When was the last time you went to a
salon? Did you ever think that going to a salon you could get an infection?
Korin Miller, who is a writer about women's health, found “52 percent of the
study participants had dermal or fungal infection symptoms, and they were the
most common among people who had been to a salon three times in the past year”
(Miller). This epidemic of salons disregarding safety precautions causing
infections is a problem. Infections are
something that can take a turn for the worst and sometimes lead to serious
medical conditions. People are not educated on these precaution's cosmetologist
are supposed to take, but if they were it could allow more people to be safe
from infections. Do you know how to keep your body safe in a salon?
Hair styling goes back to Egyptians
making wigs, coloring their hair with henna, and shaving their heads. This
dates to “The earliest known ones date back to around 3000 B.C.” (Hayes). This
shows how long the art of hair styling has been around and how much it has changed and evolved over time.
Maureen Callahan wrote a paper over the first nail salon opened in the “U.S.
Mary Cobb, one of our first female entrepreneurs, opened her salon — Mrs.
Cobb’s Manicure Parlors — in 1878, charging $1.25 for a manicure.” (Callahan).
Then Jeff Chiarelli wrote about the first hair salon “open a salon, the Harper
Method Shop, in 1888.” (“A History of Beauticians”). These two salons paved the
way for the cosmetology industry we have today.
With having the industry, comes
along with required rules and regulations to keep the client and cosmetologist
safe. For Texas it is known as Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations or
TDLR. This company has been around “Helping Small Business and Consumers Since
1909” (History of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation). TDLR
is responsible for licensing salons and people, inspecting salons, and creating
rules and regulations for salons to follow. The licensing process is a long and
rigors course with many requirements. For cosmetology school you must log 1500
hours, pass a written test with at least 70, and a practical test before you
can get your license. You can start this process and gain you license as young
as 17. Doing this you learn how to correctly be able to keep yourself and
clients safe from harmful diseases, viruses, or infections. Being a
cosmetologist, you put people's life's in your hands and are held up to a
certain standard to keep this people safe. This being the reason that you must
go through this rigors course to be able to become a cosmetologist. Even after
gaining your license you must do continued education every year to stay up to
date. Cosmetology is one career that never stops evolving, creating new things,
or going back to old ways. Meaning you must stay up to date with the new
trends, old techniques coming back, and new technology.
One major topic you must understand
in cosmetology is infection control. Infection control can be the difference
between keeping a job and losing it. There are countless rules and regulations
in place that cosmetologist must understand to be able to work in a salon. This
even goes to what they are allowed to wear in a salon to protect their self.
Failing to follow these rules and regulations can lead to putting someone in
the hospital or losing your license. Every cosmetologist knows the rule and
regulations but, even with this knowledge they disregard them sometime. Some on
accident from doing a process countless amount of times and forgetting or doing
it on purpose just because it takes too long, or they do not want to do it.
This leads to the epidemic of clients getting infections or put in a hospital
from a salon visit.
An example of how serious it is for
cosmetologist to follow these rules is from a woman who died after getting a
pedicure. Kimberly Kay Jackson was 46-year-old women who loved getting
pedicures. She would go once a month to a nail salon and get a pedicure. In
July she went to a nail salon and got a pedicure in a whirlpool foot spa. This
type of foot spa works by “creating a massaging effect by re-circulating water
through built in pipe and jets” (Backe 91). The whirlpool spas are starting to
slowly become discontinued from it not being able to be disinfected properly.
This is caused from microorganisms being able to grow in the pipes of the foot
spa even after disinfection. Meaning that if one client is in the foot spa with
a cut and has a disease the microorganisms will soak in the water and then
proceed grow in the pipes. Once a healthy client with a cut is placed in that
same foot spa the microorganisms will be in the water and can penetrate the cut
causing the new client to be infected. Kimberly did not know this about this
type of foot spa, so she continued to get the service. As the service was going
on, she got cut with a pumice stone on her heel causing broken skin. Her foot
continued to soak in the water with her skin being broken. After leaving the
salon the cut began becoming infected and would not go away even after seeking
medical attention. This infection could have happened from two different
reasons. One the pumice stone could have not been disinfected properly and had
infectious disease on it. Or two the microorganisms could have been in the
pipes and in the water her foot was soaking in. After a couple of months, she
passed away from “heart attack triggered by a staph infection” (“Family Sues
Salon over Death after Pedicure”). Meaning
that the cut she received at the salon got so infected that it caused her to
pass away. There was multiple was this could have been avoided by the salon and
this unfortunate event did not need to happen.
