Dose of hepatitis anyone?
If you are going for a beauty treatment, make sure your therapist meets stringent hygiene standards
Do you ever wonder how hygienic or safe it is to have a leg wax? You’re on the couch ready for your treatment and the beautician whips out a metal or wooden spatula, that should be new for each client. But this does not make the treatment hygienic, let alone safe. Wax is spread thinly onto the skin then a cloth strip is pressed over it and pulled off, ripping the hairs out from the root.
Miniscule droplets of body fluids leak out to the surface of the skin as a result and in fact most often specks of blood also leak out, especially from bikini, underarm or men’s chest areas. The same spatula then reapplies wax to the skin next to area just done or may need to overlap already waxed areas. The spatula therefore comes into contact with body fluids, sweat and/or blood or may even pick up other skin diseases or infections. That spatula is then re-dipped into the pot of wax! Herpes, Hepatitis, Pitiriasis, Impetigo and fungal or bacterial infections are some infections that come that could conceivably be passed on. An article in The Observer stated that contaminated wax is capable of transmitting Hepatitis B and even HIV. He quoted Norman Noah, consultant epidemiologist at the British government’s Public Health Laboratories Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre as stating that “there is a definite risk of transmitting disease through heated wax treatment if it is used again or equipment is not properly cleaned.” Beauty training schools and salon or ‘spa’ owners need to liase with medical professionals and establish clear rules and guidelines to ensure better awareness and education in hygiene and safety by therapists. Even better would be the official licensing of therapists in Cyprus to ensure proof of qualifications.
If waxing is performed using roller type containers, any body fluids or undesirable bacteria etc. come into direct contact with the roller and are transferred straight back into the container of wax, therefore contaminating it and so even if the rollers are changed for each client, the wax is still contaminated. Wax is not boiled so we can assume that it is a potential source of cross infection.
Before you all stop having your legs waxed and we turn into a community of hypochondriac hairy hippies, there is a safer way to wax. P h D is a waxing system that has recently been imported from the UK by a Cypriot Company that supplies only Beauty Industry professionals (Pomico, Tel: 22 879006). The system consists of tubes of wax onto which disposable heads are clicked on before each client. There is a ‘flow back’ space in the head so that any wax that may come into direct contact with skin is retained in the disposable head. If your beautician is not using this method, I strongly recommend you tell her about it.
Any procedure is only safe if done correctly and depends largely on the integrity, professionalism, training and attitude of the person carrying out the procedure.
Sanitised hands or tools are not much good if door handles, drawer handles and phones are being handled while someone is performing a treatment on you. Even though in 25 years in the beauty business I have never heard of anyone catching anything by having a beauty treatment it is our responsibility as therapists to carry out treatments in the most hygienic way possible.
