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Your barbering tools spend day in and day out working hard with you. We are here to help teach you how to best care for them, ensuring a clean and long life!
Well first off your tools are a huge investment. A barber needs scissors, clippers, trimmers, a huge variety of combs and brushes, razors and many more accessories. The price tag on quality tools can be a small fortune. If they are not properly cleaned or maintained they will rust or break over time. Proper care of your tools ensures that your investment lasts.
Hygiene ! A professional barber or hairdresser understands the importance of proper hygiene. Our equipment touches many heads throughout the day and it is important to make sure we are not sharing clients' skin and hair with each other. This prevents the spread of germs and diseases.
Our capes will touch multiple clients a day until recently these were not single use items. They help to protect our clients from being covered in hair. You can now find disposable capes, so you can give each client a fresh cape, however this is not always financially available to everyone. This is why barbers always use neck strips. These strips are designed to ensure that the part of the cape that touches a client the most does not become contaminated, reducing contact time and spread of germs. Neck strips are disposed of between every hair.
It is important to make sure your barber shop or salon is always fully stocked with clean towels. These towels need to be washed daily in hot water to ensure that any germs or diseases are not spread.
As we mentioned, barbers and stylists always have a large array of combs and brushes. There are many reasons for this, one, being they all have different uses, the other being to maintain proper hygiene. If a comb or brush drops on the floor it is best practice to pick it up after your client and submerge it in Barbicide. It is also important to leave any brush or comb in barbicide for at least 10 minutes after using it on a client's hair.
What is barbicide you may ask? Barbicide is that blue liquid every barber has at their station. It is an EPA registered, strong hospital grade disinfectant that will kill bacteria and viruses on any comb, brush or other tools. Barbicide comes as a concentrate meaning you will need to dilute it with water. Making sure you have the proper ratio is important for its effectiveness. The proper mix is 1 part barbicide to 16 parts water. You have to remember to always change your barbicide multiple times a day to avoid contaminating any clean tools, and all your tools should be fully immersed in barbicide for at least 10 minutes to guarantee it is working the best!
Your clippers and/or trimmers are used on every client so it is important to clean and disinfect them in between every client.
To properly clean your barber clippers use a small hair brush to remove all the debris left behind, like hair or product. Then it is important to use a disinfectant spray, like Clippercide or Andis cool care. Clipper spray will help remove excess hair, disinfect clippers, cool them off and also lubricate them. When spraying clipper spray remember to hold your clipper blades pointing down. This helps to keep the spray away from any electrical components. Most barber clippers will have a fade lever on the side, move this up and down to work the spray around and remove any leftover hair fragments. Cleaning your hair clippers is to be done between every client. The same goes for your trimmers. Always make sure to use disinfectant to spray the clipper blade clean.
At the end of the day you should give your clipper and clipper blades a deep cleaning. Using a small screwdriver, loosen your clipper blades. Once they are off make sure to brush all hair out of your clippers. Place your clipper blades back together and tighten accordingly. Use a few small drops of clipper oil on the blades. Once the oil is on, turn your clippers on and move the lever. This step helps to spread the oil around. Wipe any excess oil from your clippers with a towel.
Clipper maintenance involves cleaning your hair clippers regularly and tightening your blades. You need to check your hair clipper blades regularly. If they are out of alignment they can pull hair, or worse cut clients.
Also you must never forget your clipper parts, or accessories ! Your clipper guards are usually made from metal or plastic and need to be disinfected between every client. Because of the material they are made from, you guards can be submerged in barbicide liquid for 10 minutes to clean them. Make sure to wipe them dry with a clean towel after.
Besides clippers, your barber shears will be your most used tool. Whether you are a scissor over comb master or just use them to texturize the top of your haircuts, your scissors are always there.
Between every client you have to wipe your blades clean. Use a soft microfibre cloth to remove any hair, dirt or product from your blades. It is good practice to follow your local laws and specific regulations on how to disinfect them and what disinfectant solution to use. Wiping your blades dry will also help prevent rust or corrosion caused by too much exposure to soap and water.
You need to make sure you are regularly oiling your shears as well as cleaning them. Using our handy oil pen, place a drop of oil where the two blades meet, also known as the pivot point. Gently open and close your shears to move around the oil and loosen and hair fragments that are stuck. Wipe any excess oil from the blades.
You should be checking your scissor tension at least once a day. This is to protect your blades and keep them sharp. Cutting hair with Scissors that are too loose will often bend or fold the hair. Scissors that are too tight will need extra work to use, this may show as hand fatigue or wrist pain at the end of the day. Improper tension can also damage your blades over time.
To check your tension, hold your scissors by their handle with the blade tips pointing up. Lift your thumb ring open and let it fall. If it closes all the way or less than 20 degrees your tension is too loose. If your blades stay open at a 45 degree angle or more your blades are too tight.
When you are done with your scissors for the day it is important to properly store them safely away. Storing your scissors can help prevent them accidentally being dropped or damaged. We recommend you store them in a protective case.
Luckily for us the modern day straight razor uses disposable blades. You need to always make sure you change to a fresh blade between every client. Once you have removed the old, dirty blade, place it in a proper sharps container and then submerge your razor in barbicide. Once it has sat in barbecide for 10 minutes you can remove it and take out a fresh blade. New blades are important in ensuring that no blood borne diseases or viruses are spread. between clients. It also ensures that shaves stay smooth and helps prevent ingrown hairs or razor bumps.
Keeping your station and shop clean is also a big part of the job. You must remember to sweep between every client. Make sure to wipe down your station, and barber chair with a disinfectant spray and clean towel between each client.
but your clients health and safety is as important to you as their perfectly blended fade. If you take the time each day to clean hair clippers and properly disinfecting them we guarantee your clients will continue to walk out your door looking.. and feeling fresh!
