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A hair clipper, often individually called the apparent plurale tantum hair clippers (in a similar way to scissors), is a specialised tool used to cut human head hair. Hair clippers work on the same principle as scissors, but are distinct from scissors themselves and razors. Similar but heavier-duty implements are used to shear sheep, but are called handpieces or machine shears.
Hair clippers are made up of a pair of sharpened comb-like blades in close contact, one above the other, and the sides which slide sideways relative to each other, a mechanism which may be manual or electrical to make the blades oscillate from side to side, and a handle. The clipper is moved so that hair is positioned between the teeth of the comb, and cut with a scissor action when one blade slides sideways relative to the other. Friction between the blades needs to be as low as possible, which is attained by choice of material and finish, and frequent lubrication.
Hair clippers are operated by a pair of handles which are alternately squeezed together and released. Barbers used them to cut hair close and fast. The hair was picked up in locks and the head was rapidly depilated. Such haircuts became popular among boys, mostly in schools, and young men in the military and in prisons.
Manual clippers were invented around 1855 by Nikola Bizumić, a Serbian barber. [1] While they were widely used in the distant past, the advent and reduction in cost of electric hair clippers has led to them largely replacing manual clippers. Some barbers in Western countries continue to use them for trimming. They are also used in the Russian army: when conscripts enter boot camp, they cut their hair close to the skin, sometimes using manual clippers. [2]
In Greece, male students had their heads shaved with manual hair clippers from the early 20th century until it was abolished in 1982. The same practice was used in the military, where recruits had their heads shaved as they set foot in boot camp. In the 1950s and 1960s a law was implemented in Greece whereby head shaving with manual clippers was to be used as a punishment for young people caught by police, such as teddyboys and prostitutes.[ citation needed ] This practice was extended to Greek hippies and leftist youths during the 1967-73 military regime. Obligatory hair clipping was abolished in Greece in 1982. [3]
Manual hair clippers are used extensively by barbers in India to give short back and sides haircuts.[ citation needed ] Orthodox Jews tend to avoid clipping the side of their heads. [4] Among Muslim men, some consider it haram to clip more than a fistful of the beard. [5]
Electric hair clippers work in a similar way as manual ones, but are driven by an electric motor which makes the blades oscillate from side to side. [6] They have gradually displaced manual hair clippers in many countries. Three different motor types are used in clipper production: magnetic, rotary and pivot. Rotary style may be driven by direct current or alternating current electricity source. Both magnetic and pivot style clippers use magnetic forces derived from winding copper wire around steel. Alternating current creates a cycle attracting and relaxing to a spring to create the speed and torque to drive the clipper cutter across the combing blade.
Leo J. Wahl invented the first electric hair clipper. He first designed a hand-held massager for his uncle, Dr. Frank Wahl. Frank Wahl opened a manufacturing plant in Sterling, Illinois to produce and sell Leo's massager. During this time, Leo would sell massagers to various barbers and noticed an opportunity to improve upon the tools barbers were using at the time. [7]
Leo Wahl took over his uncle's manufacturing business after Frank left to serve in the Spanish–American War in 1898. Leo continued to work on his inventions and by 1921, he patented his final design of an invention more than a decade in the making- the first electric hair clipper. Within a year, Wahl Manufacturing had manufactured and sold thousands of clippers all over the United States and in 1921 Leo renamed the company the Wahl Clipper Corporation. When Leo J. Wahl died on May 20, 1957, he had over 100 patent applications to his name. His descendants still operate the company today.
By 1921, Mathew Andis Sr. entered the electric clipper industry. Production of these clippers began in the basement of his home, with help from Anna, his wife. Andis sold his electric clippers door to door and one year later established the Andis O M Manufacturing with John Oster and Henry Meltzer. After the three men parted ways, Mathew established Andis Clipper Company the following year. Today, Andis Company remains a family-held business. [9]
In 1928, the John Oster Manufacturing Company joined the electric clipper market. In 1960, the John Oster Manufacturing Co. was acquired by Sunbeam Corporation. Oster continues to manufacture clippers today. [10]
Electric hair clipper blades must be lubricated frequently. Each major hair clipper manufacturer sells its own brand of hair clipper oil. Clippers can also be maintained with aerosol clipper spray which acts as a coolant, disinfectant, lubricant, cleaner, and rust preventative. It is possible to find out what is inside such a product by viewing the product's safety data sheet online. Wahl Hair Clipper Oil, for example, is simply mineral oil packaged in a bottle with a dropper tip.
