scissors

The main reason Stylist's Scissors are expensive is because they need scissors which will last longer and stay sharp.

Haircutting scissors dull very easily because even though the blades are long you only use the first inch or so when cutting. If you have to do 10 cuts a day 5 days a week for a year your scissors you need to either have backup pairs of cheap scissors or you need to have an expensive pair because you don't want to be in the middle of doing a client and find out your scissors are dull.

Now as far as cheap scissors go they work fine. They just aren't meant to last as long. The best way to ensure that the pair you buy is a decent pair is to look at them. If they have an actual screw that you can use a screw driver on then they are a better pair than one that just has a rivet. The other thing to look at is do the blades come together tightly or is there a big gap between them? Hold them up so you can see if you see light between them. The less gap you see the better they are and the better cut you can get. If it has a screw you might be able to tighten it and that gap could be less.

Now as far as brands. I bought a pair of Arius Eckert scissors from a beauty supply for about $8 and they lasted me through at least 10 full haircuts so far and could probably do more.

I have also seen on here that people like the Tweezerman brand so they might be worth trying. I've also heard some people say they like to use sewing scissors.
Edited on 4/06/2006 to add: I now own a pair of Shear Technologies aka Belson Expertiz Shears. I got them at Sally Beauty. They were regular price $25 but I had the discount card and a coupon so I paid $17. I bought them in February 2005.

I don't mean to make anyone sound dumb if they have done this but I must say this.
Never cut anything but hair with any type of scissors you use for hair unless you're not going to use them on your hair anymore. You don't want to dull your scissors

A few more notes:

Good Hair shears have those lines on their blades that are like ||||||| and those are done by the grinding process. There are many store brands that do have those lines. Granted they may not be as well ground. Those Lines are for keeping the hair from slipping as you cut. If you go to cut hair and the hair looks like it is being pushed forward then chances are you either have dull blades or you bought a bad pair. Do not use the scissors from Haircutting Kits. I have purchased many haircutting kits and the scissors are usually poor quality. Also none of those had screws. The purpose of a screw is to take the blades apart for sharpening however if you paid less than $50 for your scissors do not bother getting them sharpened as chances are even if you found a cheap place to do it chances are they won't last long enough to justify it. Besides you might as well get a new pair. The motto is when in doubt throw it out.

Clean your scissors with rubbing alcohol using a cotton ball. Do the same with any other metal beauty instruments you use such as nail clippers or files or cuticle pushers. We also used the alcohol to clean the mirrors.

Also get some oil for them. I don't know if I used the right kind or not but I just used the little tube of oil I got with clipper kits.