Scare TV

[The Geek]

I just watched a segment on the dangers of infection in the nail salon on GMTV and it was the closest I have witnessed to an actual train wreck. With the amount of buzz taking place on the radio and TV about this, I am deeply concerned about the affect it will have on our industry.

Consumer TV, Radio and print generally need to focus on the sensationalism of a story to make it intriguing - but this sensationalism sacrifices the ability to inform in exchange for the ability to scare.

The general public are going to surmise from the GMTV episode:

1- Having a pedicure can give you all sorts of diseases as bacteria can absorb through your skin. Be especially careful not to have a pedicure if you shave your legs.

Bacteria can not penetrate through unbroken skin. If you shave and cut yourself - you have broken skin. If the technician cuts you while working - you will have broken skin. Having broken skin will not give you an infection, but it will stop your best defense against getting an infection.
If you have broken skin and the salon and/or technician does not work in a hygienic manner, then yes - you may run a risk of an infection. Fortunately this is very extremely rare. Best bet - don't go to a cheap salon where the professionals can not clearly demonstrate their sanitation procedures and their training certificates.

2- MMA is a nail glue that holds your floor together and some salons use for nails

MMA is not a nail glue, it is a monomer used in making L&P enhancements (commonly called 'acrylics'). They make nails that are excessively hard and therefore pose a serious risk in the nail salon. Best bet: Don't go to a salon that uses unbranded products and charge lower than average price for their work. Also do not have nail services by technicians who can not clearly demonstrate their ability to work in a safe and hygienic manner. Look for their certificates of education on display.

3- You should sterilize the hands before having a nail service

This is impossible. You can only sanitize hands and feet. Make sure the client and the technician wash their hands before every service and that the technician uses a waterless sanitizer before commencing the service.

4- You shouldn't drill into the nail bed, only scuff up the nail plate

You should do neither. An electric file should never come in contact with the nail plate (let alone the nail bed). A nail doesn't need to be scuffed for long lasting adhesion with a decent product.

Everyone here needs to start educating the public NOW. Snippets like I watched this morning seldom inform - they usually scare and the people it scares the most are seldom the ones that attend salons where they SHOULD be scared. Instead, it affects those that are determined to provide the highest standard of service out there.

So what are YOU going to do to counter the negativity?

 

[lotus blossom]

im going to ask YOU to get yourself onto gmtv, with the ever lovely samantha, and you are goiing to put the record straight!!!!!!!!!



pretty please??

 

[The Beauty Zoo]

I think I am going to print this out and keep it with me to recite when anyone asks me!!!!!

Would it help if we bombard these web sites with the correct info.....while it is in the news???? I know it has happened with the radio 1 web site yesterday but GMTV said it was on their web site too.

As a qualified Nail Tech I find it, as I know many others do, so frustrating when this sort of rubbish is broadcast to the public. :irked:

Got to do the school run now and then a client but later today I will try and send an e-mail to do my bit......anyone else going to join me????!!!!!

xxx

 

[Cathie!]

im going to ask YOU to get yourself onto gmtv, with the ever lovely samantha, and you are goiing to put the record straight!!!!!!!!!



pretty please??

Yes, a big industry mogul is needed....you, Geeg, Mum, Chocolate....

 

[Cathie!]

I think I am going to print this out and keep it with me to recite when anyone asks me!!!!!

Would it help if we bombard these web sites with the correct info.....while it is in the news???? I know it has happened with the radio 1 web site yesterday but GMTV said it was on their web site too.

As a qualified Nail Tech I find it, as I know many others do, so frustrating when this sort of rubbish is broadcast to the public. :irked:

Got to do the school run now and then a client but later today I will try and send an e-mail to do my bit......anyone else going to join me????!!!!!

xxx

Will do that too...

 

[Mrs Geek]

Positive Spin??? That has to be the most atrocious interview and information that I have ever seen. The lady in the nail bar was about to talk about 'sterilizing the natural nail' which is impossible. The NY Nail bar made out the to wax your legs was now dangerous if having nails done to pass on infections. The woman in Bristol talked about 'glue' being a form of MMA and Sophy (bless her) talked about it being OK to use drills lightly on natural nails.

Quite frankly - it was appalling and made out industry look more like crap than ever. Why they don't go to the experts is beyond me. Anyone who can use correct terminology and discuss nails with the conviction it needs talking about and to make our industry sound serious rather than pathetic which IMHO is all that 5 minutes did! :irked: :smack: :!:

 

[claireamy]

I definitely think GMG and Mrs Geek should go on GMTV to put them straight!!