Most magnetic-type consumer grade hair clippers use a vibrating motor that moves the blade at a high resonant frequency. Sometimes the motor will come out of tune and make a loud noise. There is a screw on the side that is used to retune the motor and bring it back into resonance. [11]
| Cutting blade type | Oster blade size | Common guard size | Hair remaining | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inches | Millimetres | Growth | |||
| Fine cutting blades (also referred to as zero blades) | |||||
| #000000 | 1⁄250 | 0.10 | 5 hours | ||
| #00000 | 1⁄125 | 0.20 | 10 hours | ||
| #0000 | 1⁄100 | 0.25 | 15 hours | ||
| #0000A | 1⁄75 | 0.34 | 20 hours | ||
| #000 | 1⁄50 | 0.51 | 1 day | ||
| #0A | 3⁄64 | 1.2 | 1.75 days | ||
| Medium coarse cutting blades (#1, #1A, #1.5) | |||||
| #1 | 0.5 | 1⁄16 | 1.6 | 3.5 days | |
| #1A | 1 | 1⁄8 | 3.2 | 1 week | |
| #1.5 | 5⁄32 | 4.0 | 8.75 days | ||
| Full coarse cutting blades (#1.75, #2, #3.5 and #3.75) | |||||
| #1.75 | 1.5 | 3⁄16 | 4.8 | 10.5 days | |
| #2 | 2 | 1⁄4 | 6.4 | 2 weeks | |
| #3.5 | 3 | 3⁄8 | 9.5 | 3 weeks | |
| #3.75 | 4 | 1⁄2 | 13 | 4 weeks | |
| Longer cutting blades | |||||
| 5/8 H/T | 5 | 5⁄8 | 16 | 5 weeks | |
| 3/4 H/T | 6 | 3⁄4 | 19 | 6 weeks | |
Blades are usually made of rust-resistant stainless steel. Ceramic cutters are available; they are not subject to corrosion, and stay sharper longer because of a higher resistance to wear than metal blades. However, ceramic blades are brittle and easily broken, and more expensive to replace than metal blades. [ citation needed ]
A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a barbershop or the barber's. Barbershops have been noted places of social interaction and public discourse since at least classical antiquity. In some instances, barbershops were also public forums. They were the locations of open debates, voicing public concerns, and engaging citizens in discussions about contemporary issues.
Shaving is the removal of hair, by using a razor or any other kind of bladed implement, to slice it down—to the level of the skin or otherwise. Shaving is most commonly practiced by men to remove their facial hair and by women to remove their leg and underarm hair. A man is called clean-shaven if he has had his beard entirely removed.
A buzz cut, or wiffle cut, is a variety of short hairstyles, especially where the length of hair is the same on all parts of the head. Rising to prominence initially with the advent of manual hair clippers, buzz cuts became increasingly popular in places where strict grooming conventions applied. In several nations, buzz cuts are often given to new recruits in the armed forces. However, buzz cuts are also used for stylistic reasons.
A razor is a bladed tool primarily used in the removal of body hair through the act of shaving. Kinds of razors include straight razors, safety razors, disposable razors, and electric razors.
A blender is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender container with a rotating metal or plastic blade at the bottom, powered by an electric motor that is in the base. Some powerful models can also crush ice and other frozen foods. The newer immersion blender configuration has a motor on top connected by a shaft to a rotating blade at the bottom, which can be used with any container.
A crew cut is a type of haircut in which the upright hair on the top of the head is cut relatively short, graduated in length from the longest hair that forms a short pomp (pompadour) at the front hairline to the shortest at the back of the crown so that in side profile, so the outline of the top hair approaches the horizontal. Relative to the front view, and to varying degrees, the outline of the top hair can be arched or flattened at the short pomp front and rounded or flattened over the rest of the top to complement the front hairline, head shape, face shape and facial features. The hair on the sides and back of the head is usually tapered short, semi-short, or medium.
