It’s the holidays and I’m sure many of us are making trips to the salon and spa to make sure we look our very best for gatherings with families and friends. However, before you sit down and prepare to get pampered and look fantabulous…make sure you’re asking the person performing the service the right questions.
This past July, a Quebec woman died following a detoxification treatment (which included being covered in mud and wrapped in plastic) at a spa near Montreal. In 2004, entertainer Paula Abdul received a manicure that cost her a year of painful thumb infections, linked to unclean equipment at a U.S. nail salon.
It’s important to remember that many services are unregulated by the government - meaning safety and sanitation is left up to spa owners and workers. Procedures such as manicures and pedicures require technicians to cut close to the cuticle area. They’re dealing with body parts that can be nicked; bleeding and infections can happen. So it’s important to ask and see if the technician is actually sterilizing the equipment before going to work on you.
Spas and salons, ideally, should put any tools they reuse through an autoclave cleansing process (the same method used by dentists and hospitals). Alcohol is not enough, nor is soap and water when cleaning spa tools. An autoclave is the only tool that truly sterilizes equipment of bacteria, fungus and virus. Unsterilized instruments can leave a spa-goer vulnerable to a variety of infections and viruses, including hepatitis and even HIV.
There have been incidences where doctors see people who get Hep C, for instance. They’re not drug users, they’re not using needles and they’ve never had tattoos or other exposure. Where did they get it from? Could it have been at a spa? Hmmmm….
So, next time you sit down for your spa/salon treatment, make sure your asking the right questions, folks. We all want to look fabulous, but we should should risk our health or even die doing so!
Tags: autoclave, bacteria, body wrap, hepatitis C, HIV, holidays, infections, manicure, pedicure, Safety, salon, sanitizing, Spa, virus, warning
