4.1 Personal Hygiene
Key Takeaways
Under 49 Pa. Code § 7.95, every salon employee who serves the public shall be clean as to person and dress.
That employee shall thoroughly cleanse the hands immediately before rendering services to a client and immediately after using the lavatory.
Under § 7.93, only clean cloth towels or disposable paper towels are used on clients, and unused cloth towels stay in a closed cabinet.
A used cloth towel goes immediately into a closed container for soiled linen, and a used paper towel is immediately discarded in a covered waste container.
4.1 Personal Hygiene
Individual cleanliness is stated in one sentence of 49 Pa. Code § 7.95. Every salon employee who serves the public shall be clean as to person and dress and shall thoroughly cleanse the hands immediately before rendering services to a client and immediately after using the lavatory.
Who must be clean
The subject is every salon employee who serves the public. A manicure, pedicure, polish change, or enhancement is a service, and so is a coworker who takes the client's hand. Someone who never serves a client is outside the sentence until that person begins a service.
Clean as to person and dress
Clean as to person means the last service is not still on your skin. Filing dust on the forearms, cuticle cream on the wrists, and product under your own free edge move to the next hand you lift. Hair that falls into an open jar or across the client's fingers is contact, so keep it out of the product and off the client. The Code names no required hairstyle.
Clean as to dress means the clothing you serve in is clean. Section 7.95 names no color and no required coat. An apron fails when cream, monomer, or polish soaks the cloth and that cloth rests on the cushion or the client's arm. Change it, or cover it with a clean layer, before the next client. Cover a nick or hangnail on your own finger, and replace the cover if product or dust wets it.
Two triggers, not one wash
Immediately before rendering services means the cleansing is the last thing your hands do before they touch that client. Cash, a phone, a dusty lamp, or a tray of used files may come first. Then you cleanse. A wash at opening is not immediately before an afternoon client. The previous client's wash does not belong to this client.
Immediately after using the lavatory ties the cleansing to the restroom visit. Do it then. If you afterward touch the restroom door, a phone, or a pen, those surfaces are on your hands, and you still cleanse immediately before the service. The lavatory wash does not replace the before-service wash after later contact, and a table wash does not excuse a skipped lavatory wash.
Thoroughly is how, and § 7.95 names no soap, temperature, or number of seconds. There is no Pennsylvania second-count. Nail-technology practice uses soap and running water on the palms, backs, thumbs, and under the free edges until cream, filing dust, and visible soil are gone. Alcohol gel does not remove cream and filing dust, so it does not replace this cleansing.
No sentence says after each client. Each new service still has its own immediately before. If blood or other visible soil gets on your hands mid-service, you are not clean as to person. Cleanse before you return to that client's skin.
Manicure towels
Section 7.93 says only clean cloth towels or disposable paper towels shall be used on clients. At the nail table that is the manicure towel under the hand, the towel that dries the fingers, and any towel that cushions the wrist.
The § 7.71b items that belong here are twelve sanitary towels per work station, a closed towel cabinet for clean linen, and a closed storage area for soiled linen. Twelve is station stock, not a quota of twelve towels for one manicure.
Unused cloth towels shall be kept in a closed cabinet. Draw the manicure towel when the service starts. An open stack collects filing dust. Unused paper towels shall be kept in a closed cabinet or a closed towel dispenser. Pull the sheet from the dispenser, not from an open pile.
A used cloth towel shall be immediately placed in a closed container for soiled linen, which is the closed storage area for soiled linen in use. Immediately means before the next client sits. A towel on the chair back is still in the service area. A used paper towel shall be immediately discarded in a covered waste container, not in the linen container. An open can does not meet the cover requirement.
Subsection (b) covers a facial-chair headrest with a clean cloth towel or an unused disposable paper towel before each facial. Subsection (c) places a clean cloth towel, an unused disposable paper towel, or an unused neck strip around the neck before a haircut so the hair cloth does not touch the skin. Those are not manicure steps. They show the towel rule is salon-wide. The nail example remains the manicure towel.
Salon scenario: the lavatory between two clients
Dina washes in the lavatory, then checks her phone and pushes the salon door. She changes her dusty apron, takes one clean cloth manicure towel from the closed cabinet, and thoroughly cleanses her hands again before the next client. The first client's cloth towel is already in the closed soiled-linen container. Skipping the second cleansing puts the phone on that client's hand and misses the before-service duty.
| Item or moment | Duty | At the nail table |
|---|---|---|
| Person and dress | Clean while serving the public | Change a stained apron |
| Before the service | Cleanse hands immediately before the service | Wash before you take the hand |
| After the lavatory | Cleanse hands immediately after the lavatory | Wash again if you touched anything on the way back |
| Unused cloth towel | Closed cabinet | Draw it when the service starts |
| Unused paper towel | Closed cabinet or closed dispenser | Pull it from the dispenser |
| Used cloth towel | Closed soiled-linen container, immediately | Move it before the next client sits |
| Used paper towel | Covered waste, immediately | Do not put paper into the linen container |
Section 7.95 sets no wash timer, and § 7.93 sets no towel color or size.
Under 49 Pa. Code § 7.95, when must a salon employee who serves the public thoroughly cleanse the hands?
Only at opening and at closing, unless blood is visible on the hands
Immediately before each service and immediately after using the lavatory
Only before the first client of the day, if an alcohol gel was used at the door
Only after using the lavatory, with no separate duty before each new service
Where does 49 Pa. Code § 7.93 require unused cloth towels to be kept?
In the closed container used for soiled linen
In an open stack on the manicure table so they are easy to reach
In the covered waste container until the client arrives
In a closed cabinet
A cloth towel has just been used under a client's hand during a manicure. What does § 7.93 require next?
Discard it in the covered waste container because every used towel is treated as paper
Place it immediately in a closed container for soiled linen
Use it to cover a facial-chair headrest for the next facial
Fold it and return it to the closed cabinet if the towel looks dry
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.