18.3 Client Protection During Services

The Oregon Laws and Rules Examination reserves 8 of 90 items for Chemicals. Those items are not a hair-design-only corner. OAR Chapter 817, Division 60 applies to authorization holders, and OAR 817-005-0005(7) defines a chemical service as the use of any product that restructures or removes hair or changes the shape or appearance of skin, hair or nails. Permanent waving, relaxing, bleaching, and coloring live in hair design under ORS 690.005(10), not in barbering. The Laws exam still asks Division 60. Hair tonic, a chemical shave preparation, a color-removing accident in a dual-certificate shop, or a station that shares a mix room with a hair designer is enough to put 817-060-0010 on your paper. Study the procedures as if you will mix, because the exam assumes you might.

The client-protection rule — OAR 817-060-0010

OAR 817-060-0010(1) is the sentence the exam quotes: all safety procedures which prevent eye, nail, hair, or skin injury to clients or damage to the clothing of clients must be followed when administering chemical services. Four injury targets — eye, nail, hair, skin — plus clothing. A procedure that saves the scalp but bleaches the shirt still fails (1).

OAR 817-060-0010(2) then incorporates other law by name: client-protection regulations must be met in accordance with ORS 654 (Oregon Safe Employment Act), OAR 437 Division 2 (Oregon OSHA general occupational safety and health rules), 29 CFR 1910.1030 (bloodborne pathogens), and 29 CFR 1910.1200 (hazard communication — labels and safety data sheets). Division 60 is not a closed Board island. SDS access, BBP response after a nick, and Oregon OSHA ventilation expectations travel with the chemical service.

What those "safety procedures" look like in the chair

817-060-0010 does not list every towel. The numbered Oregon rules around it do, and the school procedures that prevent skin injury and clothing damage are how you satisfy (1).

Cape and neck barrier. OAR 817-010-0040(1) requires a neck strip or towel around the client's neck to prevent direct contact between a common-use hair cloth or cape and the client's skin. That barrier is not optional on a chemical service, a haircut, or a shave. OAR 817-090-0105(1) prices missing the neck strip or towel at $300 / $500 / $1,000. For chemical work, the cape itself should be chemical-resistant / waterproof. A cloth cutting cape that wicks relaxer or color onto the collar is clothing damage under 817-060-0010(1). A second towel at the nape over the cape is the usual extra barrier when product can run.

Cotton and protective cream. Cotton around the ears and a protective cream at the hairline, ears, and neck are the skin-injury procedures schools teach so chemical stays off skin that is not the target of the service. 817-060-0010(1) names skin injury and clothing damage as the harms you must prevent. Cotton that touches the client and cannot be cleaned is an article under OAR 817-010-0040(3): dispose of it in a covered waste receptacle immediately after use. Do not set used cotton back on the cart.

Towels. OAR 817-010-0035(1) requires clean towels or linens for each client. OAR 817-010-0035(4) requires chemically soiled towels or linens to be stored in fire-retardant containers. OAR 817-060-0020(8) repeats that chemically treated, dampened, or saturated towels go in a fire-retardant container. A plastic grocery bag of wet perm towels is not 817-010-0035(4).

Eyes and practitioner PPE. Eye injury is named in 817-060-0010(1). Keep product out of the client's eyes; stop and rinse if it migrates. OAR 817-010-0008(3) requires the authorization holder to wear eye goggles, shields, or a mask if spattering is likely. OAR 817-010-0008(1) still requires hand washing with soap and water or an allowed alternative immediately before and after each client. Gloves belong on any service that routinely involves blood or OPIM (817-010-0008(2)), and they belong on chemical application whenever the product can injure the practitioner's skin.

Ventilation, mixing, and flame — OAR 817-060-0030 and the dispensing area

OAR 817-060-0030(1) requires chemicals used for providing services to be mixed in a dispensing area, which has adequate ventilation, away from open flame or other sources of potential ignition. Adequate ventilation (OAR 817-005-0005(1)) means ventilation by natural or mechanical methods that removes or exhausts fumes, vapors, or dust to prevent hazardous conditions in accordance with OAR Chapter 437, Division 2, or that allows the free flow of air in a room in proportion to the size and capacity of the room. A closed supply closet with no exhaust is not adequate ventilation. Mixing at the chair next to a candle is both a ventilation miss and a flame miss.

OAR 817-060-0030(3)(d) prohibits using an open flame at the workstation during any phase of chemical service. Mixing, application, and processing all count. OAR 817-090-0115 prices mixing outside a dispensing area, mixing near an open flame, unsafe chemical storage, and an open flame at the workstation during a chemical service at $300 / $500 / $1,000 for first through third offenses. The dispensing area, recall, already requires nonporous surfaces and a sink with hot and cold running water (817-005-0005(11)). You cannot satisfy 817-060-0030(1) at a porous break-room table.

OAR 817-060-0030(3) also bans FDA-banned hazardous cosmetic substances, using a product in a manner the FDA has not approved, and using a product characterized as hazardous or harmful to humans by the SDS. Client protection includes not pouring the wrong bottle.

Inflamed or infected skin in the service area

Do not perform the service on inflamed or infected skin in the service area. Oregon barbering is cosmetic, not medical (ORS 690.005(2)). Working on a draining infection, a medically inflamed patch, or broken skin you intend to "treat" with a shop product is not a fade; it is practice outside the field. OAR 817-120-0005(2) requires authorization holders to practice in a manner that safeguards the public's health, safety, and welfare. OAR 817-120-0005(3) makes the authorization holder responsible for determining whether any practice would be prohibited by law. OAR 817-120-0005(4) warns that services that are prohibited, unsafe, dangerous, or cause harm may be incompetence, negligence, or unprofessional conduct under ORS 676.612(2)(j). A signed waiver does not convert an unsafe service into a legal one.

Contrast OAR 817-015-0075 on head lice: lice may be treated at the discretion of the authorization holder, and Division 10 still applies. That discretion is not a license to work on an infected, draining, or medically inflamed site. Lice is optional. Inflamed or infected skin in the service area is a stop.

Refer that client. Document the refusal. Offer to reschedule when the skin is intact. That is 817-120-0005 in the appointment book.

Put the stack in order on exam day. Consult and look at the skin first. If the service area is inflamed or infected, stop. If the service is chemical, move to the dispensing area — nonporous, hot and cold water, ventilation, no flame — mix there, not at the chair. Drape with a neck strip or towel and a chemical cape. Cream and cotton at ears and neck. Protect eyes. Use clean towels; drop chemically soiled ones into a fire-retardant can. Wash before and after. That sequence is 817-060-0010, 817-060-0030, 817-010-0035, 817-010-0040, and 817-120-0005 working as one client-protection system, which is exactly how the Laws paper writes the item.