Visited a barber school in Kansas City and noticed something odd about their clipper maintenance

I stopped by the Jenkins Barber College in KC last Thursday to check it out. Every single clipper had that burnt oil smell, like they never cleaned the blades between students. I asked one of the instructors about their routine and he said they only oil once a day. Has anyone else seen this kind of neglect at other schools?

2 comments

2 Comments

sageallen27d agoMost Upvoted

Only oil once a day" thats wild. In a school where ten different students might use the same clipper in an afternoon, that burnt oil smell means the blades are getting way too hot. I've seen barbershops that oil between every single client. Schools should be teaching better habits than that, not cutting corners on basic maintenance.

fiona_clark27d ago

Yeah exactly, @sageallen, that's the thing that gets me. Oil between every client should be the bare minimum, not some gold standard. In a school setting where those clippers are getting passed around constantly, you're basically asking for burnt hair smell and dull blades that pull instead of cut. I've seen students struggle with clippers that sound like they're dying halfway through a fade, and it's usually just because nobody bothered to oil them after the last three heads. Schools that let that slide are setting kids up to learn bad habits they'll have to unlearn later. And honestly, it's not even about being fancy, it's about respecting the tool and the person sitting in the chair. If you can't teach basic maintenance like oiling, what are you even teaching?