12.1 Shears and Razors

The Oregon Barbering Examination Information Bulletin (revised October 25, 2019) scores Implements, Tools and Equipment as 12 of 100 theory items (12 percent). The bulletin's item list is brushes, capes and drapes, clippers, combs, razors, shears, and massage tools. This section is shears and razors. Those two objects also reappear on the 90-question Oregon Laws and Rules Examination because Oregon Administrative Rule (OAR) 817-005-0005 classifies them as sharp edged or pointed, non-electrical tools and implements, and because OAR 817-010-0068 and OAR 817-010-0075 tell you how to disinfect and store them.

Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 690.005(2) authorizes cutting hair and shaving or trimming a beard or mustache. The barbering certificate does not authorize a nicked shear, a pocketed used blade, or a soiled razor mixed with the clean set. The Health Licensing Office (HLO) draws tool names from Milady's Standard Professional Barbering, 5th Edition (2011) and Pivot Point Barbering Fundamentals, 1st Edition (2018). Cutting strokes belong in Chapter 10. This section is the object: types, parts, tension, set, honing versus replacing, razor classes, high-level disinfection, and storage.

Why shears and razors score on both papers

A candidate who can name a thinning shear but cannot pick high-level disinfectant for that shear fails the laws paper. A candidate who can recite an OAR number but cannot tell a shaper from a straight razor fails the theory paper. Both papers treat a used blade as soiled until it is cleaned and disinfected — or discarded if it cannot be.

Oregon names: tools, sharp-edged, soiled, high-level

OAR 817-005-0005 defines tools and implements as all portable articles and instruments the authorization holder uses when performing services on clients, including, but not limited to, combs, brushes, shears, clippers, and yoyettes. Sharp edged or pointed, non-electrical tools and implements are the subset that may contact blood-borne pathogens and other potentially hazardous materials. The list includes razors and shears (and, for other fields, lancets, cuticle nippers, tweezers, and metal nail files). Soiled means an article that has been used and has not been cleaned or disinfected for use on the next client.

High-level disinfectant is a chemical agent that has demonstrated tuberculocidal activity and is registered with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Low-level disinfectant is EPA-registered and bactericidal, germicidal, fungicidal, and limited virucidal. Shears and razors do not get the low-level option. 1,000 parts per million (ppm) quaternary ammonium compound (quats) is the non-sharp comb-and-brush bath, not the shear jar.

Shear types

Barbering textbooks group shears by what they do to the hair. Oregon does not invent a fourth legal class. It still expects you to pick the right pair for the cut and then process that pair as a sharp tool.

Convex-edge versus beveled-edge

Convex-edge blades slice; beveled-edge blades take more abuse in a clipper-and-shear shop. Either geometry is still a sharp-edged non-electrical tool after the last snip. A thinning shear is not “less sharp” under OAR 817-005-0005 because it has teeth.

Parts, tension, and set

Name the parts because the bulletin tests the object: finger grip, thumb grip, finger rest (tang), shank, pivot (screw), bumper (silencer), moving blade, and still blade. Set is how the two blades meet along their length from pivot to tip. Tension is how tightly they close. Correct tension lets the shear cut to the point without folding hair or forcing the hand. Too loose, hair bends and the line looks chewed. Too tight, the hand fatigues and the edge rolls.

A common shop test: open the shear to about a 45-degree angle and release the moving blade. It should close partway — not slam shut and not hang open. Adjust at the pivot. Do not “fix” tension by squeezing harder during a fade. Do not oil the pivot and then drop the shear into the disinfectant jar still greasy; clean first.

Honing versus replacing

Honing is restoring a continuous edge on a stone. Traditional straight razors are honed and then stropped to align the edge. Quality shears go to a professional sharpener when they dull; they are not daily-honed at the station like a razor. Replace, do not restore, a nicked, cracked, or bent blade, a cheap shear whose set cannot be brought back, and any changeable razor blade that has already contacted a client. A nicked shear that snags is a client-injury tool. Oregon does not require you to own a hone. It does require the tool that touches the next client to be intact, cleaned, and disinfected.

Straight razor, shaper, and disposable

A shaper is still a razor under OAR 817-005-0005. A plastic handle does not turn it into a comb. A guard does not turn a used blade into a clean tool.

High-level disinfection for shears and razors

OAR 817-010-0068 requires every tool used in a field of practice to be disinfected or sterilized before use on each client. Tools that come in direct contact with clients and cannot be disinfected or sterilized must be disposed of after use. That sentence is the rule for a used changeable blade.

For reusable nonelectrical tools, the authorization holder must:

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 tools with sharp edges or points in a high-level disinfectant used according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Do not skip soap-and-water. Disinfectant is not a detergent. Do not drop a hair-caked shear into the jar. Do not spray and wipe a razor and call it immersed. Immersion means the cutting surfaces, pivot, and finger rest go under the solution for the contact time on the label. Keep the jar at adequate strength, free of hair, and available whenever the facility is open (OAR 817-010-0068(10)). Sterilization in an FDA-listed steam or dry-heat unit is an allowed alternative, not a requirement for every shop.

Never pocket a used razor

A used razor is soiled. Pocketing it contaminates clothing, the next client, and the clean drawer. Put a reusable razor into the cleaning pan immediately. Put a used changeable blade into a puncture-resistant sharps container — not the regular trash, not a pants pocket, not a station cup of dry blades waiting for “later.” OAR 817-010-0075(1) requires new, disinfected, and cleaned tools and implements to be stored separately from all others. A pocket is not a clean drawer.

Storage: current OAR 817-010-0075

Current OAR 817-010-0075 (Storage of Tools and Implements) is four sentences. Learn them as written:

1. New, disinfected and cleaned tools and implements must be stored separately from all others.
2. Roller-storage receptacles and their contents must be clean and free of foreign material.
3. All storage drawers used for clean tools and implements must be clean, free of hair and used only for clean tools and implements.
4. Storage cabinets, work stations and vanities must be kept clean.

The clean shear drawer is not a snack drawer, a phone drawer, or a used-razor drawer. Hair in the “clean” drawer makes that drawer a soiled container. Soiled shears wait in a covered or designated dirty pan until they are processed; they do not sit on the cape, the register, or the chair arm.

Shop scenario

A Portland barber finishes a neck shave with a changeable-blade straight razor, folds the handle, and drops the whole unit — blade still in — into the right-hand jeans pocket “until I get a minute.” The next client is a taper. The blade has already contacted skin and possible blood. The handle is soiled. The pocket is not a covered waste receptacle and not a high-level jar. Correct sequence: remove and discard the blade into a sharps container immediately, then take the handle through remove-hair, soap, rinse, and high-level immersion, then store it with the clean set only after it is disinfected. HLO does not grade “I was about to.”