How to disinfect in the beauty salon
How to disinfect in the beauty salon
Everyone in the beauty field has hopefully heard of barbicide solution, but a worryingly large amount of beauticians refer to this as sterilizing. This isn't sterilising it is disinfecting. They are very different things. I strongly believe everyone working in a beauty salon needs to keep their infection control training up to date.
Three points to always remember when using Barbicide solution in the beauty salon:
1. Contact time - tools must be in the solution at least 10 minutes for it to destroy pathogens (a bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that can cause disease)
2. Correctly follow manufacturers instructions. Keep out of sunlight. Mix the correct ratio with water.
3. And that the solution has to be changed daily.
If you haven't done these three things you aren't disinfecting correctly and destroying pathogens. Barbicde has a free online course. I suggest you do it.
Porous items can't go into Barbicide. Don't put nail files in there. These are seen as a single-use item. To cut back on single-use. I often just give these items to the client and factors those costs into the treatment.
How long do items need to be in Barbicide before they disinfected?
10 minutes
After wiping down couch how long do I have to wait till the next customer?
2 minutes.
How often do I need to change the Baricide solution?
Daily.
What is the ratio of water to Baricide do I need to do?
1:16. Read the bottles, not every brand is the same.
What other brands are available?
HS EuroSept Plus Instrument Disinfection, Ultraclean Instrument Disinfection, Bomix® plus Instrument Disinfectant... loads if you get googling "Instrument Disinfectant".
Sterilization is for tools that come into contact with blood. This is done in an autoclave under pressurised heat. It destroys things like Hep B and HIV. I would definitely recommend this for salons that offer pedicures and more invasive treatments. Autoclaves are best practice.
How much notice should I give when cancelling an appointment?
In the last three months, I have had 5 hours worth of appointments where people have failed to attend without notifying me and 13 hours of appointments where people have cancelled with less than 24 hours notice.
I only work part-time, but I think 5 hours of failed to attend isn't actually that bad. Also, one client failed to attend a two-hour appointment, so most of that time is down to one client. Averaging on one hour a month excluding that one client who has a history of cancelling/failing to attend appointments.
I am really lucky that on the whole most of my regular clients are fantastic and it's only isolated people. For those isolated people who do cancel late or not turn up for appointments, I am going to have to become more strict as I really don't want to have to increase my prices to compensate time wasted.
What I currently do to help reduce last-minute cancellations and failed appointments:
- Text confirmations the day before clients appointments (don't reply on this. Always put your appointment in your diary)
- Welcome letter sent to all new clients stating their appointment with directions.
I am also bringing in:
- Invite to a Google calendar event for their appointment, which will be sent directly to your email account and if you have Gmail calendar this appointment can be added.
I have the most amazing accounts and marketing spreadsheet, which allows me to isolate which clients are poor attendees stating the date, how many hours they have missed and reason for cancelling. I will continue to monitor this and see if introducing google calendar invites helps improve the stats.
13 hours of late cancellations seem quite high to me. However like I said it is isolated clients so unfortunately, I have to bring in a fee for these clients. This won't apply to my regular good attendees and I understand things come up and sickness can't be predicted. The charges for not giving 24 hours notice or failing to attend are £5 for every 15 minutes missed. However, if the appointment is filled I will not charge you, therefore the more notice you give me for cancelling an appointment the better as it allows me time to find someone.
Also for long appointments like eyelash extensions, I will be bringing in a paid deposit system. The Semi-permanent eyelash extensions appointment is 2 hours long, so I will be taking a £5 for every 15 minutes as a deposit at the consultation/test patch appointment prior to the actual treatment appointment. When you attend the appointment this will be deducted off your final bill, or refunded if you decide to cancel the appointment, provided that you give me at least 24 hours notice of the cancellation
I always welcome feedback on my business decisions, so if you have any comments on how to improve poor attenders stats. Please share :-)