How Offset Hair Scissors Reduce Wrist Pain

Every job comes with its own pros and cons. One the of most unfortunate cons of being a hairstylist is the pain in your wrist and hands that long hours of cutting can cause. The health risks of prolonged scissor use can lead to serious injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. As hairstylists, it’s important to take our health seriously so that we can continue our passion for years to come.

Over the years, hair scissor manufacturers have taken these health risks in mind and designed ergonomic hair scissors to prevent further damaging our wrists and hands. Unfortunately, many stylists are still unaware of the dangers that come with prolonged scissor use. In this article, we will discuss the benefits of using ergonomically designed offset hair scissors.

How Offset Hair Scissors Differ from Regular Hair Scissors

Regular hair scissors feature straight handles that are the same length. The issue with regular hair scissors isn’t the quality of the cut, but rather the way they require you to position your fingers. Regular scissors require the use of your thumb and ring fingers, but physiologically speaking, these two fingers aren’t meant to come into contact with one another, let alone constant contact. The unnatural movement as you use the shears causes constant tension in your hand and wrist, which isn’t healthy.

With offset scissors, the thumb handle is much shorter. The difference in handle length may not seem like a big deal, but it actually has a big impact on your hand health. The shorter handle helps prevent over-extending your thumb when you open and close the scissors, avoiding unnatural movements and preventing you from straining your wrist. They also don’t require you to cut with a tightly closed hand, allowing for more comfortable movement.

Different types of offset handles are even more ergonomically advanced: the full offset design and the crane design. In the crane design, the handles are offset but the thumb handle is shorter than on regular offset scissors. The significantly shorter handle allows for opening your hand without overextension of the thumb, allowing a downward, more relaxed elbow positioning. The crane design is considered the best design in terms of tension reduction because it goes beyond the wrist and allows you to relax both your shoulders and elbow as well.

How Hair Scissors Affect Your Career

The use of ergonomic hair scissors not only benefits your health but also benefits your overall career as a hairstylist. Constantly over-extending the muscles in your wrist and hands will eventually affect your overall ability to cut hair over time. The pain that regular hair scissors can cause in your hands makes it uncomfortable to continue cutting for long periods of time, decreasing your productivity and increasing the time it takes to perform even the simplest of cuts.

As a stylist, you should begin taking your hand health seriously if you haven’t already. The earlier on in your career that you begin using ergonomic hair scissors, the longer you will be able to continue your work as a stylist.