Ways to Control Mishaps, Malpractices and Mistakes in your Salon

Most individuals turn to a beauty salon when they want to pamper themselves. They use this as opportunity to rejuvenate and unwind from everyday stresses. Getting a trendy haircut or some uber-cool nail art can boost self-esteem and make one feel good about them. However, a little negligence from a beauty salon can turn this luxury into a nightmare. If any of your clients suffers a nasty personal injury, understand that it’s the end of the business for your hair salon.

Whether a client gets burnt by too hot wax or a hair colour process goes wrong, beauty salon accidents and blunders can lead to expensive lawsuits that can potentially bankrupt your business.

While accidents are inevitable, it’s vital for salons to have a system for prevention and protection. A framework and general principles will not just protect us, but the clients we serve too. The best way to be protected by a mishap or mistake in a salon is by preventing it in the first place.

As a salon owner, it is mandatory for you to maintain strict health and safety regulations and make sure every client receives treatment from an adequately trained salon professional.

Before we move on to the ways to control malpractices, mishaps and mistakes in a salon, let’s understand the common injuries experienced at beauty salons:

·        Hair loss and scalp injuries

•         Wax burns
•         Chemical burns
•         Cuts and abrasions
•         Bacterial infections
•         Slip and fall injuries
•         Allergic reactions
•         Burns and scalding

Here are few ways you can avoid accidents in your beauty salon:

·        Train your staff:Discuss health and safety standards with your employees on a regular basis. Whether they are your star stylists or a new entrant, draw up a plan for presentation standards of a salon and make them understand them to the fullest. Only when all your employees are on the same page will you be able to prevent mishaps. Having empty cartons sitting around, hair on the floor, spillages and loose cables trailing can turn your salon from a relaxing environment to a hazardous one. Taking care of fine points is not just important for your clients but employees too. If either of them hurt themselves, you’ll be liable to pay them compensation. Thus, your employees need to be trained properly. While adhering to safety standards are a must in a salon, proper management is equally important. Hair salon software is the ideal salon management tool which will aid in smooth functioning on a day-to-day basis.

·        Maintain sanitary conditions:A good salon is that which smells good and looks good. Food smells and an unhygienic salon floor can be quite uninviting. Thus, every salon must strive to maintain the perfect sanitary conditions. Appoint a salon manager to perform regular floor checks to see if the working environment is safe. To avoid germs being passed on from one client to the other, check every piece of equipment. Before and after every use, it must be disinfected. Failure to follow proper sanitation methods can increase the risk of viral and bacterial infections such as hepatitis, herpes simplex virus, tuberculosis and HIV. Having a reputation as an unhygienic salon will turn clients away. Maintain a checklist on your hair salon software; this will make sure your employees do not miss anything.

·        Look after your employees’ health:Clients aren’t the only ones who are at the risk of injury. Your employees are equally susceptible to injury. Since a hairdresser’s job involves standing constantly, they can develop sore feet and a chronic back problem. If anything happens to them during the working hours, they can sue you too. Thus, avoid employer liability claims by communicating with them on a regular basis. Ask them if they have any issue and try and remove a solution to it. Sorting problems out amicably removes the requirement of any kind of legal intervention.

·        Regular patch tests:Hair colouring products, bleach and dye are full of chemicals. Since they are highly strong, not everyone can tolerate them. Therefore, before conducting any hair colouring process, perform a patch test on the client’s skin well in advance. This will tell you if they have an allergic reaction to it or not. Omitting the patch test and applying the colour straightaway on the client’s hair can have horrific consequences and can damage your professional reputation forever.

·        Fire safety measures:Having this in place is an absolute must. Having candles in your salon of course creates an inviting atmosphere but can also pose as a potential fire hazard. If you want to beautify your salon, opt for fairy lights or electric candles which are safer. Overloading outlets with numerous curling irons, hair-dryers and straighteners also increase the risk of a fire. Whichever staff member is closing the salon at the end of the day needs to check if all the points are switched off. Any negligence here can cost you a lot.

·        Select treatment appropriately:It is the salon technician who recommends what treatment is best for a client. While they do so keeping in mind their experience and understanding, it can backfire. Common failures include improper wax temperatures, leaving hair dye for too long, over cutting a client’s hair, overdose of heat damage to the hair, and not completing a patch test before a chemical treatment. For every product used in a salon, the stylist must read the instructions thoroughly and follow them. If a new product has been launched, a salon must conduct a number of tests to determine if it could have any adverse effects on the health, hair and skin of the person. If the product does not match certain standards, it can cause hair loss, burns and allergic reactions. Also, never use an expired hair or skin product. Using integrated MioSalon,hair salon software will help you auto track product consumption. This will make sure you never run out of product. Each time the stock is about to get over, you will receive custom alerts.

While taking the above measures will help you prevent accidents, you still need to prepare for the unexpected. Thus, the best way to prevent lawsuits, mishaps, malpractices and mistakes is by keeping a detailed record of injuries and errors. It’s important to record any untoward situation in your hair salon software. In case a situation arises where you need to present proof or a detailed report to the judiciary or legal system, you know you are fully covered. As they say, hope for the best but prepare for the worst.