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What is the difference between thinning shears and blending shears? Can we really say there is a difference between blending shears and thinning shears? Maybe? I guess so? Depending on how you are using the blending shears or thinning shears is all up to the many different techniques used on the hair.
Blending shears can be used for well exactly that - blending. The same goes for thinning shears, they are used for thinning, but what defines the difference between them both? There could potentially be no difference at all, or if there is, it’s down to the teeth on the blade of the thinning shear or blending shear.
Thinners generally have more teeth on the one blade. Best quality hair thinning shears can have up to 40 teeth sometimes a little more but depending on how close or how much you want to thin will determine what thinner you buy. Blending shears can be either your texture shears or thinning shears again depending on where you are needing blending and how much hair you're wanting to remove.
Your texture shears give exactly that - texture. Sometimes though a bit of texture may be just the thing to blend out the haircut of heavy lines to get the perfect cut. So to find your perfect pair you'll need a tone of practice before going all Edward Scissor Hand on us and getting the blending shear and thinning shear mixed up.
If used correctly no. if not used correctly yes and my goodness let’s hope you don't ever go down that road. When the thinning shear is used incorrectly it can take months even years to grow out the damage that may have been caused.
The space between the teeth of the shear determines how much hair is being taken from the hair, which on thinning shears they cut every 2nd, 3rd and 4th strand of hair.
However, if used too much in one section of hair it can take away a whole bunch of hair and leave the client obviously not happy. So best to leave the thinning to the experienced hairdresser and hopefully they work on the hair about to be thinned on dry hair so they know just how much hair is coming off once cut and comb out any excess hair.
Thinning shears are used for if it's not obvious by now THINNING. As stated above thinning shears thin the hair from the number of teeth they have on one blade of the scissors and the other side is just a straight blade that allows you to cut not a whole chunk of hair but every 2nd, 3rd or 4th strand of hair if used evenly.
A blending shear is either texturizing shears or thinning shears but just used in one of many different ways. The best example would have to be the classic scissor over comb to use the scissors to blend out any hard or heavy lines that may have been created throughout the haircut.
Another way to use you 'blenders' is on long straight hair that may have layers that maybe be looking a little heavy or chunky when falling against the rest of the length of the hair is to simply remove weight from the layers so the haircut isn't left with any heavy lines because really the year is 2020 we all want that seamless sleek long hair right?
This is a tricky one people, there is no right or wrong answer but in my opinion, if we weren't meant to use them why would there even be such a scissor made? I guess really you don't need to use the shear on every hair cut but at least you have different options of tools in your scissor case.
Also if you need a little thinning on a haircut then by all means get your 40 teeth thinner out and thin away but not too much! Keep the work you create even and only use the right tools for the right job.
Really you won't be using your straight cutting blade shear to remove length, will you? This is why you need multiple scissors to create your best cutting work yet! Read more about what hairstyling professional should know about shears.
Ok ok ok, making sure before cutting any length or before you pick up your 'blenders' please please please make sure you have in hand the right shear with the right amount of teeth on the shear to be able to blend layers with your thinners.
When cutting your layers, depending on how thick the hair is you may notice that some layers will fall heavy.
To help avoid this you grab your shear for thinning and you pick up the section of hair that needs to be blended and you can either chip into the hair or make a single snip into the section.
Slowly pull the shear out of the section of hair so essentially your shears thinning the section as you go without taking too much from the section. Then drop the section and repeat if you need to. Feel free at this point to take wider sections as you go cutting with your thinning shear as you want the blend to look natural.
The wider you go with the section the better the blend happens in my opinion, but hey if you got this far reading I'm sure you don't really need our help you are more curious to learn other techniques. Am I right? Or am I right?
