How To Align Clipper Blades (Say Goodbye to Uneven Cuts)
Knowing how to adjust clipper blades can save you a lot of headaches.
In this article, we will go through the process of correctly adjusting your clipper blades, (I will also provide you some extra tips to get it right.)
So with that said, let’s get into it.
How to Align Clipper Blades
Aligning hair clippers is very simple, Here are the steps, and here’s an image so you know the parts I’m referencing.
Just enough to be able to move the guard blade
You don’t have to take off the screws.
Nudge the cutting blade until it straightens up and is parallel to the guard blade/ front cutting rail blade.
Go to eye level to better assess this.
turn the clipper on and off a couple of times to check if it’s working all right
Now, this is only a quick outline of how to adjust your cutting blade to get it straight. I go through this process in more detail later on in this article.
But what about the tension or the correct default position for your blades?
Why is it so important to adjust hair clipper blades?
We’ll in the rest of this article, I love these questions and go more in-depth on other techniques.
Why It’s Important to Adjust Clipper Blades
If you’re here, you’ve probably realized aligning your clippers is pretty important, and you’d be right.
It can significantly affect your clipper performance and if you’re a barber, possibly your reputation.
These are some reasons.
Un-even cuts
Mis-aligned blades simply do not cut well.
Some sections of your hair could become shorter or longer than others. This could leave you with a patchy and ugly look.
To avoid this, it’s important to align the blades so that they are cutting evenly.
Irritation to skin
When clipper blades are misaligned, they can pull hair or snag on the skin.
Painful.
This can cause discomfort or even injury.
This can be especially problematic if you or your client have sensitive skin. .
Damage to blades
Yes, misaligned blades, do damage the blades themselves.
Over time, misaligned blades will wear unevenly.
One side of the blade can become worn out from cutting as that side takes up most of the work when cutting.
This may mean you have to replace your clippers a lot sooner than you would’ve hoped.
This can become very costly.
Decrease efficiency
When your blades aren’t set, everything just becomes poor all around.
When the blades of the clippers are not aligned, they don’t cut effectively
This can result in haircuts taking longer to complete, as we said earlier, you have to keep going over the patch of hair, again and again, and again.
Align your clippers correctly for the best realists.
How to Adjust Hair Clippers
Next, I’ll go into more detail on aligning your hair clippers.
Before you align your clippers, you need to make sure they need it.
Take a look at your hair clippers, and do the cutting blade slightly off.
If the cutting blade is slanted to one side, it could be due to the tension of the blades.
You must check to see if the tension of your blades is set right.
But if you want to be sure, you can follow the steps below to find the check further
Step 1
Turn off your clippers
Step 2
Find the top cutting blade on your clippers – (the blade you visibly see move ad the hair clipper is on)
Step 3
Using your index finger push the side of the cutting blade inward with relative force. (do this once or twice from either side). Do not do it too much as you could miss-align the blades.
The blade should easily slide across without too much friction or movement. If
If you have a hard time pushing across, the tension is too much but if it’s too easy and your blade visibly moves then it’s too loose.
If you notice your blades are loose and slightly misaligned, then you need to sort this out.
Luckily you can solve both of these problems with the steps below.
Set the tension on your blades
How To Fix Hair Clipper Tension
Set the tension on your blades
Step 1: Screws
Find the screws on the back of your hair clipper.
Step 2: Find out
After your test depending on the problem, you need to figure out whether you’re going to tighten or loosen the tension in your blades.
Do this very slowly on both screws and do the tension test as you screw.
When you feel the tension is right, stop.
Now unscrew the blade slightly so you have wiggle room for the back cutting rail to align the blades.
Do this very slowly on both screws and do the tension test as you screw.
When you feel the tension is right, stop.
Unscrew the blade guard slightly so you have wiggle room.
Now we can begin to Allign your clippers correctly
Wahl clipper blade alignment
This video helps to show this step and it is with a wahl clipper, but you can easily use these steps with any hair clipper brand.
Step 1: Asses
Go to eye level with your blade teeth
Step 2: Close the blades
Close the clipper lever and make sure both blades are straight.
Step 3: Correct Gap
Check to make sure there is a slight gap between both blades, if there isn’t move the front cutting blade up or down until the is, about the width of a credit card.
This video illustrates how to set the right gap – watch from 2:25 – 4 then come back to the steps last steps.
Step 4: Align correctly
Now before you tighten the screws to the right tension point you need to make sure your blade default position is right.
Step 5: Finish up
Once everything is aligned, slowly tighten your screws to the correct tension point you found earlier.
Now your clippers are aligned correctly with the right tension.
How to adjust clippers to cut shorter
Did you know you can adjust your clipper blades to cut A lot closer?
This technique is zero gaping your clippers.
By pushing your cutting blade to the very edge of your guard blade, it will begin to cut better
Here’s how you do it:
Step 1
Unscrew the clippers at the back of your hair clippers slightly, you don’t have to remove them completely (unless you looking to clean your clippers)
Make sure you can wiggle the guard blade, you should focus on moving this more than the cutting blade.
Step 2
Close your clipper lever.
This shows you the maximum extent your clippers can move in comparison to your guard blade.
Step 3:
In this position, move the cutting blade as close to the end of the guard blade as you can.
Step 3
Now, this is very important, make sure the cutting blade NEVER passes the guard blade as you zero gap your clippers.
If that happens your clippers will cut skin as the cutting blade is exposed.
Step 4
Now make sure the cutting blade is straight and aligned correctly with tension.
(We won’t through this earlier)
At this point, you can tighten up the screws.
And just like that your clippers can now cut the hair shorter.
The video below best illustrates this process:
Conclusion
In this article, we went over how to adjust clipper blades.
Aligning hair clippers is an important step in ensuring that your haircuts are precise and accurate.
When your clippers are misaligned, they can cause uneven cuts and damage to the hair.
By following the steps outlined in this article, you can easily align your hair clippers and keep them in top condition for optimal performance.
If you have found this article helpful, please check out other articles on this topic below.