I too will join the crusade and email GMTV. I'm also going to print off GMG's info at the top of this thread for my clients to read if they are worried. (already spent all day yesterday trying to reassure people) and Sam does it so eloquently!

 

[Sassy Hassy]

Well I didn't see the article, but it sounds typical. However there is a link on their website to show what to look for in a salon ...

As nail bars fail to make the grade, check out this guide to how safe your salon is

Training and hygiene standards in nail bars need to be stepped up to prevent infections, according to environmental health officers. Bristol City Council showed 20% of 45 salons tested were failing to employ properly qualified staff.

Here's a quick checklist as a guide on how safe your salon is:

• Before each treatment both you and the nail technician should sanitise your hands. Washing alone will not necessarily kill germs so check that they offer you an anti-bacterial gel before the treatment starts
• The nail technician should check your nails for any cuts around the cuticles before they start. If so, they should take extra care when working on these nails.
• Before the treatment begins, the nail technician should sanitise every tool and file in front of you thoroughly. Don't let them just pick a file up and start working on your hands, you don't know where it's been.
• No product should have a nail technician's hands in it. If they need to get product out of a big tub they should use a wooden spatula which is binned after use.
• Ask what qualifications and experience your nail technician has - if they're a good salon, they won't mind answering you.
• Check that any foot soak bowl has been thoroughly sanitised so that foot nasties are not transmitted between clients. Ten's pedicure thrones have a 10 minute cleaning cycle at the end of each treatment to ensure thorough disinfectant.

Info was given by the Ten nail bar, I expect it was edited but it's a start. But why can't they give this type of info out on the tv?

 

[fats28]

I find these things frustrating and I'm only starting out. Theres enough people who think they know better than well qualified nail techs without Lorraine Kelly making them think they are right:irked: Whats with all the articles giving duff info lately and what can the geek community do to try put this straight?

 

[becki x]

This is getting beyond a joke,have they nothing better to do than slate our industry ????

Maybe they should concentrate on issues which have not yet been resolved such as,why is it that 9 times out of 10 you go to the quacks and you come away with nothing but a diagnosis of a viral infection !!!!!

Someone needs to set the record straight so they leave us alone to earn our living at being a professional !!!!

 

[Klassy Klaws]

I sat mouth open couldn't believe what I was hearing and the worst of it we never got to hear or see what the tech was doing as the link broke so the last thing heard was that the glue was used to stick down FLOORING and contained MMA great all bad press:irked:
I do think we need to get GMG, Mrs Geek, Geeg, mum and anyone else who can put the facts right on gmtv.

 

[Sassy Hassy]

So here's what I've done .. here's my email to GMTV ...

There seems to have been an inordinate amount of bad press resulting from the recent study carried out in Bristol with statistics being quoted rather than factual information. Why could they not say that 80% passed, but sadly 20% did not come up to scratch and give the reasons why?

The nail industry is relatively new and growing all the time. The 80% of us that work correctly are tired of the 20% bringing us down. We want them gone so why don't the EHO's make more of an effort to get their act together or close them down,? I've heard of one client having had terrible infections as a result of a sub standard salon, who was accused as being racist by her EHO when she mentioned it was Vietnamese run. Germs and infections are not aware of race!

Also EHO's are pretty ignorant of the beauty industry as a whole. Having seen MMA referred to as glue, it is not glue it is a liquid monomer that is used in some of the worst salons. (And we don't ever use glue, we use resin.) We are campaigning to get this product banned as it is in many States in America. But no one listens to us.

Watchdog did a similar report to yours a while ago and all it did was confuse the public and scare them from ever entering a nail salon. Advising people to check out a technician's qualifications is not a guaranteed indicator to the standards within a salon. After all we've all passed our driving test, but how many of us continue to drive as we were taught? What you should be doing is telling people exactly what to look for in a good salon ... starting frm the client consultation right down to the aftercare. After all if a consultation is not completed then how will the technician know if there are any contraindicatons to prevent or adapt their treatments?

So when you interview someone perhaps you could speak to an authority within the industry, after all how do you know that you aren't interviewing one of the 20%? Please just for once report responsibly, but then there's nothing like bad news to get the ratings is there.
Sarah Haslam, LCN Advanced Nail Technician of 6 years experience. www.buff-online.co.uk

 

[rachp]

im going to ask YOU to get yourself onto gmtv, with the ever lovely samantha, and you are goiing to put the record straight!!!!!!!!!



pretty please??

yea! LETS FIGHT BACK!!!:smack: :smack: :smack:

 

[MINKUS]

come on Sam and Samantha, gigi, mum etc Lets have you guys on that sofa as nikki said - put the record straight.

