Cutting Hair
Different Types of Clipper Motors
Magnetic Motors are reliable and high powered with a high blade speed. Light textures of hair that are finer and less dense will feed and cut well with magnetic motor clippers.
Pivot Motors are also high powered but have a lower blade speed, making pivot motors more ideal for cutting thick, heavy, coily hair.
Rotary Motors are also high powered with a high blade speed. They are the only motor available with multiple speeds. This makes clippers with rotary motors more versatile and fitting for heavy-duty styling and cutting.
Hair Typing
Hair typing is the practice of identifying the type of hair pattern, texture, and density you have. Barbers utilize all three of these factors to properly care for their clients’ hair, including determining what clippers to use to cut the hair.
Hair patterns are also called hair types. You can have straight, wavy, curly, coily, or even a mix of hair type depending on the “coiliness” of your hair. Hair typing in not a way to rank hair from best to worst, rather it is a way to identify ways to care for and style your hair. For example, barbers take into consideration the type of hair they are working with to better cut and style the hair, as well as selecting the best tools and products to achieve the desired results.
Hair texture is used to describe the thickness of your individual hair strands. Hair can be thin/fine, medium, or thick/coarse.
Hair density describes how much hair a person has per square inch of their scalp. On average, each person has about 2,200 strands of hair per square inch on their scalp. Wow! Could you count all the hairs on your head?
Our hair is not always the same pattern, texture, or density on every part of our scalp. For example, at the very top of your head, also known as the crown, your hair is coarser, thicker, and denser than other areas. Barbers have to take these factors into consideration to achieve an even cut that blends well with the other cut hairs. The tighter a person’s curl pattern the lower the hair will look, and the looser the curl pattern the longer the hair will look.