Thinning scissors are an important tool to add more flexibility and versatility to your hair cutting kit. They’re mostly used by professionals. But, with a little experience and know-how, they can be used effectively at home too!
While not all hair types are suitable for thinning scissors, there’s no replacement for a good pair of thinning scissors if you just have too much hair to handle. Thinning removes enough hair to bring movement and volume back into your hairstyle.
But, like all hair scissors, you need a high-quality product to get the job done right.
In this article, we’ll take a close look at some of the best thinning scissors available. We’ll look at scissors from a range of prices and designs and give our honest evaluation of the pros and cons of each pair of thinning shears.
| Budget |
|---|
 |
| Goody Thinning Shears for All Hair Types |
| 4.2/5.0 |
| Size: 6 Inches |
| Teeths: V-shaped teeth |
| Incredibly affordable, designed for home use and easy to use. |
| Check Amazon |
| Best Value |
|---|
 |
| Fenice Salon Hair Thinning Scissors |
| 4.5/5.0 |
| Size: 6 Inches |
| Teeths: 18 teeth |
| High-quality steel, suitable for medium-coarse hair. |
| Check Amazon |
| Top Pick |
|---|
 |
| Jaguar Shears Silver LineSteel Hair Thinning Scissors |
| 4.7/5.0 |
| Size: 5.5 Inches |
| Teeths: 40 teeth |
| Specially tempered steel holds up to heavy use, quiet action. |
| Check Amazon |
How to Use Thinning Shears
Thinning shears are not like cutting shears, and shouldn’t be used like them. There’s a misconception that thinning shears work well for trimming hair and managing split ends and damage. That may be true, but only when the damage is very minor, and the trim incredibly minimal.
Most of the time, cutting shears are the more versatile tool. Thinning/texturing shears are used to add final touches to a hairstyle, and to create body and movement in hair that would otherwise be weighed down by its own thickness.
How you use thinning shears also depends on what you want the final effect to be. Texturing can be done to reduce the harshness of your cuts or to change the way hair moves in a given style.
Thinning is used to lower the density of your hair. That may create more movement and volume, depending on the hair, and can even bring out positive characteristics in your hair like waves and curls that are otherwise lost.
But they can also be used to soften bangs, and to even out hair that has gone a long time without a proper cut.
There are some basic rules you should follow when using thinning shears, no matter what you’re intended look.
Don’t Use Them Too Often
Thinning isn’t useful when it’s used too often. Taking too much hair, even over a long period of time, results in thinness and damage.
So, if you use thinning shears, try not to use them more than once a month. If your hair grows more slowly or is naturally thin, you may not need to use them even that often.
How often do you trim or cut your hair? Most of us can get away with only trimming once a month and cutting every other or every third month.
Initially, try to only use the thinning shears when you cut your hair, you probably don’t need them when you trim. If that doesn’t seem to be enough, slowly increase how often you use them, but don’t exceed once a month.
If you go a month between thinning and it still doesn’t look or feel quite right, experiment with thinning a little more aggressively. That may be the trick to getting the look you want.
Section Your Hair
Never try to eyeball thinning hair unless you’re a professional with a lot of experience doing it.
The results of eyeballing your hair can be an uneven and unnatural look. Since thinning is usually done to enhance the natural virtues of your hair, that’s a distinct disadvantage.
Sectioning in your hair into three-inch pieces will make sure your distributing the thinning evenly and will help prevent you from over-thinning any one area.
The easiest way to do this is to clip your hair up with hair clips rather than using hair ties or combs. Hairclips are simply more effective purpose-built tools, and they’re easier to put in and take out on your own.
Never Get Closer to Your Scalp Than Halfway Down the Strand
Regardless of how long your hair is, you should never get any closer to your scalp than half-way down the strand. That’s true whether your hair is six inches long or sixty.
That’s because thinning closer to your scalp will both promote frizz and static, and make your hair look unhealthy.
Starting about halfway down your hair it’s natural that your hair will start to thin out. That’s from a combination of breakage and the natural cycling of your hair’s growth. Controlling the thinning of your hair at this length, and adding some texture and body, will make your hair lighter and softer looking throughout.
Straight hair types will gain volume, curly hair types become lighter and develop tighter curls, while wavy hairstyles gain movement and flow.
To make the cuts look even more natural, cut half the section of hair with the thinning shears pointed slightly up, and the other half with the shears pointed slightly down.
