Barber clippers are primarily used by barbers and hairdressers.
Barbers and hairdressers are licensed usually in other countries unlike here in the Philippines where barbers can be found anywhere and cut hair without having any license.
In previous times, barbers are also surgeons and don’t just cut hair, they can also shave beard, trim hair, color hair, etc.. They previously act as dentists too. The red and white spiral color in the barber pole signifies their two crafts; red signifies surgery, and white signifies barbering.
It was during the war when the surgeons were paid more and given more emphasis than the barbers because of their importance for the health of those people in the ship.
Henry Martyn Leland invented the electric barber clippers, he also invented the Cadillac which is later bought by General Motors, and the Lincoln which is later bought by Ford Motor Company.
Nikola Bizumic is the one who invented the manual barber clippers in which is an alternative for scissors in cutting hair but is also operated by hand. The use of these manual clippers decreased significantly due to the emergence of electronic barber clippers. these manual clippers has not yet been phased out though for there are still users of these stuff throughout the world.
Matthew Andis built an electronic barber clipper that undergo a wide range of performance test, manufactured a large number of these electronic barber clippers, and he sold it to numerous barber shops throughout Wisconsin. Then after a year, he founded Andis Clipper Company that still operates as a family-owned business today. Andis became a famous brand for barber clippers even up to present.
There are a lot of brands that followed Andis and some has even improved Andis’s design flaws like the Wahl Clippers by Leo J. Wahl and the Oster Clippers by John Oster who owns the famous Oster Classic 76 clippers which is regarded for its durability and interchangeable metal blades or different sizes.
Wahl introduced the Trim and Vac, a beard razor that can be used without a cape since it has a vacuum that automatically absorbs the cut hair giving ease of use for the user.
There are also clippers used for pet grooming particularly dog grooming that has different sizes of blades used for trimming. Different blade sizes determines the length of hair that will be cut from dog’s body. You should not use a barber clipper (used for human) to a dog since pet clippers are custom designed for pets since they have thick fur to protect their body from hot or cold weather and other irritants. This is one reason why pet clippers use more powerful motors and torque than a regular barber clipper.
Barber clippers are widely used to cut human hair and it helps reduce a great amount of time in cutting hair. With faster results, it makes a barber shop businesses more profitable since you can serve more customers.
Professional hair clippers are more expensive than a regular one only because of its durability since it will be used extensively for commercial purposes compared to barber clippers intended only for personal use or home use only.
Barber clippers would usually cost about $25 to about $130 depending on the use of your clipper.
There has been a lot of innovations in the clippers from different companies and it has been really a slugfest between Andis, Wahl, and Oster for the hair clipper manufacturing crown. Sallybeauty.com has been a successful online store for beauty products including hair clippers and care kits for these clippers.
When a clipper is not functioning well, one reason could be that it has not been oiled properly or it has not been used for some time.
You can clean this by removing the screw and putting the blade into a bowl with isoprophyl alcohol.
Afterwards, clean and wipe off the rust or you can use a sharpening stone to sharpen the blade by scratching the blade to the stone going to one direction only.
If your barber clipper blade is cheap, professional sharpening is not advisable but if you have an expensive blade, you can go for professional sharpening for best results.