Sweeney Todd

Safety at your local hair dresser

This article will probably be more relevant to the female reader, because they are more likely to spend any significant time at a hair dressing salon. I was listening to that twat mouth piece on lunchtime radio 2, to clarify I mean Mr. Jeremy Vine, the Kyle of BBC radio. A girl went to the hair dressing salon to get her hair done for her school prom, another magnificently tragic import from the US of America, but nonetheless she quite reasonably wanted to look her best for this important night of her life. So she went to her local emporium to have her Barnet cut. Unfortunately for this young girl she had her locks fondled by a trainee who wasn’t under supervision. She had her hair dyed and immediately felt a burning and itching sensation, and was told by trainee it was to be expected and would pass.

That night her head was still itching and burning, but she went to bed, then to school the following morning. She also had a rash on her face and was promptly sent home until the rash had gone. Now to the average person this would be considered to be quite horrific for the girl, but this story now goes from bad to worse. She woke up the next morning her rash had gone septic and she lost the sight in both her eyes. Naturally her parents were very worried about this latest revelation and took her to see her GP. She was given a course of anti-biotic and anti-histamine for infection. After her treatment from the Doctor, the rash disappeared and her eyesight returned. When she complained to her hairdresser she was told that it was a reaction to her shampoo.

Her parents sued this particular establishment for damages because their daughter had been given a haircut by a trainee under no supervision. This girl later found out after a consultation with her solicitor that the hairdresser should have given her a scratch test to see if she was allergic to the particular dye was used. The shop settled out of court a blatant admittance of guilt on their part.

What do hairdresser’s need to open a salon?

Under the law as it currently stands this is what is required:-

· A venue

That’s it.

Officially no certificate of competence is needed. No knowledge of the safe use of the chemicals used in the hair dressing profession. So if I so wanted I could start my own salon and nobody would officially come and check to see if I were running a safe place of business. I wouldn’t even have to register with a federation, and there is no governing body.

Now the above story is nasty but there are some very serious hazards to visiting the hairdresser. This is rare phenomenon but there is something called washbasin stroke syndrome, if the neck is over extended over the basin it can cause the person to stroke. This is sometimes known as dentist chair stroke syndrome, because it has also happened at the dentist. But don’t get too worried about this; these instances are very rare indeed. The odds are 1 in 50,000. So if the average person gets one haircut a month and lives for seventy years that would be 840 visits for a lifetime so the odds are in our favour.

Clearly there needs to be legislation in place that safeguards the customer. And the hairdressers themselves need to have official certification, and need to be affiliated to a governing body. Even sportsmen have governing bodies with rules and regulations to adhere to, and so should hairdressers.