Every art form has its tools and the barber trade is no different. In the past, barbers used oyster shells and flint. Today, they use some of the most beautiful shears and sophisticated buzzers to achieve the perfect result.
Here is a list of their most popular tools.
Cutting Tools
The barber tools of first importance are the cutting tools: shears, clippers and razor blades.
Shears, also known as scissors, are dual blades held together by a pin. Barbers use them to trim hair, texture and layer. You can test a barbers skill by how they use their shears.
Clippers are electromechanical tools (they used to be fully manual) that are something like shears. They have two toothed blades that slide against each other to quickly cut hair.
Straight Razors are tools that hold single use razor blades. They shave hair right up to the skin. They are very precise, but prone to nicks unless wielded by a highly experienced barber.
Razor blades are single use highly sharpened stainless steel sheets that can cut hair at an angle.
Shaping Tools
The next important barber tools are shaping tools. These include: guards, combs, blow dryers and beard combs.
Guards are plastic caps that go over clippers. They control how much hair is clipped off by the clipper relative to the scalp. The lower the guard number, the shorter the hair it leaves behind. The higher the guard, the longer the hair it leaves behind.
Combs section and comb hair during the hair cutting process. For the experienced barber, it also acts as a guard when using scissors to create texture.
Blow dryers as used to dry up wet hair and to style hair when applying hair styling product.
Beard brushes evenly spread beard balm product into a beard and evenly comb the hair.
Other Tools
All barbers must also make use of these tools to improve the barber experience for clients: dusters, barber capes, and neck tape.
Dusters dust off loose hair from the clients face and neck.
Barber Capes cover the clients body during the cutting process. It prevents hair from landing and sticking to the clients skin and clothes.
Neck Tape creates a sort of seal on the clients neck to prevent hair from creeping underneath the barber cape.
The barbers at Goldwyn & Sons make use of all these tools and more to give you the perfect look. We hope you’ll enjoy your next haircut with Oakville’s Best Barbershop, Goldwyn & Sons.
Thanks to ChatGBT for its assistance
[1] Hair Clippers
[2] Guards