How to Hold Hair-Cutting Scissors

To give a proper haircut, you need to purchase scissors that are made specifically for working on human hair. These scissors are different than everyday scissors in several ways. A person who is using hair-cutting scissors must hold those scissors in the correct way. Holding these shears incorrectly increases the chances that you will make a mistake during the haircut. Holding hair-cutting scissors correctly is a skill, and it does take some time to get used doing so the right way.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Hold the closed shears in your weaker hand, in the middle of the blades.

2. Place the ring finger of your strong hand into the top hole and rest your pinkie finger on the pinkie rest that is found on the outside that hole. Your ring finger should enter the hole so that the ring goes around the finger about 1/4 inch below the bottom of the fingernail.

3. Put your thumb into the bottom hole so that the top of your thumb makes contact with the top-inside portion of the hole. The ring should go around your thumb about 1/4 inch below the bottom of the thumbnail.

4. Put your index and middle finger together, then rest those fingers just below where you put your ring finger. Depending on the shears, there may even be a slight groove in the shears. This is where your fingers are meant to rest.

5. Place the index and middle fingers of your free hand below the blade so that the bottom blade rests on those two fingers. Move only your thumb to open and close the blades. This is the proper way to use hair-cutting scissors.