Professional Ethics, Safety, and Shop Practices
This domain tests the habits that protect clients, coworkers, and your own career: confidentiality, honest consultation, chemical and electrical safety, and a shop routine that runs the same way whether or not anyone is watching.
Ethics in practice
Consult before every service and explain what the service can and cannot achieve. Obtain informed consent for chemical services and keep a record of formulas, timing, and patch-test results. Protect client information and do not discuss one client's hair, scalp, or personal details with another. Charge what you quoted, refer out what is outside your scope, and never let a client leave with a service you know is unsafe. Ethical conduct also means serving all hair types and textures competently rather than steering clients away.
Chemical and electrical safety
Keep chemicals in labeled original containers; never pour into an unlabeled spray bottle. Store away from heat and above eye level of children, and keep a Safety Data Sheet binder for every product. Ventilate color and relaxer areas. Check cords for fraying, use GFCI outlets near water, and keep liquids off electrical equipment.
OSHA and bloodborne pathogens
Follow universal precautions, wear gloves for blood exposure, keep an exposure control plan, offer hepatitis B vaccination, and arrange post-exposure evaluation after a sharps injury. Waste goes into a sharps container, not the trash.
Shop routine and ergonomics
Opening and closing checklists, closed containers for soiled linens, first aid kit, fire extinguisher, and clear walkways. Adjust chair height, use an anti-fatigue mat, and choose shears that fit your hand - a shear that is too long forces wrist strain over a career.
Worked example
A client asks you to skip disinfection because the next appointment is waiting. The correct answer is no: the sanitation step is not negotiable, and the delay is explained, not hidden.
Traps
Unlabeled spray bottles; storing chemicals high on a shelf; skipping the SDS binder; treating sanitation as optional when busy.