Top 8 Thinning Scissors Comparison Table
Top 8 Thinning Scissors: Detailed Reviews
We’re going to use scissors and shears interchangeably in this article, but it’s worth noting that many professionals prefer the term shears. That’s partially because shears have a more professional sound than scissors, and it’s incredibly important that you only use hair shears, whether they’re cutting shears, thinning shears, or any other hair tool on hair.
Using them on other substances, especially paper, will dull the scissors faster. Cutting other materials can also change the shape of the blade so that it’s less effective for hair, even if it doesn’t technically dull the blade.
1. Kinsaro Thinning Shears Professional Thinning Scissors
Editor’s Rating: 4.4/5.0
This is a classic style set of thinning shears with 30 teeth. As a set of thinning shears, this pair is suitable for most fine hair types. The finer teeth on these shears allow for easy shaping and texturing, and reduce the harsh definition of your cuts, without taking too much hair and body.
They’re made from 440C stainless steel to ensure that the shears are durable and hold edges well. Polished to a fine, mirror-like finish, Kinsaro’s quality assurance also checks for even spacing and identical V shape in all the teeth.
While you can’t use a typical flathead screwdriver to adjust the tension on this set of thinning shears, it does come with a specialized tool for making the necessary adjustments.
The Kinsaro thinning shears are also easy on the ear, opening and closing with barely a whisper. That smoothness both makes it easier to use them and makes the process of a haircut more comfortable for your clients.
These shears are suitable for home use as well as professional use. They’re affordable, high-grade steel, and designed to last.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Weight: 2.88 ounces |
| Size: 6 inches long |
| Thinning rate: 25-30% thinning rate |
| Teeths: 30 teeth |
| Construction: 440C stainless steel, Offset grip |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Forged 440C stainless steel |
| Good length |
| 25-30% thinning rate |
| Relatively lightweight |
| Adjustable |
| Quiet operation |
| Ergonomic handle and grip design |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Not suitable for coarse hair types |
2. Jaguar Shears Silver LineSteel Hair Thinning, Texturizing, Cutting & Trimming Scissors (Top Pick)
Editor’s Rating: 4.7/5.0
These shears make our list as one of the premium options. Jaguar is a high-end brand that gears itself toward successful professionals.
While most of the options on our list are suitable for both professionals and people who cut their own hair, this is one of the few that is probably too expensive for anyone but professionals to use.
That said, this is a long-wearing pair of shears, designed to take years of heavy professional use with ease.
These shears are designed for finer hair types and may be unsuitable for use with coarse or curly hair.
Every pair is made from specially ice-tempered forged steel. They have 40 v-shaped teeth, designed to cut smoothly without hair slippage or pulling.
The ice-tempering on the steel also means that they’ll hold a finer edge much longer than regular steel thinning shears. They use a special process to help carbon bind to the steel, further hardening it into the proper shape and sharpness.
If you’re concerned about manufacturing quality when it comes to your shears, understandable when you need them to work for hours each day, you should be comforted by the knowledge that every pair of Jaguar shears are manufactured in Germany.
While we don’t think these are the best shears for cutting hair at home, that’s only because they’re more expensive than most home-stylists want to spend on their equipment. These are finely tuned, high-performance shears that will make the best of any haircut can last a lifetime. That’s why they get our top-pick designation.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Weight: 3.52 oz |
| Size: 5.5 inches long |
| Teeths: 40 teeth |
| Construction: High carbon content steel, Ice tempered stainless steel |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Specially tempered steel holds up to heavy use |
| Higher than average carbon content in the steel |
| Perfect for fine hair types |
| Manufactured in Germany |
| High degree of quality assurance |
| Offset grip for enhanced comfort |
| Smooth, quiet action |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Expensive |
| Not suitable for coarse hair types |
| Requires a specialty tool to adjust the tension |
3. Fenice Salon Hair Thinning Scissors (Best Value)
Editor’s Rating: 4.5/5.0
While the basic Fenice thinning scissors is designed for right-handed users, as are most thinning shears, we do appreciate that this company also creates a mirrored set of shears for left-handed users. Conveniently, it also comes with a high-quality PU leather case for storage.
A slightly coarser set, with only 18 teeth, this set is suitable for medium-coarse hair but may be too aggressive for finer hair, and too conservative for the coarsest and curliest hair types.
That said, it’s still one of the more flexible thinning shears you can get, plenty sharp, and with lots of control.
