Martin Duffy
Well-Known Member
That sounds a lot more sensible! I was starting to wonder how many forests were to be lost to wax the nations legs!
double dipping when waxing
- Thread starter Nina87
- Start date
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Bunz
Active Member
The HSE suggests:-
Under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, you have a legal duty to protect the health of your employees and anyone else, for example the public, who may be affected by your work, or who may be on your premises at any time. You must have a safety policy and you should consult your employees and safety representatives on the risks identified and the measures needed to prevent or control these risks. You must also ensure employees are familiar with the safety policy.
During 2007 the relevant Government-approved standards setting body, the Hair and Beauty Industry Association (HABIA), published a new code of practice. That document, called [FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS][FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS]Waxing Services[/FONT][/FONT]1, included information on infection control good practice for operators performing body-waxing procedures. It was apparent during HABIA consultation at that time that a lack of clarity existed regarding the extent of measures required by operators to prevent cross-contamination risks between their clients. Put simply, any contamination risks posed by re-using open wax pots even when spatulas are regularly changed was unknown in terms of the levels, and types of microbial contamination that might be expected. The HABIA document, though helpful in terms of recommending an appropriate technique, also had no firm data on which to base its recommendations. It chose to state the following in order to achieve some degree of hygiene consistency in this respect:
[FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS][FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS]"Current accepted practice is that a new spatula is used for each client and the risk of cross-infection from re-dipping the spatula into the same pot used for more than one client is small. In these circumstances, i.e. when the wax pot is not single use and is reloaded with wax as necessary, in addition to general cleaning up of wax drips between clients, the wax pot must be regularly emptied, cleaned and dried, and the used wax discarded. How regularly depends on the number of clients, but should be at least once per week." [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS][FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS]Following on from the HABIA statement (above), we assume that most operators who adhere to good practice guidelines would use a fresh spatula to scoop out the molten wax for each new client commencing treatment. This is then spread thinly over the clients skin and a material strip is firmed over the wax and leg and then pulled off to remove the hair. The same spatula is then typically used to remove more wax from the pot as the process continues, and this is repeated until the area of concern is hair free. Although spatulas are cheap to purchase in bulk (pennies each), the informed feedback from those teaching within this sector suggests that so many are used per treatment and per day, that using a new spatula for every dip of the wax pot would be excessively wasteful and ultimately costly. However, the waxing process can cause blood spots and in-growing hairs, and results in some surface skin loss. A concern therefore exists that skin bacteria and fungi might be transferred back to the wax, and subsequently be transferred back to the next treated client. There is also a theoretical risk from blood borne virus transmission for the reasons stated, though detection of any virus is outside the scope of this study, and no reported evidence of their transmission via waxing could be found. [/FONT]
[FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS]Good practice techniques can act to minimise such contamination events, and would logically include correct use of spatulas, gloves, wax pot hygiene and other recommendations currently made by HABIA. [/FONT]
Open for debate then!
[/FONT]
Under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, you have a legal duty to protect the health of your employees and anyone else, for example the public, who may be affected by your work, or who may be on your premises at any time. You must have a safety policy and you should consult your employees and safety representatives on the risks identified and the measures needed to prevent or control these risks. You must also ensure employees are familiar with the safety policy.
During 2007 the relevant Government-approved standards setting body, the Hair and Beauty Industry Association (HABIA), published a new code of practice. That document, called [FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS][FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS]Waxing Services[/FONT][/FONT]1, included information on infection control good practice for operators performing body-waxing procedures. It was apparent during HABIA consultation at that time that a lack of clarity existed regarding the extent of measures required by operators to prevent cross-contamination risks between their clients. Put simply, any contamination risks posed by re-using open wax pots even when spatulas are regularly changed was unknown in terms of the levels, and types of microbial contamination that might be expected. The HABIA document, though helpful in terms of recommending an appropriate technique, also had no firm data on which to base its recommendations. It chose to state the following in order to achieve some degree of hygiene consistency in this respect:
[FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS][FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS]"Current accepted practice is that a new spatula is used for each client and the risk of cross-infection from re-dipping the spatula into the same pot used for more than one client is small. In these circumstances, i.e. when the wax pot is not single use and is reloaded with wax as necessary, in addition to general cleaning up of wax drips between clients, the wax pot must be regularly emptied, cleaned and dried, and the used wax discarded. How regularly depends on the number of clients, but should be at least once per week." [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS][FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS]Following on from the HABIA statement (above), we assume that most operators who adhere to good practice guidelines would use a fresh spatula to scoop out the molten wax for each new client commencing treatment. This is then spread thinly over the clients skin and a material strip is firmed over the wax and leg and then pulled off to remove the hair. The same spatula is then typically used to remove more wax from the pot as the process continues, and this is repeated until the area of concern is hair free. Although spatulas are cheap to purchase in bulk (pennies each), the informed feedback from those teaching within this sector suggests that so many are used per treatment and per day, that using a new spatula for every dip of the wax pot would be excessively wasteful and ultimately costly. However, the waxing process can cause blood spots and in-growing hairs, and results in some surface skin loss. A concern therefore exists that skin bacteria and fungi might be transferred back to the wax, and subsequently be transferred back to the next treated client. There is also a theoretical risk from blood borne virus transmission for the reasons stated, though detection of any virus is outside the scope of this study, and no reported evidence of their transmission via waxing could be found. [/FONT]
[FONT=JBBNZB+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT,Times New Roman PS]Good practice techniques can act to minimise such contamination events, and would logically include correct use of spatulas, gloves, wax pot hygiene and other recommendations currently made by HABIA. [/FONT]
Open for debate then!
[/FONT]
