Hair cutting question for those in the know

sfnative · ‎03-10-2010

My hope is that those with technical knowledge will be able to help me understand if I'm right or just confused.

Here's the deal: I have pure white hair (have since 33 - am 67 now) that is medium fine, with some natural curl/waves. It's neither thick or thin. Probably just the right amount on my head. However, in the last 3 years I've had 3 surgeries, gone through a rather stressful time and have obviously aged. My hair is getting increasingly difficult to manage, due to increased waving/curling. I also moved to a different state during this time, so have a new stylist. When cutting/trimming my hair, she uses one of those scissors that I always thought were used to thin thick hair: each "blade" of the scissor looks kind of like a comb. Sorry for my ignorance here - I don't know what these scissors are called.

My thought about these scissors is what one of my stylists told me once, after my DD had a disasterous hair cut on her curly hair: that any type of curly or wavy hair should not be cut in a layered manner, as that will increase the curl/wave and that these scissors mentioned above could be doing the same to my hair, thus causing the issue I'm experiencing. (The last part of the sentence above is my hypothesis.)

Also, my stylist indicated my problem is related to the anesthesia I was given during the 3 surgeries and nothing else.

Can anyone help me understand my issue? Thanks so much! ~Rebecca

Desi · ‎03-09-2010

I can tell you that implement is called a thinning shears. I don't think it increases curl, just takes some of the weight off each slice of hair. I think layering is different from whether the hair is thinned or not. Can't help you further but if your issues are from the anesthesia I would think it will improve in time.

febe1 · ‎01-22-2012

We call it a texturizing scissors here. I have it done after regular scissors are used to, as Desi says, "takes some of the weight off." If you have "heavy" hair, you might like it. Heavy hair tends to lay flat and shapeless.

jewelsluvsbeauty · ‎03-09-2010

even though my hair is thin, I like them used just behind my bang area to lighten things up.

felixmom · ‎02-06-2012

My hair is much like yourself, mine is silver, thick/coarse, wavy, short. I went to a stylist years ago that used to "texturize" my hair with the tool you mention. It would look fine for 2 weeks and then it would suddenly become unmanageble and look just awful. I had no idea what the problem was until I changed hairdressers. My first appointment he looked at my hair and said if you never come back to me remember what I'm saying: DO NOT HAVE ANYONE TEXTURIZE YOUR HAIR! Went onto explain when you have the type of hair that I have and if they use texturizing scissors when it starts to grow the strand splits and becomes unruly. I've been with this same hairdresser for 13 years and he cuts my hair in layers with scissors. No lie, people ask me all the time who cuts my hair and how nice it looks. I use only Aveda products and could not live with Confixor which is a liquid gel made by Aveda. Hope this helps. Good luck!

sfnative · ‎03-10-2010

On 2/15/2015 felixmom said:
My hair is much like yourself, mine is silver, thick/coarse, wavy, short. I went to a stylist years ago that used to "texturize" my hair with the tool you mention. It would look fine for 2 weeks and then it would suddenly become unmanageble and look just awful. I had no idea what the problem was until I changed hairdressers. My first appointment he looked at my hair and said if you never come back to me remember what I'm saying: DO NOT HAVE ANYONE TEXTURIZE YOUR HAIR! Went onto explain when you have the type of hair that I have and if they use texturizing scissors when it starts to grow the strand splits and becomes unruly. I've been with this same hairdresser for 13 years and he cuts my hair in layers with scissors. No lie, people ask me all the time who cuts my hair and how nice it looks. I use only Aveda products and could not live with Confixor which is a liquid gel made by Aveda. Hope this helps. Good luck!

felixmom,

I really, really appreciate your feedback as this is exactly what's going on. Before we moved to Portland, I had a fabulous stylist in SoCal who scissor cut my hair and never put these other scissors to my hair. My current stylist came highly recommended by my acupuncturist, after I had declined to return to my DD's stylist who I could write a cook about.

Anyway, based on your reply and that of desi, taja and jewels, I am not returning to her. I'm on the lookout for another stylist as of this moment. I so need my hair not to be going in 10 different directions, with my new consulting business just getting off and running.

Thanks so much everyone!

sfnative · ‎03-10-2010

On 2/15/2015 Desi said:
I can tell you that implement is called a thinning shears. I don't think it increases curl, just takes some of the weight off each slice of hair. I think layering is different from whether the hair is thinned or not. Can't help you further but if your issues are from the anesthesia I would think it will improve in time.

Thank you so much Desi, for helping me understand. Please read below. I'm on the lookout for a new stylist. Thanks again!

sfnative · ‎03-10-2010

On 2/15/2015 taja123 said:
We call it a texturizing scissors here. I have it done after regular scissors are used to, as Desi says, "takes some of the weight off." If you have "heavy" hair, you might like it. Heavy hair tends to lay flat and shapeless.

Hi taja,

Thank you for helping to further understand the use of these scissors. Though I don't have heavy hair and don't think my hair is basically shapeless, I think my stylist might have been trained way back when everyone was using these. In using these scissors, she's actually thinned my hair in front and on the sides where it's quite unattractive and way more curly, so I've decided after reading the input I've received not to return to her. Thanks, again!

sfnative · ‎03-10-2010

On 2/15/2015 jewelsluvsbeauty said:
even though my hair is thin, I like them used just behind my bang area to lighten things up.

Hi jewels,

Interesting that you should indicate just behind the bang area, because my stylist was going to town in that area on me and it was getting so thin and turning up in a flip, which it hadn't done before. Just crazy.

After reading the comments provided, I've decided that I am done with this stylist and need to find someone new right now. Thanks so much for taking time to help me further understand my issue.

magicmoodz · ‎03-16-2010

There is also a blending shears that is used after a scissor cut. I could be wrong, but I think only one side of the shears is like a comb and the other is flat. At any rate, my stylist always uses it after the overall cut and it does just as it is named--blends my hair so that it lays better.