You are aware of how essential it is to keep your surroundings clean because not doing so endangers your health and the health of those around you. Consider how much more important cleanliness becomes when we talk about beauty salons. Since so many people visit salons to take care of their beauty, nails, and hair, it surely poses a threat to their health and damages your salon’s reputation when the place is a breeding ground for bacteria.
Everyone who works in the salon has a responsibility to perform good hygiene to stop the potential transmission of disease or infection. The best way to do so is to keep your staff and everything in the salon clean. We’ve compiled a list of 5 tips you need to follow to keep your salon safe, secure, and hygienic. Let’s dive in!
- Follow Personal Hygiene
Every day, a large number of customers and employees visit the salon, bringing billions of germs with them. There are three primary categories of germs: fungus, viruses, and bacteria. Many of these microorganisms are not harmful, but some of them can infect you, your employees, or your clients. In the salon and the beauty clinic, it is everyone’s responsibility to stop the spread of illnesses and infections.
And the first thing you, your employees, and your staff can do is to follow personal hygiene and make use of high-quality hygiene products. This not only will help your employees but also will maintain the professional caring image of your salon. Poor personal hygiene will lead to bacteria spread, such as unwashed hands and dirty nails.
With that in mind, follow these steps:
- Encourage your staff to wash their hands properly, including in between fingers, palms, under nails, etc.
- They should wash their hands for up to one minute.
- Ensure that your customers wash their hands with a sufficient amount of soap and water, considering proper and thorough hand-washing before they approach the technician. In particular, this point is essential whenever they approach nail technicians as there are many bacteria (e.g. fungi) under the nails.
- Put some visual posters on your bathroom wall to encourage visitors and staff to wash their hands, following essential steps.
- Request the staff to wash their hands before, during, and after treatments.
- Keep the handwashing area clean and sanitized by asking custodians to follow a schedule.
- Customers should wash their hands in between clients as well.
- Before starting the treatment, ask your nail technicians to wash the customer’s hands and feet properly.
- For hair stylists and make-up artists, encourage them to wash their hands before and after customer treatment, after receiving payments, after taking off their gloves, and being exposed to a bodily substance.
- Sometimes, it’s preferable to wear disposable gloves instead of hand washing, especially when it comes to nail treatment, and sensitive areas, such as dermaplaning.
It is your responsibility to make sure that your team keeps themselves clean when performing treatments on different clients. This way, you will provide a hygienic environment, ensuring that your customers trust you and you don’t harm your reputation.
- Clean Tools and Equipment
Sterilize the tools between each client treatment to avoid cross-contamination. The use of dirty instruments by you or your customers can transmit fungi, viruses, and bacteria. Metal tools like tweezers, scissors, cuticle nippers, and combs should be autoclave sterilized. Dishes, bowls, and other salon supplies should all be properly cleaned in warm water with detergent. After cleaning salon or spa equipment, you should be careful to keep it in a spotless, dry, covered container or UV cabinet. Salon equipment should be placed in hot water for 3-5 minutes to guarantee good sanitation. If you can, it’s better to use disposable tools and equipment that are only used once and then discarded after each customer.
Once your customers find out that you use the same tools to treat their nails without disinfecting and sterilizing them, they will be disappointed and won’t trust your company. By doing this, you can infect your customers with various infections by spreading bacteria and germs among them, including nail fungus and warts. Your customers will stop believing in you and stop coming back to your salon. Regular surface cleaning will reduce the likelihood of bacterial buildup.
Therefore, it is essential to thoroughly and carefully clean each tool before accepting a new client. Brushes, clippers, rollers, nail tools, combs, and other items that come into contact with multiple customers should be cleaned often between usage and maintained clean and dry while not in use. It is advised to be cautious and refrain from treating any clients who have a wound or bacterial sickness. This can be said in an extremely polite manner without making the client uncomfortable. You could, for instance, request that they consult a doctor beforehand to protect their health.
- Clean the Workplace
Every stylist and beauty expert understands the value of hygiene in their line of work. Every treatment and service your salon offers must include it as a crucial component, and maintaining the highest level of cleanliness will both enhance the experience for your clients and help you reduce the number of germs, bacteria, and infections in your workspace. Additionally, it will improve the standing of your company and guarantee that customers keep using and recommending your services.
Your workplace is a place full of germs. There should be procedures in place to make sure that tables, door handles, and other surfaces are often cleaned with disinfectant wipes. Ask your custodians to regularly clean the high-touch areas, such as chairs, flush buttons, doorknobs, etc.
Another essential area that you need to clean is the floor which accumulates all day’s dirt, such as nails, hair, etc. The floor of your salon needs to be kept clean at all times because of the constant foot traffic it receives. It is important to remove any debris as soon as possible. Make sure you do a complete floor clean-up each day. Make sure that your stylists, therapists, or salon support workers have been assigned all hygiene duties, such as sterilizing combs and keeping the floor tidy after a client has had their hair cut or their nails treated.
In terms of chairs, couch roll is one way to keep salon couches and chairs clean and free of germs. Avoid using disinfectants that contain ethanol as they may cause furniture to crack or become brittle, which may allow germs to get inside the furniture and grow.
- Towel Usage
Maintain a one-towel-per-client guideline when it comes to towel usage. This will reduce the chance of client-to-client germ transmission. Regular washing is recommended for towels and other linens since dirty towels can harbor germs if left damp. Wash all the linens and towels at a high temperature, since you can eliminate bacteria at 100°C.
- Use the Best Products
Invest in strong cleaning supplies and hygiene products since they ensure the best cleaning results. Use cleaning products of the highest quality that are designed to completely clean and sanitize all kinds of work surfaces. Include also disinfectant wipes as they eliminate tiny particles like dust. Put hand sanitizers at the entrance and on tables. For better cleaning, you can even use disinfectant sprays and spray bottles. Spray disinfectants will also improve the air quality of your salon.
And don’t forget to follow proper trash disposal guidelines to ensure that you don’t harm others’ health and meanwhile maintain yours.
Let’s Summarize
The following are the main reasons why you need to keep your salon clean and hygienic:
- Prevent cross-contamination.
- Maintain your staff’s, and visitors’ health.
- Improve client experience.
- Maintain your reputation.
- Increase revenue.
- Build a loyal relationship with your customers.
Now you know all about the essentials for maintaining a secure and hygienic salon. Follow these essential steps and stay healthy!
Photo by Greg Trowman on Unsplash.