Mrs. Reynolds is a woman who lives
in Orland, Florida and was affected by a salon (Iwasinski). She went in to a
hair salon to get her hair colored to platinum blond. With her original color
being brown it is a process to get to the desired color and a lot of level
stages that the hair must go through. It is not an easy process to do and the
cosmetologist needs to be well educated on how to complete the process with a
happy client in the end. Mrs. Reyolds did research on the salon and even got
recommended by a friend to the stylist she went to (1). With doing all these
things she thought it was going to be a great experience and she was going to
love her new change. Unfortunately, that is not wat happened to her and she
ended up paying way more then she would every have thought for just some hair
color. When the process started everything was going smooth until she had half
of her hair completed. When she reached the half way point her head started
burning, so she informed the stylist, which you should do anytime there is
discomfort in a salon. When telling the stylist, she replied by saying “Yes
that could happen,' and just let me know if it gets really bad” (1). In a
lightening process there could be a burning sensation because while doing the
process there is a heat reaction occurring in the hair. This does not mean that
your scalp should be burning so much that is feels like physical pain is
occurring. This is what happened with Mrs. Reynolds, her head contented to burn
and after informing the stylist she started to panic. "She had no idea
what was going on, she didn't know I was being burned," said Reynolds.
"She didn't know how to neutralize it. She tried to say it might be an
allergic reaction."(1). After, getting the lightener out and stopping the
burning Mrs. Reynolds went to a clinic and got diagnosed with third degree
burns. The pain did not stop here though one day after a shower she realized
"It was a full thickness chemical burn, which means that all of my skin
was completely gone," said Reynolds. "For about the next 10 months, I
was left with about 5 inches of my scalp exposed."(1). This caused her to
have to be referred to a burn clinic and paying thousands in medical bills for
medical treatments and surgeries. All this happening could have been avoided by
doing a simple preliminary strand test on the client prior to putting the
lightener on the hair. This strand test is a major part of cosmetology school
when learning how the human hair reacts so different from types of hair,
diameter of the hair, and porosity of the hair. Meaning that the cosmetologist
performing this lightener knew about the strand test and knew that one is
supposed to be done on every client. Doing this test would have reviled that
Mrs. Reynolds would have had a reaction to that form of lightener and the stylist
could have chosen a different lightener that would have ended with a better
result.
Cosmetology is a career choice where
you can choose your own path to how, when, and the way you choose to work.
There are no rules on how you have to do a certain process, application, or
even what time to work. In school it is different though, everybody is taught
the same way in beauty school for every process that is done, but as you grow
with the career your skills and the way you do things grows too. Going to different
salons you can see many different techniques that get the same end result. This
all just depends on how the cosmetologist is comfortable doing the application.
It is wonderful being able to choose how you work and not being told anything
unless the client is not happy, with this there is one huge thing that cannot
be cut out. This is the disinfection process; everyone is taught a certain way
in school and this is the way that every cosmetologist needs to do the
disinfection process.
In beauty school everybody is taught how to
properly disinfect the work station, equipment used, and tools used on every
client. Every item that come in contact with a client the object either needs
to be disinfected properly or thrown out. Falling to follow these steps can
lead to infections spreading through a salon. It is very easy for an item to
not be disinfected properly especially when somebody is on a time crunch. When
being put against a clock it is easier to skip a step or not allow an item to
sit long enough in order to get rid of all the microorganisms that are present.
This sometimes has no effect on people, or it can have a major effect on many
people. Leaving microorganisms on implements can lead to a client getting an
infection from a previous client that they never have met (“Cosmetology and
Infection Control”). Disinfection is one of the most important things in a
salon and with it being ignored it can have major effects on many people's
lives.
Another thing that cosmetologist
ignore is to determine what condition the hair is in. Two main test that need
to be completed before any application are a porosity test and elasticity test.
The porosity test shows how much the hairs cuticle is raised, the higher the
cuticle is raised the faster the process will happen (“Curly Girl Porosity
Test”). This is because the application can penetrate the cortex faster causing
the hair to process faster. The next test that needs to be completed is the
elasticity test, this shows how damaged the hair is. This test will determine
how high of a level the developer that needs to be used. Doing these two tests
will allow you to be able to tell you how long the hair will need to process
and how you should do the process. Both of these tests take no time at all, so
it does not make since why some stylist do not do these simple things.
If doing these test fails to determine this
information the stylist can do a preliminary strand test. This test is done by
applying the desired color to a strand in the back-nape area and letting it
process. Once it is processed the stylist will be able to see what the color
looks like, what developer to use, how the hair will react, and if the client
likes the color. This test gives the exact answers that every cosmetologist
needs to proceed with a process(“What is a Strand Test..”). The only downfall
of this test is it takes up more time. Meaning that it will require more time
on one client which will lead to less money at the end of the day.
