How To Clean, Disinfect and Sanitise Hair Scissors

Hairdressing scissors are also known as shears, and they might appear to be odd-looking scissors to those who aren’t in the hair cutting or barbering professions. 

Hair cutting scissors are designed for a particular purpose, cutting hair, and that’s why they are so expensive. 

They shouldn’t be used for everyday applications like wrapping paper, open a bag of chips, etc. 

In order to get great results from your hair cutting scissors, it’s essential to take care of your scissors properly. 

Here we are going to tell how to sterilise scissors to get the most out of the investment that you have made. Let’s dive in.

How to sterilise scissors?

One of the wrong moves done by many hair salons is that they drop the scissors into the Barbicude, this simple method sanitises the scissor but not clean it because many small hairs are still caught in the scissor blade and eventually damage it. However, you can use another method in order to clean the scissors daily. 

Safe Work Australia recommends that hairdressers and barbers sterilise and sanitise their hair tools. This is a workplace safety requirement that professionals follow.

So enough about why we need to keep our scissors clean, here is how to disinfect scissors and sterilise hair scissors.

How to clean, sanitize and disinfect your scissors

1. Take a cleaning cloth and remove any dirt, buildup and debris.
2. Grab some rubbing alcohol, ethanol or similar, and rub this lightly over the blades.
3. Leave it there for five minutes, then when nearly dried, take a paper towel or clothe and wipe down the blades removing any remaining moisture.
4. Apply some oil to the blade if you are going to store these away for a long time.

Tips and Advice When Cleaning Scissors:

• You can use UV rays to disinfect your scissors and hair cutting tools, but its ability to kill COVID-19 (coronavirus) is still unknown.
• Chlorine can damage your hair scissors by causing rust and corrosive damage.
• Steam and hot water can disinfect and sterilise your scissors, but make sure to dry every part of the scissors after to avoid rust damage.
• Avoid soaking your scissors in rubbing alcohol, ethanol or other liquids. If you do, you need to disassemble the scissors, dry them completely and then reassemble them.
• Use paper towels to wipe off and help dry your scissors after use.

Scissors cutting combs and Brushes: Clean and Sanitize Everyday

Note: Combs don't should be left in fluid sanitizer overnight, it can really breakdown the materials a few brushes are produced using.

Utilize the denser longer end of the cleaning brush (or even a toothbrush) and wash away styling help buildup.

Absorb fluid sanitizer for no longer than 10 minutes.

Scissors and Shears: Clean and Oil Everyday

Use alcohol, sanitiser or rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball to eliminate styling help buildup - disapproving of the edges of the sharp edge to maintain a strategic distance from injury.

Hold shears with tips pointing down with the sharp edges open about at a 45º, put a few drops of shear or trimmer oil at the rotate point, open and close shears and let sit over night.

Toward the beginning of the day, hold the shears in a descending position and open and close open and close the shears. The oil from the prior night will flush out the hair that gets developed in the turn purpose of the sharp edges.

Wipe sharp edge clean.

A warm bath for the Scissors

Proper cleaning and sanitising begin by giving your hair scissors a nice warm bath. Fill the sink with soapy and warm water and place the scissors in it for one minute to soak them sometime. Remember to do this process one by one if you have more than one scissors.

Wipe off excess chemicals

After that take a cloth and scrub all the extra chemicals off from the blades as this will prevent them sticking in between the blades as well as help in precisely cut hair every time.

Drying scissors

Even though it might seem unnecessary, one of the most critical parts of sanitising and cleaning for hair scissors is drying them cautiously. Use a lint-free towel to dry the blades by swiping the towel over it carefully. 

In case you don’t dry the shears, bacteria and rust will build up and damage your hair scissors.

The toothpick technique is used to remove hair around the scissor screw, as you would food in your teeth.

The toothpick is a fast cleaning tip that must be performed on a daily basis.

Using a toothpick, circle the screw of scissors with the end to get rid of all the hair splinters. After just one haircut, the scissors could have a lot of tiny pieces of hair built up in the screw that could cause the blades to stick together.

Lubricate your scissors

To finish off the cleaning process, lubricate them. Using this on a weekly basis will prevent the scissors from rusting as well as from the build-up of chemical dirt. 

Open your scissor to 45 degrees and apply one or two drops of oil where the blades meet, i.e. near the screw. Use a soft cloth to rub the oil into the scissor gently.

Maintaining your Scissors:

After cleaning, drying, sanitising and oiling, these scissors need to store appropriately to maintain their performance and handling. 

These shears should have their compartment where you don’t risk of damaging the blades while knocking against each other. 

A protective case with a soft, porous lining will be needed that will keep the shears from moisture and environmental factors. 

Now you know how to sterilise scissors in the best way. So, follow all the steps and keep them clean and sanitised to avoid any risks while doing a haircut.

How to sanitise your hair tools between clients?

On a busy day, a hairdresser may go through 15-30 clients, so how do you sanitise your hair combs, scissors and brushes between clients?

Cleaning is time consuming and difficult to perform when you have clients waiting, so it is often easier to have an extra staff person there to handle the cleaning tasks in between clients, so you can do the quick payment and greet the new client.

To effectively clean and sanitise your hair tools between clients, you need to be efficient, have everything ready and in its place, so you can easily clean within 2 minutes before the next customer is ready.

Conclusion: How to Sterilise and Disinfect Your Scissors

There are multiple ways to keep your scissors clean and safe for your clients.

It is required by workplace health and safety to sterilise and disinfect your hair scissors on a regular basis.

Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising your hair scissors avoids a build-up of bacteria and rust.

You can perform the toothpick method on a daily basis to extract any build-up of hair, skin and oil.

You can also give you hair scissors a warm soapy bath that will allow you to sanitise the overall scissors.

Lastly, you can use rubbing alcohol to sterilise your hairdressing scissors completely.

Use liquid or gel based alcohol sanitiser and a cotton ball to eliminate germ and bacteria buildup located around the edges of the sharp edge to maintain a strategic distance from injury.

Hold shears with tips pointing down with the sharp edges open about at a 45º, put two or three drops of shear or trimmer oil at the turn point, open and close shears and let sit over night.

Remember to always dry and oil your scissors after cleaning to keep them in functioning working order.

Since 2020 and COVID-19, its very important to learn how to clean and disinfect your hair tools. Barber and hairdressers are taking extra precautions to sanitise their tools in order to keep their clients and workplace safe.