The total thinning rate is about 45%. That’s a little more aggressive than some, which is part of why it works best for medium coarse hair. With hair that’s too coarse, the rate will be lower since less of the hair will be caught in the teeth.
The blade is 6 inches long.
Made from Japanese 440 C stainless steel, and polished to a fine finish, Fenice’s thinning shears are designed to last for years.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Size: 6 inches long |
| Thinning rate: 45% thinning rate |
| Teeths: 18 teeth |
| Construction: 440C stainless steel; Hardness: 60-62 HRC |
| The Pros |
|---|
| High-quality steel |
| Suitable for medium-coarse hair |
| Sharp and designed to hold a good edge |
| Meant for long term use |
| Reasonably priced |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Longer shipping time to the US |
| Heavy |
| Not suitable for either the coarsest or thinnest hair types |
4. Kamisori Sword Texturizing Shears
Editor’s Rating: 4.8/5.0
These are easily the most expensive set of shears on our list and are designed for professionals who don’t mind investing in several sets of cutting and thinning shears in order to create their hairstyles.
This particular set takes a very conservative amount of hair, leaving most of the hair intact. In that way, you can create finer and more detailed textures, without over-thinning fine hair.
That said, they are more expensive than most thinning shears, even among thinning shears aimed at professionals.
While they advertise themselves as being suitable for coarse hair, we recommend caution and experimenting with the thinning scissors and coarser hair.
Since these scissors are only rated to thin at about 15-25%. That is rather an advantage since it means you can work more gradually, taking a smaller amount of hair and checking it for the desired effect.
It’s also a good option for experienced stylists who prefer to speed cut their client’s hair since it’s more conservative cutting power prevents an aggressive cut from taking too much hair too quickly. This particular model of Kamisori scissors only comes in 6.5-inch length.
That said, this is a multi-award-winning set of shears. Were it not literally the most expensive pair of shears on our list, it probably would have rated the top pick designation.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Size: 6.5 inches long |
| Thinning rate: 15-25% thinning rate |
| Warranty: One year drop warranty + lifetime warranty |
| Teeths: 31 teeth |
| Construction: Premium stainless steel, Offset grip |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Highly effective set of thinning shears |
| Takes a conservative amount of hair, perfect for texturing |
| Works well for speed cutting |
| Comes with a lifetime warranty |
| Comes with a 1-year drop warranty |
| Extremely high-quality steel |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Expensive |
| May take some practice to get used to |
5. Equinox Professional Razor Edge Series Thinning/Texturing Shears
Editor’s Rating: 4.5/5.0
The Equinox series is a professional line with the price of a consumer item. These thinning shears are popular, along with the rest of Equinox’s professional line, no matter who is using them. High-grade steel, a reasonably flexible and effective design, and good tension adjustment make these among the easier thinning shears to use.
Plus, they’re highly affordable.
Between arriving perfectly sharp, a comfortable offset grip design, and a beginner-friendly price, it shouldn’t be surprising that these are some of the most popular thinning scissors you can order.
They’re also highly customizable. The adjustment screw is easier to use than most and allows you to go from rather loose to incredibly tight tension. Regardless of the tension, these scissors move quietly and smoothly.
Relatively lightweight, only 4.8 oz, each pair is made from high-quality Japanese stainless steel. A good option for medium-coarse to fine hair, these thinning shears are flexible enough for most people.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Weight: 4.8 ounces |
| Size: 6.5 inches |
| Construction: Japanese stainless steel, fine tooth distribution suitable for texturing |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Highly adjustable |
| Affordable |
| Designed to last |
| Suitable for professionals and casual users |
| Curved finger rest on an offset grip |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Comes loose easily |
| Not quite as high-quality a temper or edge as some alternatives |
6. ULG Hair Thinning Scissors
Editor’s Rating: 4.3/5.0
ULG, another well-trusted brand, ULG’s scissors are similar to many other scissors in this price range, including the Equinox brand, but their slight differences can mean that these scissors are more effective and comfortable for some users.
These are slightly on the conservative side, taking an average of 20-25% of hair as they work to texturize and thin the hair.
A full 6.5 inches, these scissors are the preferred size for maximum control without having to make a thousand cuts. Plus, with a 30-day money-back guarantee, you can test and see if this is the right pair for you.
You’re also protected by a full year warranty should anything go wrong with your new pair of thinning shears after purchase.
