It’s a play on words. The scissors are literally over top of the comb, but scissor over comb is also a method of cutting hair. One holds the comb parallel to the head and lifts the hair from below. The scissors are used parallel to the comb to cut the hair above the comb’s teeth.
Another life…a lifetime ago.
Kirk needed a haircut today so out came the clippers, as well as my little toolkit with three pairs of scissors (one long, one short, and one thinning), a comb, and two clips….and a cutting cape).
They are tools of the trade from another life I led, when I first came to the coast. I’d bailed on university for a few years after second year science, and decide to get a trade under my belt. If things didn’t go well after I finished my Bachelor’s degrees, I would always be able to make money if I had a trade.
That was 1987.
I went back to school in the fall of 1989 and finished up my BSc in 1991…but I continued to work at the salon until well into my PhD, though not cutting or colouring hair in the salon by that point in time; I was on the front desk, and occasionally taking a colour off for the woman I apprenticed under back in 1987. By the time I finally called it a day it was 2002…15 years later. I wrapped up my PhD two years after that.
At no point in my life have I regretted the time I spent learning to cut and colour hair, because it also taught me many other life lessons.
When COVID arrived, these tools came in handy, as did my knowledge of colouring hair. I still cut Kirk’s hair, and my own. I mix up my own hair colour, and Kirk applies it for me.
When I pulled these out to give Kirk a cut this evening, it struck me. The comb and these scissors are now 38 years old.
I used to get them sharpened a the salon; there was a guy who came around somewhat regularly and set up in the shop and sharpened everyone’s scissors for them. They don’t get used often any more, so the edge is still good.
Given that I’m proficient at sharpening our kitchen knives, and I have whetstones of 1000, 3000, 6000, and 8000 grit…I feel like I could probably do them myself….but I’d hate to damage them; I feel like they probably don’t make scissors as good as they did then. Maybe I should ask around if anyone knows someone who still sharpens professional scissors.
