Great, thanks, so you mean discharge to 1V (not sure how I measure that) then recharge, but not fully, or it'll be back above 1.2V, right? Otherwise what does that do, exactly, if recharging will put them back a fraction higher than 1.2V?
Always fully charge the cells. You can pretty well ignore the slightly higher initial voltage after charging. It will almost immediately drop to 1.2V under load, when the clippers are turned on. If you were to only charge to 1.2V, the battery capacity would be very low and the clippers would run out of oomph, (a technical term), very fast.
Would it work if after charging I just hold the lead ends together for a certain amount of time?
Never do this. A very high current uncontrolled current would flow, flattening the batteries almost instantly and potentially damaging them.
Regarding discharging to 1V per cell, just run the clippers until they're no longer useful, but don't completely discharge the batteries to 0V and you'll be fine.
If using NiCd cells, it's a good idea to always discharge as above, until no longer useful, to prevent 'memory effect'. Memory effect is caused by only partly discharging the cells before recharging, and results in reduced capacity. Google NiCd memory effect if you're interested in more info on this. It's not truly 'memory', but acts like it.
NiMH also have memory effect, but nowhere near as bad as NiCd cells.
Edit: Another point to keep in mind is that at the high discharge rate of the clippers, 1.2A, I think you said, the batteries won't actually deliver their full rated capacity. As an example, a 9V NiCd that I'm currently building a charger for is rated at 160mAh, and in it's current application it is being discharged at 40mA and only lasts for 2 hours, giving an effective capacity of only 80mAh.