Hopefully, Andy (Axiom) will pick up on this thread and point us in the right direction for this either way.
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It's difficult for me to add anything concrete to what's already been said - opinions differ, even amongst environmental health departments and the medical profession.
In the UK, Habia recommend replacing the spatula between customers (obviously!), when changing body areas and if blood spotting occurs. Some beauty colleges teach students not to double dip at all, requiring them instead to either use a clean spatula each time or to drizzle wax from one spatula to another (so that the spatula that applies the wax never actually goes back into the pot).
Some folks feel that the principle is similar to nail polish - that any wax which touches the skin stays there and never makes it back into the pot. I also believe there have never been any documented cases of infections being passed on through a wax pot (even in the good old days when hot wax used to be strained and re-used on the next customer!) although there have been a lot of articles in the UK recently about problems arising as a result of poorly managed aftercare or contra-indications - this is not the same as an infection being passed on through the wax itself, however.
Until there is something definitive either way, my advice is to follow the requirements of your local health authority and insurance provider or membership organisation, and beyond that work within your comfort zone and that of your clients.
Personally, I live by the maxim "double-dip until I rip" - i.e. I double-dip unless I'm going over skin that has already been waxed during the same treatment (although even then I occasionally forget, and I guess there's always a possibility of slightly overlapping onto skin that has already had a strip removed). Having said that, I don't double-dip at all when Brazilian waxing or if I trim the hair first and get stray strands of hair on the spatula, but that's my personal comfort zone
