The Importance of Year Round Pedicures

Why do we get pedicures? Most would say its because we like our toes to look 'pretty'. While the finishing polish on your 'pretty' toes is the icing on the cake, pedicures are much more than that. We have adopted an idea that pedicures are quick, easy, and for the summer. In truth, pedicures are better in the winter months. Why? Simple, a pedicure does many things for our health as well as our peace of mind.

When we relax back into a massaging chair and have our feet and lower legs worked on during the process of a pedicure, we are unknowingly releasing endorphins in our brain that stimulate relaxation. This stress reducing procedure of receiving a pampering service, such as a pedicure, makes us let go of a little of the stress that dominates our lives without even realizing it! Before our technician even begins our service, we are more relaxed, less stressed, and growing even more so by the minute.

During the pedicure process, critical hygiene habits are taken care of for us. Our nails are clipped, our cuticles removed, and our dead skin scrubbed away. These basic, yet often overlooked, hygiene items are important for us to maintain healthy feet and legs. When our toenails grow too long, the nail is pressed against the inside of our shoes. This can lead to ingrown toenails and bruised nail beds. When we have our cuticles removed, we are allowing our nails to breathe and continue to grow healthy nails. With the removal and scrubbing away of dead skin, we activate the regenerative properties of our own bodies in producing more skin which helps with elasticity. Many of us suffer from dry skin throughout the winter. Having a pedicure regularly throughout the year will keep dry skin at bay, at least on our feet. Applying lotion to itchy feet only compounds the problem of itchy skin. When there is a barrier of dead skin, that cannot absorb lotion, between your feet and the lotion, the lotion will 'sit' on top of that layer until worn away. This increases the feeling of 'itchiness' because your skin is smothering. The brain tells us to scratch it away so the skin can breathe again.

When you receive your lower leg and foot massage during your pedicure, your technician isn't just making you feel better at that moment. The massage they are giving you will last days. Your technician has been trained to provide a massage that will help your stress level, as well as increase your circulation, promote elasticity, and ease muscle tension. All of these things are part of a pedicure that is good for your whole body! When your lower legs and feet don't hurt, you stand and sit straighter, thus affecting your posture which will result in your back hurting less. When your feet do not hurt as much we tend to 'walk lighter' and this affects are hip movements and can alleviate lower back problems.  

Getting your pedicures all year round isn't crazy talk, it is healthy. When you think about pretty toes, think about your summer pedicures. When you think about moisturized, non-itchy skin, think about your winter pedicures. (Scratchy feet in bed are never attractive.) For those of us who have the pleasure of doing pedicures on your feet, and I believe I speak for the whole industry, we would love it if you would receive regular pedicures. This has nothing to do with an increase in income or salon traffic. This has to do with the level of care that we provide to you and the short duration that cares lasts due to how hard we all are on our feet. A good pedicure will only last about a month. Therefore, if you only come in every six weeks for your pedicure, you are starting all over again every visit. That means we, as technicians, get you looking and feeling great, then we won't see you again for six months when we will have to start all over. As important as it is to us that our work and level of dedication not be ignored, it is equally important that your health not be ignored by you.

Clean Services

It amazes me the services that you can receive in a salon setting. Everything from getting your hair done to waxing your bikini line. With so many salons and spas in this nation they all offer roughly the same services. So how do you know where to go? You educate yourself. A good salon or spa will educate their clients about the services, products, and sanitation procedures without lecturing them. For instance, you can go to salon A and receive a haircut and enjoy your visit. You can also go to salon B receive a haircut and enjoy your visit. But did you really receive the same service at both locations? The answer is usually no.

Within our society, the professionalism of service industries has fallen dramatically. We can no longer take everything at face value. Salon A has given you a great haircut and style and you were smiling when you left. You don't think about whether their implements and combs were properly sanitized, whether the client before you discovered they had lice, or if the stylist doing you hair had washed her hands that day. Salon B on the other hand, explained their normal sanitation procedure to ensure your safety in a 30 second 'speel' woven into the conversation to make you aware that they took your visit to them seriously. 

