17.2 Towels, Linens, and Articles in Contact with Clients

OAR 817-005-0005(3) defines article as the items that complement services in 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(39) defines soiled as an article that has been used and has not been cleaned or disinfected for use on the next client. Facility Standards will ask you to keep those two definitions attached to three rules: towels (817-010-0035), articles on skin (817-010-0040), and materials including wax (817-010-0055).

Towels and linens — OAR 817-010-0035

An authorization holder must do all five:

(1) Use clean towels or linens for each client. One towel does not serve two faces. A steam towel from client A is soiled the moment it leaves that face.

(2) Store clean towels and linens in a clean area. Clean storage is not the chair-back, not the floor, and not a drawer that also holds used clippers.

(3) Use closable containers large enough and sturdy enough to store all soiled towels or linens. An open hamper that overflows onto the floor fails both “closable” and “all.”

(4) Store chemically soiled towels or linens in fire-retardant containers. OAR 817-005-0005(20) defines fire-retardant container as an airtight metal container for disposing of chemical waste or storing linens with chemical residue. A plastic trash can with a swinging lid is not that container. A damp perm towel (hair design) and a towel with leftover disinfectant both belong in metal, airtight storage — not a wicker bin by the heater.

(5) Launder towels or linens by a regular commercial laundering or by a non-commercial laundering process that includes use of commercial laundry detergent manufactured for the purpose of cleaning clothes, linens or other washable fabric, and immersion in hot water during the hot water wash/rinse operation. Both pieces are required on a non-commercial load: the commercial detergent and the hot-water immersion. Cold-water “eco” cycles, hand-sink rinses, and household dish soap are not the rule. Taking towels home to a cold wash is the classic miss.

Neck strip and articles — OAR 817-010-0040

OAR 817-010-0040 is three sentences. Learn them as written.

(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. The cape is common-use. The neck strip or the towel is the barrier. A cape snapped onto bare skin is the miss. A used neck strip flipped over “for the next guy” is also the miss — that strip is now an article that contacted skin.

(2) All items which come in direct contact with the client's skin but do not require disinfecting must be clean. A clean neck strip, a clean towel under the cape, a clean drape against the neck — clean is the floor, not “looks fine.”

(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. Neck strips are the usual barber example. They are single-client barriers. They go in a covered can immediately, not on the station, not in an open decorative bin, and not in the reception trash that 817-010-0060 later exempts only when it holds no service waste.

Materials, wax, and paraffin — OAR 817-010-0055

The current title is Materials in Contact with a Client and Use of Paraffin Wax (amended effective January 1, 2020). The body no longer uses the word paraffin; it regulates substances that contact hair or skin, including wax. Teach the current text. The title still flags paraffin because OAR 817-005-0005(14) still lists paraffin wax containers as facility equipment, and because OAR 817-010-0060(8) still requires all used wax to be disposed of and removed from the facility at the end of each business day.

OAR 817-010-0055:

(1) All substances that come in direct contact with hair or skin, including wax, used within a field of practice must be dispensed from containers in a manner that prevents contaminating of the unused portion.

(2) Substances that are applied to and then removed from a client’s skin must be applied so they do not contaminate the substance remaining in the bath or container, such as application with a single-use spatula, or disposal of any used substance. This includes but is not limited to: hair-removal waxes, pastes and gels; wax skin treatments; and nail powders and liquids.

(3) All substances must be covered when not in use and maintained at a temperature specified by the manufacturer's instructions.

(4) All substances must be free of debris and foreign objects.

(5) All substances must be disposed of immediately after use in accordance with OAR 817-010-0060.

Double-dipping a spatula into a community wax pot is the picture of (1) and (2) failing together. An uncovered pot with hair floating in it fails (3) and (4). Parking used wax overnight in the pot fails 817-010-0060(8), even if you “only use it on the same client tomorrow.”

Waxing is esthetics. The facility rule still binds the shop.

Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 690.005(6)(b) (2025 edition) places temporary removal of hair by using lotion, cream, an appliance, wax, thread, sugar, tweezers, dermaplaning, a depilatory or other means inside esthetics, not barbering. ORS 690.005(2) does not list waxing. A barbering certificate does not authorize a bikini wax, an ear-hair wax, or a paraffin dip as a field-of-practice service. If a stem asks who may wax, the answer is an esthetics certificate holder — not the barber.

The laws exam still writes 817-010-0055 items because Facility Standards tests the facility, not only the barber’s hands. Many Oregon shops are mixed: barber chairs and an esthetician room under one facility license. If wax is on the premises, the facility must dispense without contaminating the unused portion, use a single-use spatula or discard used substance, cover the pot, hold manufacturer temperature, keep debris out, dispose immediately under 817-010-0060, and remove used wax from the facility at the end of each business day. The barber who never waxes still has to know that rule when the inspector walks the common area.

A Corvallis cape and a shared wax pot

Andre, a certificate holder in Corvallis, snaps a common cape onto a client’s bare neck, reuses a damp towel from the last steam, and at closing leaves the esthetician’s uncovered wax pot on the common vanity with a used wooden stick standing in it. Three rules fail. OAR 817-010-0040(1) required a neck strip or towel between the common cape and skin. OAR 817-010-0035(1) required a clean towel for each client. OAR 817-010-0055 required dispensing that does not contaminate the unused wax, a covered pot at manufacturer temperature, and immediate disposal of used substance — and 817-010-0060(8) required used wax off the premises at the end of the business day. Andre’s “I don’t wax” sentence does not erase wax that sits in his facility.