Designed to cut smoothly through hair, you won’t have to worry about causing split ends or other damage to your client’s hair the way you can with lower quality blades and steel.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Weight: 1.44 ounces |
| Size: 6.5 inches long |
| Thinning rate: 20-25% thinning rate |
| Warranty: 1-year warranty, 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Construction: Japanese stainless steel |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Suitable for almost all users |
| Designed to be easy to use and maintain |
| Comes with a good warranty |
| Moderate thinning rate |
| Reasonably affordable |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Blades don’t last as long as higher-quality alternatives |
7. Suvorna Precision Razor Edge Stainless Steel Barber Thinning Texturizing Scissors
Editor’s Rating: 4.2/5.0
Drop forged from a single piece of steel, these scissors are designed to be long-lasting, hard-wearing, and with an absolute minimum of weaknesses in the steel. Give that all that comes with a highly conservative price tag, these were a close runner up for the Best Value designation.
You also get a 90-day customer guarantee, followed by a limited lifetime warranty.
It’s rare to see anyone but the premium scissors companies offering a lifetime warranty anymore, so we really appreciated that touch and the confidence it shows in Suvorna’s product.
With 30 teeth, this is another set of thinning shears that is best used on finer hair types, although it might be used to lighten curls and texturize coarse hair with some additional practice.
While they don’t use an advanced ice tempering method, these shears are heat tempered, and quality tested to ensure that they’ve reached a Rockwell hardness of 52-53. That’s firm enough to hold a good blade for a good long time.
However, this is one of the most aggressive sets of thinning shears on our list, rated to take 30-70% of hair within only a couple passes. That means that you’ll need to invest a little time and energy into practicing with these scissors before you make accidental cuts that are far too aggressive for what you intended.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Size: 6.5 inches |
| Thinning rate: 30-70% thinning rate |
| Teeths: 30 teeth |
| Construction: Heat tempered stainless steel |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Reasonably affordable |
| Good for a wider variety of hair types |
| Comes with a custom-made pouch |
| Comes with rubber grips |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Aggressive design |
| Has a higher than average learning curve |
8. Goody Thinning Shears (Best Budget)
Editor’s Rating: 4.2/5.0
Goody makes our best bargain for several reasons. These thinning shears are incredibly affordable, readily available in almost any hair care section, and are easy to replace in a pinch.
However, the low cost and lower learning curve that comes with Goody thinning shears come with another cost. While some of the shears on this list have been suitable only for professionals, we would argue that these thinning shears are only suitable for home use except in an emergency.
That’s not a bad thing. Effective and affordable consumer goods are important. However, the lower quality materials, simplistic grip design, and low-work tolerance you can expect from these shears mean that they just won’t stand up to regular use in a salon.
At home, however, these might be the perfect shear for taming thick and unruly hair, without taking too much off or resorting to a set of clippers and a buzzed look.
They are, fortunately, made with stainless steel. So long as you keep these scissors clean you’ll be unlikely to deal with corrosion or rust.
However, since they are very lightweight and thin scissors, they go also dull quickly.
That’s made up for by their ease of use and readily available status.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Weight: 0.8 oz |
| Size: 6 inches long |
| Teeths: V-shaped teeth |
| Construction: Stainless steel, Non-offset grip |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Designed for home use |
| Incredibly affordable |
| Easy to find |
| Easy to use |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Thin steel, more delicate that higher quality blades |
| Dulls quickly |
| Comes in cardboard and plastic packaging with no storage options |
| Not suitable for professional use |
Contents
- How to Use Thinning Shears
- Never Get Closer to Your Scalp Than Halfway Down the Strand
- Top 8 Thinning Scissors Comparison Table
- Top 8 Thinning Scissors: Detailed Reviews
- 1. Kinsaro Thinning Shears Professional Thinning Scissors
- 2. Jaguar Shears Silver LineSteel Hair Thinning, Texturizing, Cutting & Trimming Scissors (Top Pick)
- 3. Fenice Salon Hair Thinning Scissors (Best Value)
- 4. Kamisori Sword Texturizing Shears
- 5. Equinox Professional Razor Edge Series Thinning/Texturing Shears
- 6. ULG Hair Thinning Scissors
- 7. Suvorna Precision Razor Edge Stainless Steel Barber Thinning Texturizing Scissors
- 8. Goody Thinning Shears (Best Budget)
