Glamour Article Gets People Talking

My telephone has been ringing off the hook ever since the November issue of GLAMOUR Magazine hit the newsstands.

In case you don’t read GLAMOUR, the November issue carried an article entitled “Is Your Nail Salon Safe?” in which the author stated that nail care services can pose health risks.

Judging form my phone conversations, many technicians are looking at this article as a serious blow against the nail industry. I think it is important that we look on it, instead, as a challenge. As a professional nail technician, you should be aware of the potential risks of improper nail care. Only if you know the risks can you lay your clients’ fears to rest when they confront you with what they have read about nails in consumer publications.

It is likely that some of your clients will talk to you about the article. They are likely to have a lot of questions about the safety of the services you perform on them. As long as you are up to date on sanitation and safety procedures, their questions are not a threat to you. In fact, this situation can be turned into an opportunity for you to show your clients that you do know what is going on and you are concerned with their health, safety, and peace of mind as well as their nails.

This particular article is getting a lot of attention, but the sanitation is really nothing new. In my time with NAILS, I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the bad rap the industry gets in the consumer press. Most of the people I hear from say the horror stories the media picks up are valid, but the flip side of the coin is not being publicized. Most people who have nail services performed at a professional nail salon by trained, licensed technicians will not have a problem. It’s when customers try to save money by going to cut-rate salons where technicians do not have proper training and sanitation procedures are either not adhered to or not known that trouble arises.

There’s no denying that nail services are gaining a lot of publicity lately, and some of that publicly is negative. The worst possible thing for those of us in the industry to do is panic. By keeping abreast of what’s going on in the industry, by maintaining high professional and sanitation standards, by making sure that our services are as safe as they possibly can be, we can only improve our image. Let’s make a New Year’s resolution to stick together and do everything in our power to give the industry the professional reputation it deserves!