Safety And Sanitation In The Salon

Now more than ever before, safety is an important issue in our salons.

When our clients enter the salon, they assume that the salon is clean and free from germs. Our customers also assume that you, the professional, and your co-workers have properly disinfected all equipment and environmental surfaces. Our clients assume they will not be exposed to infectious agents, which may possibly make them sick or perhaps even cause death as a result of your services.

We also assume our clients are free from contagious agents (germs). We perform a variety of services routinely touching the clients’ skin. Occasionally, one might even accidentally nick or puncture a client’s skin, resulting in slight bleeding, or one might cut or nick one’s own skin, causing bleeding. Either way, if it does happen, an open port of entry for germs is created.

Since the beginning of time, humanity has had to deal with germs. Even though people living thousands of years ago had no real concept of an invisible world of living organisms capable of getting them sick or possibly causing death, several references to diseases caused by these organisms (germs) are even found in the Bible. As a matter of fact, the first infection-control rules for preventing the spread of disease are mentioned in Leviticus, a Biblical text. The people afflicted with Hanson’s disease, also known as leprosy, were removed from the general population and isolated into colonies away from the public to keep the disease from spreading to others. Their clothing, possessions, dwellings, and anything they came in contact with were burned to prevent the spread of the disease-causing organism, even though no one at the time knew the cause of the illness.  We now know that leprosy is caused by a bacterium in the same family as the bacteria that can cause tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis).

Germs that we may be exposed to have been around for a long time, having managed to survive an array of attacks. By following adequate cleaning practices with proper infection-control techniques, you will certainly protect yourself as well as your clients. The fundamental rule is “clean and disinfect to protect all.” If you do not know your clients are sick, you would never know whether your clients are carriers of germs, making you vulnerable to their germs. Even more, if you do not do a good job of decontaminating your work station and equipment, you could become the source of cross-infection from one client to another, spreading disease without them or you knowing it.

It has taken us thousands of years to realize proper cleaning and disinfecting are absolutely necessary for human life to continue. To inadvertently spread germs from one person to another contributes to epidemics such as the flu, measles, mumps, herpes, and   other diseases including hepatitis, often referred to as the modern-day version of the Plague.

As professionals, we are responsible for sanitation in our salons we are responsible for keeping the work environment clean and safe from soils and germs. You are not asked to keep your work area as clean as a hospital operating room, although it would be a good idea to try to keep your area almost as clean. Hospitals know how to keep germs from spreading. If you would like to be extra cautious you could use a small autoclave similar to what is used in the hospitals. Small autoclaves are now available and fairly inexpensive. If you accidentally nick some one with your implements that are not disposable you must sanitize and disinfect the implements. An autoclave would be a good thing to have around in a situation such as this. We all share the responsibility of keeping are environment safe and clean to ensure that it is a safe place to work in and live in. It is important to remember to clean everything from your implements to your work station including the mirror and chair.

If your client comes to your salon and sees a messy work area they may be concerned with your performance, they may see you as unkempt. They may be concerned that you don’t care about your work or that your implements may not be clean. We would not be comfortable going into a doctors’ office that was not clean. Many customers now know how to protect themselves from the spread of disease and they are more aware of what steps each profession needs to take including ours.

You are the only one who knows if your work area is properly cleaned, not all germs can be seen. If your implements look dirty you know that they are and if you can see that they are soiled, you know that microorganisms are present. If you clean your tools and implements, but do not disinfect your work area, you have only diluted the germs you haven’t killed them. You should choose your cleaning agents or soaps with caution some actually promote the growth of germs, such as bar soap. Liquid hand soap may be a better choice since they contain anti microbial. One good choice of a cleaning agent for the work area is any newer one step germicidal cleaner. Hospital grade disinfectant is suggested for use in the salon. Most household cleaners do not prove strong enough for our needs in the salon. A good germicidal will kill germs that may be harmful to our health.