shears back and forth to home each day isn't just a hassle - it also greatly increases the chance that they're going to be dropped or knocked into something along the way.