Personal Hygiene, Safety, and Salon Sanitization
Domain 2 tests the hygiene chain that prevents cross-infection and the safety habits that protect clients and workers. Questions often ask you to sequence a procedure or identify a breach.
Core rules
- Personal hygiene: daily bath, clean pressed uniform, closed non-slip shoes, short clean nails, hair tied back, no rings or wrist jewellery, cover cuts with waterproof dressing, and exclude staff with contagious skin or respiratory infection.
- Wash hands with soap and water before and after every client, after the toilet and after handling waste; alcohol sanitiser is a supplement, not a replacement.
- Cleaning removes visible soil; disinfection kills most pathogens on surfaces; sterilisation kills all microorganisms including spores. Metal implements that penetrate skin need sterilisation, usually by autoclave.
- Use single-use files, buffers, spatulas, gloves, needles and wax strips. Never double-dip into a product.
- Launder towels and capes after each client; disinfect trolley, chair, basin and bottles.
- Segregate waste: general, sharps and chemical. Store chemicals labelled, away from heat; keep safety data sheets available; ensure ventilation.
Worked example
A metal cuticle nipper falls on the floor during a manicure. Reasoning: the floor is contaminated. Pick it up with gloves or tongs, clean off visible soil, then disinfect and sterilise before it touches another client. Do not simply wipe it with alcohol and continue. Replace the client's towel if contaminated, wash hands, and record the incident.
Traps that cost marks
- Calling a UV cabinet a steriliser; it is storage for disinfected tools.
- Using diluted disinfectant beyond its contact time or at the wrong concentration.
- Wearing gloves instead of handwashing.
- Continuing a service on a client with an open, weeping lesion.