When I did safeguarding the trainer drummed it into us to avoid at all costs being in a situation that can be seen another way. Protect yourself at all costs. The child is to be protected by us (so if we notice self harm/signs of abuse etc under 18 must be reported), but we have a responsibility to ourselves too.
Eg a child in a tent and you spraying them down. I would absolutely insist on parent being there, even a father as they really don’t like even going in with their daughters only dropping them off...regardless of consent forms and must wear a bikini/bra and knickers with no exceptions (eg strapless bra for prom).
I did a bikini wax once on a girl aged 17 and her grandmother came with her. The nan is sitting there watching and i’m just doing my job and out of nowhere the girl started laughing as I applied the wax with the wooden spatula and I was like what on earth could be funny and she said ‘it tickled when you stroked me.’ Obviously I wasn’t stroking her, I just spread the wax. She laughed the entire time and after a while i was really flustered trying to work. She made it sound horrendous. I kept explaining it was the stick and that no i’m not stroking her to stop saying that but could you imagine if the nan had thought it strange or couldn’t see what I was doing. Just horrified me the whole thing. I was mortified. Just thank god it was only a regular bikini so I was basically just waxing her leg.
But while I was worrying about looking bad because of her silly choice of words, I should have been concerned that her nan was peering at her bits and wanted to watch. That was the actual problem there that I overlooked.
You just have to be so careful with everything you say and everything you do. I refuse to wax anyone under the age of 18. Which as a teen is a bit of an annoyance i’m sure (my first wax I was desperate for a hollywood at 17 for my boyfriends prom) but I don’t care.
I will do eyebrows 16+ with parent there but that is it. No other treatments. I also strongly suggest you do not buff the tan in on under 18s either, but show them how to do it and get the parent to do their back. Just don’t be in a position where a child has few clothes on and you are touching them, even an arm or leg for a dribble of tan.
I don’t want to scare you with this, just want you to know it’s not a decision to be made lightly. I have a feeling the guidelines is 15...on HABIA but I can’t remember as not done it for so long.
