Does The Salon You Visit Follows All The Hygiene Standards For Waxing?

How sure are you about your salon’s hygiene standards? I bet you couldn’t be much because you may not have even asked them once about their sanitation practices.
 
Yes, most clients get intimidated by the professional aura that today’s salons carry but ladies, it’s your skin we are talking about! There’s nothing to be shy about in checking out because skin infections are the most common ones and you definitely don’t want one.
 
Before we get on with the detection of your salon’s hygiene status, there are three things that you must look for yourself in a salon:
 
Sanitization: All you have to do is be observant of your esthetician and the surroundings to understand the sanitary status of your salon. Sanitization is a crucial step before starting the waxing procedure so that there are no microorganisms on the esthetician’s hands which could infect you by a transfer.
 
Check if your esthetician is washing her hands before touching any of the equipment or you. They must wash hands and dry off in front of their customers to not only sanitize but develop a trust factor.
 
Notice if the bed towel was already placed on the waxing bed when you entered. Now, ask her if she changed the disposable towel after the exit of her precious customer. And most importantly, make sure you accept only the fresh, folded change of disposable covers for your body.
 
Disinfection: Disinfecting a place is making it free from pathogenic organisms that might have an adverse effect on your health when in contact.
 
Look around! Do you see a web? If there’s a web, there’s a spider, and if there’s a spider, there’s no guarantee if it hadn’t crawled around the waxing bed, right?
 
In all, the place is not serious about disinfecting the area for giving a hygienic experience to its customers which should be a big NO for you to visit that salon.
 
Sterilization: Sterilization is the process of killing microorganisms and any sort of pollutants using heat and vacuum. There are usually sterilizing machines present in professional salons for cleaning the equipment.
 
All the professional waxing supplies are not reusable. Therefore you may not have to worry about this one too much.
 
However, if you are there for a haircut make sure their instruments are sterilized using the professional sterilizer.

1. A Questionnaire Handout: A responsible salon or spa will always want to know their customer’s skin health before proceeding with the waxing process. A questionnaire is the best way possible to know if you have any allergies or medical condition, if you are on any pills which could affect the skin layers that makes waxing a risk and other such details.

If you are handed a questionnaire before you meet your appointment, congratulations! Because if they are responsible enough to know about your health, we can assume that they are concerned about sanitary measures.
 
2. The Waxing Bed Has A Fresh Sheet Over It: Waxing is a messy process and even if your esthetician is a pro, there will be some dripping and hair-falling which is unhealthy if not contained.

Therefore, each waxing bed has to have its own disposable sheet which your esthetician is supposed to change after the exit of every customer.

So if your salon does the same, and when you look around, there are no hairs or wax spots on the disposable sheet, you are good to go! However, if there is, just ask nicely to make the change before you hop on!

3. Your Esthetician Wears Gloves All The Time: If you are regular at waxing, you may have noticed that some areas are more sensitive than the others and are more likely to ooze out blood on waxing.

We don’t make a much fuss about it but sadly, it makes our skin more likely to catch an infection. Under these circumstances, if the technician touches you without her gloves on, there is a probability of catching an infection.

So if your technician is already responsible enough to wear gloves throughout the procedure, it is a good sign. But you too have to share that responsibility and whenever she asks you to place your hand on the skin mostly during Brazilian sessions, ask for gloves and don’t touch without them.
 
4. You Don’t Have To Remind Them About The Double Dipping Hazards: Wax application involves a stick and once it is dipped in the wax, it has to be thrown away unless that pot is used only for your waxing session.

If the stick is dipped in the same wax pot twice, you are likely to catch an infection. For every single dip, the stick should be a new one. If the salons use permanent waxing applicators, they must sanitize before using it for other clients.

If your salon is following this practice, you can definitely depend on them for hygienic reasons.
 
5. Wax Rollers Are Spotless: In the case of strip free wax hair removal, most technicians might prefer making it entirely a hands-free experience by also choosing rollers for wax application.

If that’s the case, you must check if the rollers are either sanitized or changed before taking in the next customer. If a salon highlights this practice, you are in a hygienic zone.

1. Messy Premises: If the salon is messy with hair and things lying around, don’t even think twice before leaving that place.
 
2. Dust On The Shelves And Products: All salons have products to display and shelves to place them. Presence of dust on these shelves points towards just one thing- negligence. If they are not doing their regular cleaning, it is highly unlikely that they might be taking extra precautions for a safe waxing process.
 
3. Appliances Are Directly Stacked After Use: Suppose the esthetician takes out a tweezer for your ingrown hair removal. Now, notice if she puts it back from where she took or places it in a sterilizer. If it’s the former, the salon is not following proper hygiene code and it’s time you look for options.
 
4. Wax Pots Are Covered In Wax: You can test the proficiency of a technician by looking at her waxing pot. The more the wax is outside the pot, the lesser the efficiency. Apart from that part, you can also see that they don’t care about hygiene as well. They must clean their wax pots using wax strips and a cleaner after each customer exits.
 
So, how much of these hygiene practices does your salon follow? If you haven’t noticed these things before, it’s time you keep your eyes peeled for these signs when you visit the salon the next time! Caio!