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Beauty and Its Beast Fact Sheet

Salons can be a hazardous place to work given that many harmful chemicals can be found in salon products. The predominantly female workforce in hair and nail salons are exposed to these chemicals for many hours at a time on a daily basis. Research shows that this exposure can harm a salon worker’s health. Salon workers deserve better. The creation of safer products, better laws, and the use of best practices in salons can significantly reduce the health problems experienced by women working in salons.

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 Hairdresser Health: Risks & Remedies

You make your jobs look easy. You put on smiles, exude graciousness and hospitality, and make clients feel like the center of the universe. But your job is far from easy. Being a hairdresser is a difficult career path, and in fact, it’s downright dangerous with painful and poisonous health problems facing your body and mind.

 Perfect Nails, Poisoned Workers

A growing body of medical research shows a link between the chemicals that make nail and beauty products useful — the ingredients that make them chip-resistant and pliable, quick to dry and brightly colored, for example — and serious health problems. Whatever the threat the typical customer enjoying her weekly French tips might face, it is a different order of magnitude, advocates say, for manicurists who handle the chemicals and breathe their fumes for hours on end, day after day.

Articles of Interest

4 common cosmetology health hazards

The field of cosmetology includes hair stylists, barbers, nail technicians and similar professionals that help other people to look their best. You may think that cosmetology does not seem like a dangerous profession. Nevertheless, any career path, including cosmetology, has some inherent risks.

Are these popular salon treatments a health threat?

Chemical hair straighteners promise smooth, frizz-free hair, but research has linked these treatments to an increased risk of serious health conditions.

Beauty Salons are Key Potential Sources of Disease Spread

Beauty salons can do marvel prettiness for their customers; however, they are also considered as major health concern. They are a reason for the spread of viral, fungal and bacterial diseases. Many research isolated pathogenic bacteria and fungi from beauty salons products and tools.

Dangerous beauty: Salon worker health is in the spotlight

The Professional Beauty Association, a Scottsdale, AZ-based organization representing salon professionals, said in a statement that it “actively works with leading manufacturers to ensure products are safe for use and improve working conditions in salons across the U.S.” In the meantime, experts say employers can help workers by purchasing safer products – particularly those lacking the “toxic trio” of toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate – and providing information, adequate ventilation and personal protective equipment.

Hair Salon Ergonomics: How to Avoid Long-Term Musculoskeletal Stressors

Many people probably don’t equate hair salons with risks associated with physical, back-breaking work. When it comes to workplace hazards for cosmetologists, beauticians, and aestheticians, we might first think about the potential dangers associated with exposure to chemicals and other cancer-causing substances. Ensuring proper workplace ventilation and providing workers with needed personal protective equipment (PPE) can help to reduce the risks of exposure to chemicals such as ammonia in hair dyes, phenylenediamine (PPD), sodium hydroxide, and formaldehyde. However, hair stylists and others who work in salons also face potential health risks that come from improper postures associated with their work tasks.

Hair Salons: Facts about Formaldehyde in Hair Products

OSHA has found that some hair smoothing products may contain formaldehyde, may release formaldehyde at levels above OSHA's permissible limits during use, and may be mislabeled, all of which can pose health risks to salon workers.

Hairdressers of the world unite against hidden dangers of the salon

Asthma, arthritis and even cancer are occupational hazards – but Britain has helped block EU safety rules.

Health threat from beauty parlours

Skin infections, facial paralysis and scalp burns are the price of dangerous and unhygienic treatments carried out by poorly trained salon beauticians

If Looks Could Kill: Carcinogens in Hairdressers’ Blood from Dyes and Perms

Looking fabulous can come at a price—and sometimes that price is unwittingly outsourced to the people who provide these services for a living. A new study of 295 female hairdressers, 32 regular users of hair dyes, and 60 people who get regular hair treatments found that permanent hair dyes and the chemicals used to straighter or curl hair can be carcinogenic to humans. Those with the highest exposure are hairdressers. The researchers found that among hair dressers, carcinogen levels in their blood tended to rise alongside the number of weekly permanent light hair coloring treatments they did.

Is Your Salon Making You Sick?

Clients who frequent hair and nail salons exhibit more skin and fungal diseases than those who visit less often and nail salon technicians are receiving inadequate training in the use of chemicals, suggest two Rutgers School of Public Health studies.

Manicurists and Cosmetologists Face Deadly Health Hazards

Hair and nail salons are typically happy, bright, colorful places filled with caring, genuine workers who enjoy bringing contentment and relaxation to their clients. Unfortunately, the outlook isn’t so sunny for many workers. Over the years, many salon employees have developed various types of cancer, had miscarriages, or given birth to children with learning disabilities or other complications, all because of the products they used on their clients.

More than skin deep, beauty salons are places of sharing and caring

What happens when people visit beauty and hair salons? Are trips to the salon simply about shaping how one looks on the outside, or can these spaces involve something deeper? Research shows that beyond “beauty”, salons can be spaces for clients to have intimate conversations with salon workers. This means beyond technical hair and beauty skills, working in the industry involves listening to and managing the emotions of clients.

Nail salon workers suffer chemical exposures that can be like working at a garage or a refinery

Anyone who has walked past a nail salon is familiar with the noxious odors that emanate from acrylic nails, polishes and removers. Customers getting manicures and pedicures endure the smell temporarily, but manicurists who inhale these evaporating chemicals for hours expose themselves to health risks. The smells come from volatile organic compounds, or VOCs – compounds that easily become vapors or gases. These substances have been linked to health problems ranging from headaches and respiratory irritation to reproductive complications and cancer. In a normal room-temperature environment, VOCs evaporate and humans breathe them in.

Occupational Chemical Exposures Among Cosmetologists

More research is needed to understand possible occupational reproductive risks for cosmetologists, specifically hairdressers and nail technicians, two occupations that often share workspace and exposure to hair dyes and nail polish. Cosmetologists are predominantly females of reproductive age; thus, they may be at higher risk for the effects of exposure to reproductive toxins.

The dark side of beauty: an in-depth analysis of the health hazards and toxicological impact of synthetic cosmetics and personal care products

Over the past three decades, the popularity of cosmetic and personal care products has skyrocketed, largely driven by social media influence and the propagation of unrealistic beauty standards, especially among younger demographics. These products, promising enhanced appearance and self-esteem, have become integral to contemporary society. However, users of synthetic, chemical-based cosmetics are exposed to significantly higher risks than those opting for natural alternatives.

The Disturbing Truth About Hair Relaxers

They’ve been linked to reproductive disorders and cancers. Why are they still being marketed so aggressively to Black women?

The Importance of Sanitation in Cosmetology

If you’ve never studied or worked in the medical field, odds are you haven’t run into the importance of sanitation in cosmetology. Sure, sanitation in every day is something we’re (mostly) all aware of, but have you ever considered it something that could potentially make or break your career?

The Positive Effect of Cosmetology on Health and Well-Being

Whether it is hair styling, skin care, or nail care, cosmetologists provide services which contribute to the overall well-being of their clients. It isn’t merely about enhancing outer beauty; cosmetologists help their clients feel more confident, relaxed, and comfortable in their own skin. Cosmetologists provide tangible health benefits to clients, including mental and emotional health improvements, self-esteem, and improvements to their well-being. There are a few ways in which this occurs.