Infection Control, Sanitation, Disinfection, and Salon Safety
Three words, three meanings
Cleaning removes visible soil with soap or detergent and water. Disinfection uses an EPA-registered, hospital-grade product on a pre-cleaned nonporous surface to destroy most pathogens. Sterilization destroys all microbial life and belongs in a medical or autoclave setting, not a facial room. Exams love to blur these; a wipe is not sterilization and alcohol is not a hospital-grade disinfectant.
Single-use versus reusable
Anything that contacts a client and cannot be soaked - towels, cotton, gauze, wooden spatulas, lip and mascara wands, wax strips, eyebrow thread - is single-use and discarded after one client. Reusable metal or glass implements are cleaned, fully immersed in the disinfectant for the label's contact time (commonly ten minutes), rinsed, dried, and stored covered. Ultraviolet cabinets are storage, not disinfection.
Standard precautions
Treat every client's blood and body fluids as infectious. Wash hands before and after every service; glove for waxing, extractions that may bleed, and any broken skin. Follow your employer's exposure control plan after a sharps injury or splash: wash, report, seek follow-up.
Salon safety
Route cords away from water and traffic paths, keep outlets dry, ventilate for chemical vapors, keep safety data sheets available, label secondary containers, clean spills immediately, and protect your own body with good posture and adjustable height.
Traps
'Spray and wipe' substituting for immersion; skipping contact time; disinfecting skin; reusing a spatula after it touched wax and a client; assuming a UV lamp sanitizes tools.
Rule of thumb
If it touches the client, it is either single-use, or it is cleaned, immersed, timed, rinsed, dried, and stored covered.