Salons and spas everywhere are held to standards by their state cosmetology board, much like restaurants fear their health inspections. The State Board of Cosmetology has jurisdiction over the salon services, sanitation, employees, products, and ethical standards. Some of the worst violations are;

            http://www.cos.ohio.gov/

• Double Dipping Waxing Implements
• When a technician 'double dips' that means they have used the same waxing stick at least twice. Once to place the wax on a client's skin and then returned the same stick to the waxing pot to remove more. This is highly unsafe. When hair is removed from skin, it opens pores in the skin that allow for bacteria and sometimes blood to come to the surface. Placing a waxing stick back into a waxing machine to use again contaminates the whole waxing pot and could then infect another client.
• For example: (please understand this is a hypothetical case) Mary gets her eyebrows waxed at her local salon where she frequents. The new technician uses the same waxing stick throughout the whole procedure thus contaminating the entire pot of wax. Not knowing her co-workers error, Lisa then does an eyebrow wax on another patron. Several days later the second patron calls the salon complaining of an infection on her eyelids. It turns out that Mary was getting over a staph infection and did not tell anyone. If her waxing technician had not 'double dipped' the entire situation could have been avoided. Now the salon owner waits for further phone calls from other clients who may have been infected.  

• Improper Sterilization of Pedicure Implements
• When a pedicure is given, dead skin is removed to reveal the softer skin underneath, making the client feel better. The cuticle of the nail is also trimmed to allow for the nail to properly breathe and for the nail polish to be more evenly coated. When pedicure implements such as cuticle nippers and foot files are not safely sanitized it opens up the public for a serious infection.
• For Example: there have been cases all over the United States of actual DEATH caused by unsanitary procedures at nail salons. When cuticles are trimmed, it is possible to break the surrounding skin, causing in a very minor cut that produces less than a drop of blood. However, that is blood. Something to take VERY seriously. If a salon fails to properly sanitizes their implements and machines, any blood related infections/diseases will go straight to the next person who is given a pedicure with those same implements. This is a bad way to catch AIDS or any other blood disease.

• Sanitizing hands Prior to a Nail Service
• Technicians see clients all day long. Their hands touch clients all day long. Technicians are also people who eat, use the restroom, handle money, and a variety of other things. You are also people. You went to the bathroom before visiting the salon, you shook hands today, maybe you had a stuffy nose yesterday, and so forth. Having both the client and the technician sanitize with alcohol or hand sanitizer prior to starting a manicure or nail service is not only proper manners but keeps each person safer from the other.
• There is no way to count the number of things we touch during the day, unless you have that kind of time then go right ahead, but we can imagine. I know where my hands have been and because I care about my client's safety and well being I sanitize IN FRONT OF THE CLIENT at the beginning of every nail service. It is part of the procedure at my salon. This ensures the client that I care about their safety and health as well as my own and that I will probably not be calling into work sick the next time they need a manicure. Bacteria, germs, diseases, etc., live under our nails and on our skin. Getting a staph infection from a manicure is not my idea of a good time.

Every salon and spa in America has the same basic standards that they are upheld to for cleanliness and sanitation. The above examples are extreme but have happened and will happen again. It is easy to forget you need to watch what you technician is doing when you are busy relaxing and enjoying yourself. If you feel that you have visited a salon that was not up to YOUR standards of cleanliness, then they probably aren't up to their STATE'S standards either. Every state has a Board of Cosmetology with a website and phone number. You can call and ask about a salon's license status, their last board inspection results, a particular technicians license status, or to file a complaint. Please remember that the Board of Cosmetology is not for complaints outside of a salon's environment. They cannot help you get your money back for a perm that fell out, they will not file a complaint because of bad service, and they do not have jurisdiction over anything monetary.

Also remember that every salon is required to have a copy of their latest report from their State Board in plain sight on location. Ask to see it. That is what it is there for!

I hope this was informative, if a bit lengthy, but without the consumer's help we will never be able to raise the bar in the cosmetology industry to where it should be!