The Wheel

Shear For The Professional Hair Stylists

for Oster Professional

Oster Pro was one of the leading brands in the U.S. hair beauty tool industry. To maintain its competitive edge and continue delivering value to professional users, the company initiated plans to develop a new, innovative beauty tool.

After evaluating various product categories, Oster Pro selected shears as the focus of this development.

Shears were identified as a category with high potential for ergonomic innovation—offering meaningful opportunities to enhance user comfort, reduce fatigue, and ultimately improve the overall user experience.

Core Question: Which area do target users want to see improved?

Everyone knows there are many areas on the shear that could use improvement; however, it was difficult to clearly define which specific part. To identify the precise areas requiring improvement, the design team conducted user observation research and interviews.

The design team visited over 10 beauty salons in the Boston area and interviewed more than 30 professional hair stylists. They also observed the stylists while they were using shears to cut customers’ hair.

An interesting finding from this activity was that hair stylists often cut hair using only the lower part of the shear, primarily moving the thumb to make straight cuts. This behavior was consistent among all the stylists the team interviewed and observed. However, this practice frequently caused stress—and sometimes pain—in their thumbs over time while using the shears.

Based on these findings, the team identified the thumb hole as a key area for improvement for professional hair stylists, the main target users, in order to enhance their daily work experience.

Challenge: How can the thumb hole be improved while maintaining usability and minimizing resistance?

Design development focused on improving the thumb hole, based on insights from target user interviews and observational research.

The goal was to redesign the thumb hole with ergonomic enhancements to reduce stress and pain while also improving usability to better support thumb movement.

At the same time, it was important to maintain the traditional shear usability that hair stylists are naturally familiar with and do not want to change.

To achieve this, the design team explored various possibilities and fabricated and tested mock-ups.

“The Wheel”: The Perfect Supporter for Hair Stylists’ Daily Work

“The Wheel” is designed with an added soft elastomeric, flexible, and rotatable part on the thumb hole. This additional component naturally rotates along with the user’s thumb movements to support thumb mobility. This support helps reduce stress and pain, even with prolonged use. The material itself enhances comfort with a universal fit.

This approach has never existed in shears before and represents a highly innovative advancement in shear design, aimed at improving genuine ergonomics and user experience.

The organically shaped soft elastomeric finger rest area is designed to follow the natural shape of the human finger, providing comfortable support for the rest of the fingers through its form and material.

“The Wheel” was designed based on a deep understanding of user behavior and areas requiring improvement. It is the perfect companion for hair stylists’ daily work, offering comfort and ergonomic support.