Once you know about the client's
hair you need to consider the clients skin. Every person has different
allergies, sensitivities, and reactions. Meaning that you need to be able to
know how the client's skin will react. There is a test for this that again,
every cosmetologist is taught in school it's called a patch test (“Skin
Allergies Patch Test”). A patch test is a test where you take the desired color
from the desired brand and apply a little amount to the client inner elbow, on
the neck behind the hairline, or on the inner wrist. This just depends on where
the client prefers it to be placed. The test should sit on the client's skin
for 24 hours, then taken off to see how the skin reacts. Again, with this test
it takes way more time. This test will take a client from just being a couple
hours to taking two days or longer depending on how the test reacts. This is
not good for a cosmetologist because it is time that could be spent on somebody
else. Then clients usually do not want to wait, they want their hair done the
day they go in. If they have to wait, they could try a different salon and get
it done that day, then the cosmetologist just lost a client.
These simple things that can be done
in order to keep clients healthy and safe are often ignored because of time and
money. If every cosmetologist that gains their license and works on clients
where to follow the rules and regulations, that they were taught in school,
then clients would be protected. You can see how this is very farfetched and
not something that could happen with the click of a button. How can we know
they are following these regulations? How can we know the cosmetologist are
doing the rules correctly? How can we give out license for this field but not
even be able to protect it?
These questions are things that
should not have to be asked, that should just be done when the license is
handed out. The test that are given in order to make sure the cosmetologist is
ready for a license, does not tend to after they get their license. Once the stylist
gets the license, they never have to take another test again. All they have to
do is take education hours to renew their license, but this does not test their
work skill. Anybody can sit in front of a computer and get a certificate, so
how can this be the way to renew the license? This does not test how well a
stylist dose an application or if the cosmetologist knows how to disinfect
properly. So how can we trust a cosmetologist to put our life in their hands if
they are not tested properly.
Camus is a person that not many
people understand from the way his mind works. With his work he always asked,
“What is the meaning of existence?” in every piece (“Camus
and Absurdity”). An epidemic about people getting injured or infections
from a salon does not have much to do with this topic. Even though this is not
one of his topics it is still a serious topic. Cosmetology is something that
gives people a career and a way of life. With people getting sick it is
something that get done different and then this whole industry be taken away.
People go to hair and nail salons in
order to get things done that they cannot achieve at home from not having the
skill or knowledge of doing so. They go putting trust in the cosmetologist to
be able to achieve what they want done. Not thinking they could be leaving with
injuries to their hair, nails, or skin. In reality this is what could happen
from cosmetologist not paying enough attention or taking an easier way out. The
cosmetologist sometimes do not even realize that this is happening, that they
are putting people in danger and not even realizing. It is not something that
is done on purpose but something that can ruin multiple people's lives. This is something that can happen to anybody
at any time, but there are rules to prevent it so how can this happen to so
many people.
Work Cited
“A History of Beauticians.” Cosmetology
School & Beauty School in Texas - Ogle School, 10 Feb. 2016, www.ogleschool.edu/blog/a-history-of-beauticians/.
Admin. “Skin Allergy
Patch Test.” Simply Organic Beauty, Simply Organic Beauty, 8 Mar. 2016,
www.simplyorganicbeauty.com/ammonia-free/salon-hair-diagnostics/skin-allergy-patch-test/.
Backe, Jason, et al. Milady®
Standard Cosmetology.
Callahan, Maureen, and Maureen
Callahan. “The USA's First Nail Salon Opened in NYC in 1878.” New York Post,
New York Post, 20 Apr. 2014,
nypost.com/2014/04/20/first-us-nail-salon-opened-in-nyc-in-1878-book/.
“Cosmetology and Infection Control: What You
Need to Know.” Cosmetology License,
www.cosmetology-license.com/what-every-cosmetology-student-needs-to-know-about-sterilization/.
Curly Girl Porosity Test,
www.curlsbot.com/porosity/.
“Family Sues Salon over Death after
Pedicure.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 19 May 2006, www.nbcnews.com/id/12866053/ns/health-womens_health/t/family-sues-salon-over-death-after-pedicure/#.XFwvIFxKjct.
Hays, Jeffrey. “HAIRSTYLES, WIGS,
FACIAL HAIR AND HAIR CARE IN ANCIENT EGYPT.” Facts and Details,
factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub365/entry-6132.html.
History of the Texas Department of
Licensing and Regulation,
www.tdlr.texas.gov/history.htm.
Iwasinski, Adrianna. “Woman Warns of
Salon Dangers after Sustaining Chemical Burns.” WKMG, 26 Sept. 2017, www.clickorlando.com/news/investigators/woman-warns-of-salon-dangers-after-sustaining-chemical-burns.
Miller, Korin. “The Number Of People
Who Report Fungal Infections After Visiting Nail Salons Will Make You Want To
Cry.” Women's Health, Women's Health, 9 Mar. 2019, www.womenshealthmag.com/beauty/a19974026/fungal-infection-nail-salon-study/.
What Is a Strand Test
and Can You Tell Me How to Do a Strand Test?, www.hairfinder.com/hair2/strand_test.htm.
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