We'll bombard them with geekmails untill they get the facts straight.

Well done Sass too.

Amb x

 

[The Geek]

Sadly they will only put people on if there is an angle and 'story'. Its easy to get a 'story' with nail salons providing crap treatments: Scare everyone into thinking that they will keel over if they have their nails done at any salon.

Its not sensational to have people on saying 'thats a load of crap'.

 

[Nailsinlondon1]

What cracks me up is this.......
GMTV know Charles Worthington....he has been on there more times than I have seen rings fire...... he is and has been their consultant, advisory, Stylist aso. You can't tell me that they don't know that he has also got MarianNewmanNails@CharlesWorthington............ All it takes is one expert not 1/2 doz my claime to fame wannabee's.
Of to write them an email what a load of twaddle..............
Right must dash,gotta boil a huuuuuge vat of water so I can sterilize my clients... you think a quick dip is enough or shall I wait till the skin peels off.

 

[Apex73]

SO annoying.
I was reading a back issue of Scratch yesterday too, the bit that made me feel good at the time was where it was reported that
New Zealand have banned the use of MMA. Cool I thought, can't be long before we finally get that one sorted...I did'nt expect the national news to so fully get hold of the wrong end of the stick.

 

[Vetty]

SO annoying.
I was reading a back issue of Scratch yesterday too, the bit that made me feel good at the time was where it was reported that
New Zealand have banned the use of MMA. Cool I thought, can't be long before we finally get that one sorted...I did'nt expect the national news to so fully get hold of the wrong end of the stick.

That's one of the real problems though isn't it - they ban one product that shouldn't be used on nails anyway and it gets reported that all nail extensions will make your fingers fall off!! It's almost better if they say nothing.... as info like this stops people who care going into any nail salon. The people that don't care go to NSS anyway.... the more discerning clients will listen to this info and be scared by it :grr:

What with this and the snobby beauty editors who brand our entire industry as chavs & it's a wonder we've got a job at all.....:irked: .

I'm printing this thread so I can counter any of this info with my clients using Samual's words!

 

[Nailsinlondon1]

My Email to them:

I was shocked to hear some of your chosen experts oppinions..... and the lack of knowledge they displayed..... MMA a glue???, No, MMA is used for Dentures, Artificial Limbs, Bullet proof vests aso.
Sterilizing clients hands? yep righty ho... how much boiling water do you think I need ? Sanitise is the correct term.
Why didn't you get real Experts to comment on the issues portrait..... Marian Newman@Charles Worthington just to name one,would have been an exellent choice...But then facts don't get the ratings up do they..... a bit of drama mixed with a bit of half truths and you have yourself a news snippet.

Ruth Fordham
CND Master Technician
www.nailsinlondon.com

 

[mum]

(Fanks Rooffieee for your confidence x)

I didn't see the program but Samantha was on the phone straight after so I heard! (I also read the Mail yesterday)

For what it's worth my take on this is: I would not have gone on GMTV. This is because it is a 'hype' of the moment and nothing and no one will change the sensationalism even a live program. An 'expert' reacting to this type of hype will never look good because the media do not want the 'news' looking good. Only bad news is good. If you start telling the real story forcefully you just get interupted etc (I say this from experience and I can be very forceful!)

You have all heard about the government funded research into salons. This will only be positive. There is another (possibly with bigger implications) project about to happen that I cannot give details about and I am involved in both (so is Samuel) When those results are in I will be doing my best to represent the industry in the media with real facts, figures and approved scientific research.

Unfortunately, stories like these that are half-baked, inaccurate are just hype, make no one look good and some flock for their 5 minutes of fame. Why do you think HABIA (the Industry Authority) or people like me (Nail Services chairman) don't get asked?! Because we'll kill the story if we get a chance and the level of interviewers on GMTV are not so good at the 'interrupt' without them looking silly. They prefer an 'easy' interview that falls perfectly into the story, i.e. bad and with no real supporting and incontravertable facts.

Just wait; people that really care are actually bevering away. Patience is a virtue and hitting at the right time has so much more effect. This was a 'knee-jerk' and will be forgotten. What is to come will not be ignored or forgotten.