Please be warned if you’re squeamish – some of the photos in this article are yuuuuuuuuuuck.
An Aussie beauty association, Hair and Beauty Australia, have sounded an pretty terrifying alarm recently about the industry’s crazy lack of regulation, and the severe consequences facing customers because of it.
Members of the association are speaking out after one woman’s horrifying story, where she got IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) treatment on her crotch in order to remove her pubic hair. The end result was thick, severe burn lines, which have scarred her forever.
Check it out – this is the burns after the treatment:
The injury was – for some terrifying fkn reason – was treated with ‘needling’. Which is exactly what it sounds like – a roller of very thin surgical needles is rolled over your skin (See HERE). It’s usually used in facials, and is supposed to slightly damage the first layer of skin and therefore encourage new skin to grow.
It is not, however, supposed to treat severe burns – in fact, we feel nauseous just thinking about it.
This is what the woman’s crotch looks like now; she has heavy scarring:
HBA board member Helen Golisano owns a salon in Joondalup WA. She says another salon in her town did the above IPL treatment, and explained where the mistake was made:
“The worker failed to put any crystal on the front of the machine, so when they’re choosing which crystal to put on the top to choose which treatment to do, this woman failed to put any crystal on so she shot this girl straight with light and fried her Brazilian (wax).When the girl went back – and this is where the training’s lacking – they then proceeded to do needling when in reality they should have treated her for a burn and sent her to get looked at… it actually created a worse outcome.”
Golisano says the beauty industry, particularly in Western Australia, is nearly wholly unregulated, utilising untrained and unqualified workers.
“It is so unregulated…it’s frustrating. No qualification is needed in salons… we’ve seen this in the pedicure/manicure salons, now we’re starting to see it really strongly in the IPL industry.The last three or four years I’ve been horrified the IPL price has devalued to cheaper than a wax and the drama and accidents we’re seeing now from that is alarming.”
This incident follows another absolutely disgusting injury in a Perth salon a month ago, where a woman getting a pedicure received a deep cut (from a knife not ever used by qualified beauty therapists) and the nail tech poured (PREPARE YOURSELF) chemical metal steriliser over a woman’s foot believing it would act as an antiseptic.
Qualified beauty technicians are trained in first aid, and would know not to treat a deep wound by pouring goddamn metal steriliser over it.
BE WARNED. THIS PHOTO IS LEGITIMATELY GROSS. REALLY, REALLY GROSS.
WE’RE SORRY WE’RE SORRY WE’RE SORRY WE’RE SORRY WE’RE SORRY WE’RE SORRY
A spokeswoman for the state government-backed Retail and Personal Services Training Council said the regulations in place are not being enforced due to lack of resources:
“My experience with local councils is that many are unaware that these acts and regulations exist but when alerted and advised of a breach of acts, will visit a premises.”
Golisano says there’s massive inconsistencies between councils; her salon in Joondalup receives regulatory council checks consistently to make sure everything’s up to code, but her other three salons in Perth don’t receive anything:
“One of my salons in the Joondalup gets checked [by the council] consistently, and fair call, and I’m happy for that, but I also note that the other [three] salons don’t get checked.The shire doesn’t even check that the staff are qualified, no one checks… and it’s not a breach of any law [to be unqualified].”
WA Today conducted a survey of a bunch of different council areas in WA, and confirmed that audits are… kind of all over the place:
‘Of the eight councils that responded to WAtoday‘s request for health inspection data on beauty businesses (excluding hairdressers), the frequency of audits varied greatly – with some councils conducting regular inspections and others only inspecting a premises at start up.’
SCARY STUFF.
It’s important to consider why the cheapest option is the cheapest! The old adage ‘you get what you pay for‘ is, unfortunately, true, says Golisano.
“If a salon is complying with health department regulations, training requirements and paying employees the right wages, you cannot possibly get a treatment for what some of these salons are charging.”
That $20 you saved might not seem so impressive after you receive lifelong scars because you got sizzled by an unqualified beauty therapist.
Beauty is pain and all, but that DOES NOT mean you should be receiving goddamn long-term, or even lifelong, injuries from the beauty industry.
Sorry to ruin your day with this gross beauty injury photos. Be safe, beauty lovers.
Source: WAToday.
Photos: Legally Blonde / Supplied.
