Millions of women visit manicurists to have their nails professionally manicured every year. Unfortunately, the consequence of having manicures is sometimes nail fungus or bacterial infections which can not only look bad, but may also feel even worse. What should you look for at the manicure salon? Learn how to prevent painful, nail fungus or infection.
Top Tips for Healthy Manicures
From Tracee Cornforth, About.com GuideDecember 13, 2008
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I will never forget, nor return to a
nail salon, located at the mall.
This place looked okay, but it was much dirtier than I could ever have imagined! During the manicure I noticed that Kim (my manicurist) was grabbing some of her tools, and they were just laying randomly inside her drawer at her desk where she does nails. I knew I had a problem, when approx. 2-1/2 weeks after my manicure, my fingernails started to look a lot different than before. It got so bad undernearth my nails I had to go to a Dermatologist. I ended up having a pretty bad fungal infection, most likely caused by the manicure I had by this woman who did not use sanitary tools. I saw it with my own eyes that her tools were just laying inside the drawer of her desk and looked like it hadn’t been washed or even rinsed off in weeks, maybe months! I contacted the board of Health in the town I received the manicure but b/c I contacted the board of health on the internet and turned in the nail place for dirty instruments, I never received even an acknowledgement to the email that I sent to them! I have never heard anything and this nail place is still open!
My previous comment, I was talking about a fungal infection I got while I received a manicure from a nail salon. Well, it eventually cleared up, with the help of prescription skin cream. Anyway, a few months ago, my sister and I went into a different nail salon but still a salon run by Viatamese people – the same kind of run-salons that I got all my fungal infections in! I thought I would give this one place one more shot and see how it went. My sister and I both got manicures and pedicures.. They both felt so good. We both paid then left. It wasn’t until about 4 months ago when the back on my ankle on my right foot, started peeling skin off of it, by itself! There were parts of my ankle which were cracked right open, and parts of it were bleeding, and parts looked terrible. At first I started putting an anti-bacterial (first aid) cream from a pharmacy. It wasn’t getting better, in fact, it was getting a lot worse for me! It turns out that what was on my ankle, was no more than a fungal infection… Yet another fungal infection! I go get a pedicure for my feet, and I have to pay the price once again, b/c the people who work at these salons don’t want to, or don’t have the time to, steralize the equipment, and everything else that goes with it. It’s a shame that people have to get
a fungal infection over and over
from the same thing! And these,
same things are still open for business, which just sickens me.
I’ve been getting professional manicures and pedicures since the mid 80’s, and have never had a problem. Perhaps you should not go to the cheapest nail salon you can find. If someone isn’t using sanitized tools than you should absolutely say something to them. Many salons allow you to keep a box of your own tools/supplies for your manicures on the premises to be assured that they are clean and sterile for use. Also you should be able to see the personnel taking stainless steel implements out of an autoclave,to be sure those are sterilized. It’s really up to the consumer the kind of salon they patronize. BTW, you should contact your State Board of Cosmetology to lodge a complaint about sanitation in any salon. They are the governing board that renews the salon/technicians licenses on an annual basis. If they have enough complaints they will investigate prior to renewing the license.
Being a manicurist for 26 years I have seen the results of poor pedicures and manicures being given. Many of my clients switched to me after a bad experience.
I want to say that having the salon keep your instruments does not guarantee that your instruments will be sanitized after each use. Your yourself can contaminate your own instruments.
In California you can report a salon to the Board of Cosmetology and they will be inspected. Whether that will do anything for the better is questionable in my opinion.
I am open to have anyone sit and watch me work at any time. That is the best way to actually see what is done with and after each client for sanitation purposes.
For pedicures, the ’spa’ chairs are the worst offenders as the cleaning of them is quite a project to ensure no infection can spread. And I am sure that the full procedure for cleaning them is not done consistently.
I’ve said that least 2099597 times. The problem this like that is they are just too compilcated for the average bird, if you know what I mean