Why You Should Avoid Thinning Shears On Curly Hair

Our curly haired women and girls out there know a lot when it comes to their beautiful bouncy curls. While most embrace their curls, others wish they could lose them. The most common ‘quick fix’ for removing curls or the bulk from curls is to use thinning shears. However, many hair stylists don’t consider that using thinning shears on curly hair or frizzy hair can cause bigger problems than they started with.

Thinning Shears Risks For Curly & Frizzy Hair Types

Making cuts with hair thinning scissors causes curly hair to become more frizzy and prone to split ends and breakage of the curl which, let’s be real, no curly haired woman wants their hair to break off.

The reason lies within the hair. No two strands of hair are the same on a person’s head. They are all growing at different rates. When you make a cut, the individual strands that help weigh down other strands spring up at a different curl elasticity for each individual strand causing the unwanted frizz.

We all know what thinning shears are but do we understand how they work? Thinning shears are scissors that have teeth on one side of the blade. Those teeth also have little grooves which allow stylists to cut every second, third or even fourth strand of hair without losing length. The other side of the blade is straight so it helps cut the hair to take out the weight or soften/blend unwanted lines.

Layer Curly Hair – Don’t Thin It With Thinning Shears

If you’re wanting to remove weight from your lush locks, it’s best to go to a professional stylist who specializes in curly hair. The internet is littered with sad stories of my hairdresser over texturized my hair.. The bulk of them were caused by stylists who have little experience with curly hair and used thinning shears incorrectly. Many of them would have had a better result if they layered the hair to remove the unwanted weight.

So if you have curly locks and a stylist comes at you and your curls with a pair of thinning shears – run! You’ll be saving your curls from the heartbreak and trying to grow it out. No one wants to recount their thinning shears disaster.

How to Recover From Thinning Shears Damages

If you’ve had a bad haircut with professional shears, you can do a few things to improve your hair in the short and long term.

First, find a hair stylist who specializes in curly hair and arrange a consultation to discuss the course of action. If your hair isn’t too short, the stylist may recommend another cut to remove some of the split ends and frizziness. You might decide to use a product while scrunching your hair to help the curls return, particularly if it’s only a few sections of hair that have been impacted by the bad cut.

Sometimes you just need a good dose of patience to wait for your hair to grow out of a bad haircut. At least you’ll know from experience that your hair and thinning shears are a bad combination!