Health, Safety and Hygiene in the Salon
Health, Safety and Hygiene in the Salon examines how legal duties become daily salon controls: risk assessment, COSHH, PPE, electrical safety, fire, waste and infection prevention. The exam favours practical decisions a junior stylist or therapist must make under pressure.
Core controls
- Employers must assess risks and record significant findings; employees must follow controls and report hazards.
- COSHH covers colour, bleach, perm, wax, acetone and disinfectants: keep safety data sheets, label decanted products, use closed containers and follow dilution and contact times.
- Use single-use items where indicated; clean, disinfect or sterilise tools according to manufacturer instructions and separate clean and dirty zones.
- Report specified incidents under RIDDOR and record accidents in the salon accident book.
Worked example
A therapist finds combs sitting in a cloudy disinfectant jar with no label. Reasoning: the solution may be spent, wrongly diluted or contaminated, and contact time cannot be verified. Remove the combs, clean them physically, prepare fresh solution at the stated concentration, immerse for the full contact time, and label the jar with product and date. Do not top up the old jar.
Traps
Topping up disinfectant, storing chemicals in drinks bottles, wearing gloves instead of removing a hazard, and assuming a patch test is a substitute for a strand test all lose marks. Also distinguish cleaning, disinfection and sterilisation.