A magnetic thin film head employing giant magnetoresistance (GMR) includes alternating layers of ferromagnetic material and nonmagnetic material coupled by magnetostatic and exchange interactions to produce an antiparallel orientation between the magnetic layers in the absence of an external field. Magnetic biasing is applied by a permanent magnet to the alternating layers to obtain a scissor-like configuration of the adjacent magnetic layers. The magnet is placed in contiguous junction with the multilayered GMR structure edge which is away from the air bearing surface, and is separated from the sensor by a nonmagnetic, nonconductive spacer.