How to Make Clipper Guards Longer (The Best Process)
Knowing how to make hair clipper guards longer can give you some extra space when you’re cutting your hair.
But can it be done? Is it truly beneficial to use extra-long clipper guards and if not what’s the next best alternative?
In the article, we’ll answer this question and more.
So, with that said, let’s get into it.
How to Make Clipper Guards Longer
Now there certainly is a way to get make/get your clipper guards longer(we get to that later), but it gets to a point where it may not be Beneficial for you.
If you feel your clipper guards are too small, that may be for good reason.
Hair clipper brands make their clipper guards up to a certain length for a few reasons.
These are the highest clipper guards by each popular brand:
Oster goes up to a #10 guard / 1 ¼ inches / 32mm
Wahl goes up to a #12 guard / 1 ½ inches / 38mm
Babyliss goes up to #6 guard / ¾ inch / 19mm
Remington goes up to a #8 guard / 1 inch / 25mm
You can learn more in my article on what’s the longest clipper guard.
The highest you’ll get is a #12 guard clipper which leaves 38mm of hair and that’s for just wahl alone.
Hair clipper brands don’t tend to go higher on clipper guards for two reasons, this is:
- #8 guard + are not in demand
- It becomes highly inefficient to use big chunky guards when cutting hair.
The first reason is fairly standard.
Yes, you may be looking for a larger clipper guard but on average, the larger clipper guards in a clipped package are barely touched!
Heck, some barbers who work on hair especially fading may not even touch their #6 or #7 guard let alone 8.
From this standpoint, clipper brands just see it as a waste of resources hence why they don’t make it and don’t specifically sell it separately either.
Very inefficient
Now, the other reason why extremely long clipper guards aren’t available is that at long lengths i.e. 1 ½ +, the amount you cut actually gets worse.
Instead of guards guiding your hair to be cut, instead, they press the hair down and don’t feed it through to the cutting blade.
Also, the thicker the hair the worse this gets.
So my opinion at these lengths, your should start switching to scissors instead of clippers, especially if you’re just looking for quick trim too.
I’ll get back to the better ways to use scissors later but if you really want to opt for a larger guard, I will go through some solutions next.
How to make clipper guard longer.
You can’t physically make your clipper guards longer.
Out of the box, they are what they are and if you’ve tried to modify them, your cut will certainly not turn out the way you expected.
However, you can look to purchase third part clipper hairs at the length you want.
Below are some clipped guards longer than 1 ½ inches.
Extra Long Clipper Guards
Before you grab the guards at the length your after, quickly check that the guards will fit your clipper model.
In most of these cases if you normally have magnetic guards, such as the andis purple magnetic guards then the guards you should look to purchase must be magnet too.
Guard doesn’t justify any clipper. It has to be like for like.
Most of the third-party brands are simple standard clip-on guards.
These types of guards can simply clip onto your blade.
So if you normally have clip-on guards for your clippers, these guards should fit ok.
Now, at longer lengths of hair, you’re better off with scissors as I said but if you knew to scissors here how you can start?
Alternative
If you’re looking to start using scissors, try a hair clipper fin
Fins will allow you to comfortably trim longer hair while still giving you accuracy.
They aren’t guards per se but simply very long guides to help you cut hair with scissors.
With these guides, forget 2-3 inches you can push 4,5,7 inches without bunching up.
They allow you to stretch the hair to a specific length. You then trim the excess at the top above the guide with a clipper blade knowing you’ll be left with the exact length specified.
Hair fins are a great option if you looking to trim your hair longer than what their clipper guards allow and it’s great to help you start using scissors for longer lengths of hair too.
Conclusion
In this article, we went over how to make clipper guards longer.
The best way to make clipper guards longer would be to purchase clipper guards that match your clipper blades.
However, the better move for hair at lengths 1 ½ + would be scissors.
If you found this article helpful, check out other articles on this topic.
