The Best Hair Clipper Oil

Buying Guide

Whether you use hair clippers at home to cut your own hair or as part of a barbershop business, it’s important to keep the clippers in good shape. When the clippers run smoothly, you end up with a seamless and painless haircut. If they don’t run as well, the clippers could snag and pull as you use them on hair, causing hair breakage and scalp pain.

One way to keep your hair clippers in tip-top shape is with hair clipper oil. Like the name suggests, hair clipper oil is a type of lubricant that helps the hair clippers run smoothly. It is also designed to prevent the blades from getting rusty. The oil is thin and runny, and applied to the blades on a set of clippers in order to reduce friction between the blades and the hair. While many people use hair clippers without any hair clipper oil, adding the oil can help to prolong the life of the clippers, reduce the amount of noise they make while running and ensure hair doesn’t snag while being cut.

When selecting hair clipper oil, be sure to check the ingredients. Common ones found in hair clipper oil include mineral oil, alcohol, silicone oil and propylene glycol. Stay away from any ingredients that may be harmful to the hair, as residual oil from the clippers may get on to the hair when being cut.

• How do you apply hair clipper oil? It’s a simple process. Just put a couple of drops of oil on the corners of the top of the blade as well as at the foot of the blade. Don’t use your fingers to work in the oil as the blades can be sharp. Turn on the clipper instead and this motion will help the oil to move around over the blade. You don’t need to apply hair clipper oil every time to use it to cut hair. Instead, best practice is to apply the oil after every few haircuts. This keeps the clippers in their best shape.
• You may be tempted to use an alternative to hair clipper oil that you have lying about your house, such as vegetable cooking oils or WD40. However, these are not good choices and could end up ruining your clippers as well as your hair. For example, WD40 can be quite sticky because it is made from silicone. If this gets on your hair, it could make it look dull and unappealing.
• Because hair clipper oil is only needed in such small amounts, just a few drops at a time, it is sold in small packaging. For example, packaging ranges between one ounce and four ounces. If you use the hair clippers more frequently, opt for the bigger size. If you don’t use them very often, then the one ounce bottle will last you a while.
• Many hair clipper oils are versatile. If you use other hair trimming gadgets such as beard trimmers and electric shavers, the hair clipper oil may work on those as well. However, before using it on other gadgets, read the instructions for the hair clipper oil as well as the gadget to make sure they are compatible.