20/20 Special Assignment:
They are everywhere: nail salons offering bargain prices. But are they safe? It’s a booming business. But did you know you could get sick at one of these discount nail parlors, and also seriously hurt?
Of the nail salons investigated, (Fancy Nails, Hi-Teck Nails, LA Nails and others) the report revealed why your protection is not a priority. The I-team had the video to prove it.
It’s a industry where thousands of women and men go to get pampered, but is your health in jeopardy while you are there? The I-team went undercover to find out. They discovered that many salons were using unsafe acrylic products containing MMA which causes allergic reactions and permanent damage to the nail bed. They also discovered that these salons had not been inspected in the last 3 years, and if violations were cited, they were not fixed. The I-team sent an agent over to a salon where manicurists are supposed to soak tools insanitation fluid. But they noticed that the sanitation containers were empty.
The hidden camera caught the nail tech eating with her fingers without washing her hands. She began working on the client while chewing her dinner. The I-team also learned that the same tech was not licensed to do nails! Just because there is a license posted behind the tech does not mean that it is that person! Many of these salons are working under one licensce. Only the salon owner is licensed, and the rest are often family members working under one that license.
Another Fancy Nails employee was heating up chemicals for a waxing job in the same microwave the other tech used to heat her dinner! “you don’t mix chemicals with food” an expert told the team.
The team found filthy papertowels at the workstations with ashtrays and cigarette butts next to the chemicals at Hi-teck Nails. In 1997 the salon was citied for not having poisonous chemicals properly labeled. Some manicurists have been caught using illegal blades for pedicures, dead skin was found floating in dirty sanitation containers, and a maniac manicurist used paper towels out of the trash can to wipe down her work station. These unsanitary practices can cause hepatitis and Aids.
The unsanitary conditions and use of illegal tools and blades can also cause serious infections that can spread clear through to the bones, leaving you permanantely damaged.
The I-team suggests that you ask to see the sanitation equipment or even bring your own tools for the manicurist to use.