Common Competencies: Industry Knowledge, Hygiene and Customer Service
Common Competencies cover the units shared across salon qualifications - industry knowledge, workplace hygiene procedures, and effective customer service. The exam tests whether your station is safe and repeatable: contact times, single-use items, and the consultation that comes before any chemical service.
The cleaning ladder
- Cleaning removes visible soil; sanitizing reduces bacteria on surfaces; disinfection destroys most pathogens on implements; sterilization destroys all organisms, spores included.
- Metal implements are cleaned, dried, then fully immersed in an EPA-registered hospital-grade disinfectant for the label contact time, commonly 10 minutes. Never top up or dilute the solution.
- Porous items that cannot be disinfected - cotton, wooden sticks, neck strips, razor blades - are single-use and discarded.
- One clean towel and cape per client; clean and dirty linens stored apart; UV cabinets store tools, they do not disinfect.
Hands, surfaces, waste
- Wash hands before and after every client and after glove removal; cover cuts; gloves for blood or body fluid.
- Wipe trolleys, shampoo bowls and chairs between clients; a cape never touches a bare neck.
- Blood spill: gloves, absorb, disinfect with a tuberculocidal product, then file an incident report.
Knowledge and consultation
- Know the products you use: pH, active ingredient, patch-test requirement, and the SDS.
- Consultation includes hair and scalp analysis, allergy history, and a patch test 24–48 hours before color, even for returning clients.
- Record the formula and the result; handle complaints by listening, acknowledging and offering a remedy within policy.
Example: a client colored three months ago with no reaction books again. A patch test is still required 24–48 hours ahead, because sensitisation can develop at any exposure; the earlier service proves nothing. If she declines, document the refusal and do not apply color - a verbal assurance does not transfer the risk.
Traps: a wipe passed off as disinfection; ignoring contact time; reusing neck strips; patch testing on the day; assuming "natural" or "ammonia-free" means hypoallergenic.