A straight razor is a razor with a blade that can fold into its handle. They are also called open razors and cut-throat razors. The predecessors of the modern straight razors include bronze razors, with cutting edges and fixed handles, produced by craftsmen from Ancient Egypt during the New Kingdom. Solid gold and copper razors were also found in Ancient Egyptian tombs dating back to the 4th millennium BC.
A flattop is a type of haircut where the hair on the top of the head is cut and styled upright to form a flat profile when viewed from the front or side.
An induction cut, also referred to as a mighty fine, is the shortest possible hairstyle without shaving the head with a razor. The style is so named as it is traditionally the first haircut given to new male recruits during initial entry into many of the world's armed forces, but most particularly in the United States.
The Wahl Clipper Corporation is an American manufacturer of grooming products. It is headquartered in Sterling, Illinois.
Remington Products, commonly known as simply Remington, is an American personal care brand which manufactures hair clippers, electric shavers, epilators, and haircare products. It is a subsidiary of Spectrum Brands and Oak Hill Capital.
Dog grooming refers to both the hygienic care and cleaning of a dog, as well as a process by which a dog's physical appearance is enhanced for showing or other types of competition. A dog groomer is a person who earns their living grooming dogs.
Hairstyling tools may include hair irons, hair dryers, hairbrushes, hair rollers, diffusers and various types of scissors.
Bonsai Barber is a barber-simulation video game developed by Zoonami and released for the Wii console in 2009 in North America, Japan, and the PAL Regions. This video game was a featured WiiWare title for 1,000 Wii Points on the Wii Shop Channel.
A brush cut is a type of haircut in which the hair on the top of the head is cut short in every dimension. The top and the upper portion of the back and sides are cut the same length, generally between 1⁄4 and 1⁄2 inch, following the contour of the head. The hair below the upper portion of the sides and back of the head is tapered short or semi-short with a clipper, in the same manner as a crew cut. A variant form may have a slight graduation of the top hair longer from back to front or a quickly graduated bit of hair at the front hairline to achieve a little flip up of the hair at the forehead. A brush that is cut at less than 1⁄4 inch on top may be referred to as a burr. A brush that is cut at 1⁄4 inch or longer on top, and especially one that shows natural curl, depending on length, may be referred to as a short brush cut or brush cut. Brush cuts are traditionally groomed with hair control wax, commonly referred to as brush wax.
A regular haircut, in Western fashion, is a men's and boys' hairstyle that has hair long enough to comb on top, a defined or deconstructed side part, and a short, semi-short, medium, long, or extra long back and sides. The style is also known by other names including taper cut, regular taper cut, side-part and standard haircut; as well as short back and sides, business-man cut and professional cut, subject to varying national, regional, and local interpretations of the specific taper for the back and sides.
Hair-cutting shears are scissors that are specifically designed for cutting hair. They are also known as barber shears, hairdressing shears, or hair shears. They range in size from about 5 to 7 inches long and commonly have an appendage, known as a finger brace or tang, attached to one of the finger rings. This gives the user additional control when cutting. A swiveling thumb ring is new technology in shear design. The swivel shear offers increased flexibility and the ability to keep the wrist straight and the elbow down in all cutting positions, creating more comfort and control.
Shanghai-Style Barber Shop is a barber shop opened by a group of Shanghai barbers coming to Hong Kong mainly in the 1950s to give classical Shanghai haircuts. It is popular in Hong Kong among higher class people in the period of 1950s-1970s, offering a range of classical haircut until today. Other than hair-cutting, Shanghai style barber shops provide different unique services include trimming, massaging, nails clipping, etc. Despite the sunset of Shanghai style barber shop in Hong Kong in the modern days, it still attracts loyal customers, especially among males, and costs around HK$70 for a haircut and shave using traditional clippers.
Nikola Bizumić (1823–1906) was a Serbian inventor and entrepreneur known for having invented the hand-held hair clipper.