12.3 Capes, Drapes, and Massage Tools

The last bulletin names on the 12-item Implements list are capes and drapes and massage tools. Oregon does not treat a cape as a shear. OAR 817-005-0005 sorts objects into articles, tools and implements, equipment, and materials and supplies. The Barbering theory paper asks what the object is and how you use it. The Laws and Rules paper asks whether you used a clean article, whether a neck strip or towel blocked a common-use cape, and whether a facial gadget was a galvanic or faradic appliance forbidden by ORS 690.005(2)(c).

Four Oregon buckets

Learn the buckets before the cape clip.

ORS 690.005 also names mechanical or electrical apparatus, appliance, or device (galvanic current, high-frequency microcurrents, light-emitting diode therapy, microdermabrasion that does not penetrate beyond the epidermis). That statutory class is how Oregon talks about powered treatment machines. For barbering massage, the only named appliance ban you must recite is galvanic or faradic.

How the buckets show up on the laws paper

A barber chair is equipment. A pair of shears is a tool. A cutting cape is an article. Mixing those words is how candidates miss definition items on the 21-question Definitions block of the laws exam.

Articles: neck-strips, towels, cloth or plastic capes

Article means those items that complement services provided in the practice of barbering, hair design, esthetics, or nail technology, including, but not limited to, neck-strips, towels or linens, and cloth or plastic capes (OAR 817-005-0005).

Soiled is not “dirty-looking.” Soiled means an article that has been used and has not been cleaned or disinfected for use on the next client. A cape that looks dry after one fade is still soiled until it is cleaned. A neck strip that sat on one client is soiled the moment it is unclipped.

OAR 817-010-0035 (towels or linens) requires an authorization holder to use clean towels or linens for each client, store clean towels in a clean area, hold soiled towels in closable containers large enough for the load, put chemically soiled towels in fire-retardant containers, and launder with commercial detergent plus immersion in hot water during the hot wash/rinse. A cape is not a towel, but a towel used as a drape follows 817-010-0035.

OAR 817-010-0040 — Articles in Contact with a Client

Current OAR 817-010-0040 is three sentences. This is the draping rule HLO writes items on:

1. A neck strip or towel must be placed around the client's neck to prevent direct contact between a common use hair cloth or cape and the client's skin.
2. All items which come in direct contact with the client's skin but do not require disinfecting must be clean.
3. All articles which come in direct contact with the client's skin and cannot be cleaned or disinfected must be disposed of in a covered waste receptacle immediately after use.

Clipping a cutting cape onto bare skin is a miss, cloth or plastic. Shaking a used cape and putting it on the next client is a miss. Walking a used paper neck strip from the fade to the shampoo bowl is a miss — that strip needed the covered can immediately. A waterproof shampoo cape still needs a neck strip or towel. After the wash, a cutting cape still needs a fresh neck strip or towel. One strip does not serve the bowl and the chair.

Paper neck strips are the classic 817-010-0040(3) article: they contact skin and cannot be disinfected, so they are not rinsed and reused. Cloth towels used as neck protection are cleaned per 817-010-0035, not shared damp.

Massage tools: vibrators, brushes, steamers — not galvanic or faradic

ORS 690.005(2)(c) authorizes massaging of the scalp, face, and neck and applying facial and scalp treatments with creams, lotions, oils, and other cosmetic preparations, either by hand or mechanical appliances, except that the mechanical appliances may not be galvanic or faradic.

Galvanic current is direct current used in ionization and some desincrustation facial devices. Faradic current is an interrupted current used to stimulate muscle contraction. Both are out of Oregon barbering, even if the same machine lives in an esthetics room down the hall. An Oregon barbering certificate is not an esthetics certificate. Oregon does not issue an umbrella cosmetology certificate.

Allowed massage-adjacent tools on a barber station, when used cosmetically and processed as tools:

• Vibrators (mechanical vibration for scalp or facial massage).
• Facial or scalp brushes (nonelectrical or electrical; disinfect as a brush or as an electrical tool).
• Steamers and hot-towel steam, which soften the face before a shave or a cosmetic facial.

Those objects are still tools. An electrical vibrator body is OAR 817-010-0069(1) (remove debris, low-level disinfectant). A reusable facial brush that can be immersed is OAR 817-010-0068(6) (soap, rinse, 1,000 ppm quats or other low-level). A steamer reservoir is not a dirty-water mug; empty, clean, and keep it free of residue. None of that legalizes a galvanic roller or a faradic muscle stimulator “just on the neck.”

Equipment versus portable tools

Equipment means those items needed to operate a facility, including, but not limited to, waiting chairs, barber or styling chairs, shampoo chairs, cabinets, sinks, shampoo bowls, stationary dryers, pedicure bowls or whirlpool foot spas, paraffin wax containers, and nail technology tables (OAR 817-005-0005). You do not drop a shampoo bowl into a quat jar. You keep it as equipment.

Current OAR 817-010-0101 (Equipment):

1. The surface of all equipment, including back-bars, must be cleanable non-porous material (the reception area where services are not performed is excepted).
2. Shampoo bowls and sinks must be clean and free of hair and residue.
3. All equipment must be clean and in good repair.
4. Surfaces contaminated by blood or other potentially infectious materials must be disinfected with a high-level solution according to the manufacturer's instructions.

A torn chair arm that cannot be cleaned is not “in good repair.” A bowl with a ring of product is not clean. A blood spot on the chair is not a dry-wipe; it is a high-level surface disinfection. Portable shears still follow 817-010-0068. The chair follows 817-010-0101. That split is the point of this section.

Shop scenario

A Bend barber clips a plastic cutting cape onto a client's bare neck, dusts the nape, then offers a “firming facial” with a galvanic ionization roller the booth neighbor uses for esthetics. Two separate misses. OAR 817-010-0040(1) required a neck strip or towel so the common-use cape never touched skin. ORS 690.005(2)(c) forbids galvanic appliances in barbering massage and facial treatments, even when the roller is clean. Correct service: fresh neck strip under the cape, cosmetic massage by hand or with a disinfected vibrator or steamer if the client wants it, cape and towels handled as articles, chair and bowl handled as equipment, galvanic machine left with the esthetician.