What differentiates clipper blades and clipper guide combs?

July 25, 2015 10:34 PM

We have an Oster Classic 76 hair clipper that the wife uses to cut my (thick, no-joke) hair and we love it. We have a full set of guide combs but only ever use 3 of them (#4, 5, and 6) for my head and I'm considering getting those size equivalents (0A, 1, and 1A I think) in blade form with the hopes of making the job easier for her. Could you help me understand if this is dumb because I might have this all wrong and not be doing any good buying said blades?
posted by RolandOfEld to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (5 answers total)

I'm pretty sure you mean 'the job of actually moving the device through your thick hair' when you say you hope to make the job easier for her, but if you're doing three different lengths in one cut then swapping three blades in and out while you're sitting there isn't going to make anything easier for anyone. You have to use a screwdriver to remove the blade and getting them oiled and aligned can be finicky, so doing that in the middle of a cut doesn't sound any easier than going gentle and slow with the combs.

Now if you're going to line up three or four Oster Classics at the barber chair, then fitting each with a different blade makes sense. But having a few to swap between on your one device isn't going to be as easy as it might seem.
posted by carsonb at 10:46 PM on July 25, 2015

Response by poster: Blade removal on the model we have is practically instantaneous and requires no tools whatsoever. In this clip you can see blade removal, if you don't blink, between 0:25 and 0:27, blade replacement occurs between 0:49 and 0:50, it's that fast. Honestly it is easier than removing the comb guides.

But yes, I mean making the job of actually moving the device through the hair easier but also bringing the number of flyaways and/or passes of the device to a bare minimum as well.

So, I mean, what is the difference in experience with using blades vs the guards?

Also, any other tools that might improve the experience for both of us are on the radar as well I suppose. We're currently using the worst of the worst basic hair scissors / comb combo and I'm thinking that a minimum of investment there will help out quite a bit as well.
posted by RolandOfEld at 11:05 PM on July 25, 2015

I have the same model of clippers and I just swap blades. As you say it just takes a moment to do so. Compared to cheaper clippers I owned in the past with blade guards, I like swapping the blades because it feels more solid, you don't get poked by cheap and sharp plastic guards, and the blades don't move (unlike the guards which sometimes slip off). The cost of a couple of blades was fairly minimal so there isn't a whole lot to lose here by giving it a try, I think.

I also agree that better scissors are worth buying, compared to the ones that come free with cheap clippers.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:41 AM on July 26, 2015

Response by poster: But you don't notice better cutting with a blade of a similar size to a given guard? As in less flyaways or smoother action?
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:07 AM on July 26, 2015

The Oster 76 with blades works about a gazillion times better than my old cheap clippers with guards, but I have never tried the Oster with guards. I do notice that when I go to the barber instead of cutting my own hair, they almost always have the same model of clippers and change blades rather than guards -- though this is not universal.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:45 PM on July 26, 2015