12.2 Clippers, Combs, and Brushes

The remaining portable tools on the bulletin's 12-item list are clippers, combs, and brushes. OAR 817-005-0005 puts all three inside tools and implements — portable articles and instruments used on clients. The laws paper then splits them. Electrical clipper blades are a high-level saturate under OAR 817-010-0069. The rest of an electrical tool is low-level. Combs and brushes without sharp edges are a 1,000 ppm quat (or other low-level) immersion after soap and rinse under OAR 817-010-0068(6). A tool that cannot be disinfected is not “wiped and reused.” It is disposed of after use (OAR 817-010-0068(2)).

HLO still expects the textbook names. Magnetic versus rotary versus pivot is a theory fact. Quat ppm is a laws fact. The same station uses both.

Clipper motors: magnetic, rotary, pivot

Barbering textbooks classify clippers by how the motor drives the blade. Oregon does not license one motor and forbid another. It does expect you to pick a motor that can finish the cut without chewing, then disinfect the blades as electrical clipper blades.

Trimmers, edgers, outliners, and guards

Trimmers, edgers, and outliners are smaller electrical clippers with little or no guard. They cut the hairline, around the ears, the nape, and the beard outline. They are still electrical tools. Their blades are still electrical clipper blades. A T-blade outliner does not drop to the comb rule because it is small.

Guards (attachment combs) set a numbered length. A guard that contacted hair is a tool. If it can be cleaned and immersed, process it as a non-sharp nonelectrical implement: remove hair, soap, rinse, 1,000 ppm quats or other low-level immersion. If a foam or damaged guard cannot be disinfected, dispose of it. Do not leave a used #2 guard in the clean drawer “because plastic is fine.”

Do not immerse the clipper motor housing. Hair and product come off the body; then a low-level disinfectant is used according to the label (OAR 817-010-0069(1)). The blades are the exception.

Electrical blades versus everything else electrical

OAR 817-010-0069 is the electrical-tool rule. Current text:

1. All electrical tools and implements, with the exception of clipper blades, must be disinfected before each use: remove all hair and all foreign material, then disinfect with a low-level disinfectant used according to the manufacturer's instructions.
2. Electrical clipper blades must be disinfected before each use: remove all hair and all foreign material, then completely saturate the blade with a high-level disinfectant solution, spray, or foam used according to the manufacturer's instructions.
3. Electrical clipper blades may be sterilized using an approved method in OAR 817-010-0065.

Saturate means the teeth are wet with high-level product for the label's contact time. A dry brush-off is not disinfection. A low-level spray on the blades is the wrong level. Running the clipper until it “looks clean” is not a step in 817-010-0069. Blade washers and blade banks help you keep a second set in process so you are not tempted to skip the saturate between two fades.

Combs: cutting, barber, taper, wide-tooth, rattail

Name the comb by job, then process every reusable comb as a non-sharp nonelectrical tool.

A metal barber comb is still a comb, not a shear. It has no sharp-edged classification under OAR 817-005-0005 unless it is actually a pointed or sharp implement. Process it through OAR 817-010-0068(5)–(6).

Brushes: paddle, vent, round, neck duster

Reusable hard-backed brushes that can be washed and fully immersed follow the same non-sharp path as combs: remove hair, soap or detergent and water, rinse, then complete immersion in 1,000 ppm commercial quats or another low-level disinfectant per the manufacturer (OAR 817-010-0068(6)). Do not toss a hair-loaded brush into the quat jar. Hair in the jar is foreign material and drops the bath below “adequate strength” (OAR 817-010-0068(10)).

Neck dusters: teach Oregon honestly

Many states name-ban natural-bristle neck dusters because the bristle bed cannot be disinfected. Oregon does not publish a separate named neck-duster ban. The current rule is functional and stricter than a rumor:

OAR 817-010-0068(2): all tools and implements that come in direct contact with clients, and cannot be disinfected or sterilized, must be disposed of after use.

A natural-bristle neck duster packs hair, sebum, and microbes against the base. It cannot be cleaned and immersed the way a hard-rubber comb can. If it cannot be disinfected, it cannot be reused. Dispose of it after the client, or do not use that object. Safer Oregon practice is a fresh neck strip, a disinfectable synthetic brush that actually completes 817-010-0068(6), or a single-use duster that goes in the covered waste can. A wooden-handle bristle duster hanging on a hook “for everyone” is a soiled shared tool, not a tradition HLO honors.

Do not answer a laws item with “Oregon bans neck dusters by name” if the options include the cannot-disinfect-then-dispose sentence. The sentence is the law.

Non-sharp immersion, in order

For combs, brushes, rollers, rods, and similar nonelectrical tools without sharp edges, OAR 817-010-0068(5)–(6) is ordered:

1. Remove all hair and all foreign material.
2. Clean thoroughly with soap or detergent and water.
3. Rinse thoroughly with clear, clean water.
4. Completely immerse, according to manufacturer's instructions, in a solution containing 1,000 ppm of a commercial quaternary ammonium compound or other low-level disinfectant used according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Low-level still means EPA-registered bactericidal, germicidal, fungicidal, and limited virucidal (OAR 817-005-0005). Then store the dry, disinfected comb with the new, disinfected, and cleaned set — separately from all others (OAR 817-010-0075).

Shop scenario

A Salem barber finishes a skin fade, knocks hair off the clipper with a neck duster, sprays the blades with a low-level counter spray, and starts the next client. Two misses. The blades needed a high-level saturate (solution, spray, or foam) after hair was removed, not a low-level wipe. The natural-bristle duster that just swept another client's hair onto this client's neck cannot be disinfected, so it should have been discarded after the first client — or never used. Correct station: second blade set already high-level processed, clipper body low-level wiped, neck cleaned with a fresh neck strip, reusable comb sitting in the 1,000 ppm bath for the label time, clean combs only in the clean drawer.