Beauty hygiene in the new Covid-19 era

Hygiene has always been a very important aspect of my services. I consider it an integral part of a luxury beauty service and adhere to strict rules and guidelines. The new Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted some habits that we all in the beauty industry need to add to our regular hygiene regimes for our clients - and our own - safety. 

In light of the new situation, I have completed three new courses on health and safety for the beauty industry. I have taken the Barbicide Covid-19 Certification Course as well as the Online Coronavirus Infection Prevention online course for the Beauty Industry and I feel totally prepared to start working and keeping my clients safe once the lockdown measures are eased.  I also took a refresher course on general hygiene practices - Online Health, Hygiene and Safety in the Beauty Workplace - as it’s been 9 years since I trained.

New measures in light of the current situation:

- I have always been very diligent in disinfecting all my kit and brushes in between clients. As a new measure I not only use normal makeup and brush cleaner  - Beauty So Clean -  but I also double up with 99.9% alcohol (yes it’s going to wear my brushes out but it is the best!).

- I have gone through my whole kit thoroughly and cleaned every container and casing with 99.9% alcohol and wipes. I do this after every job on a regular basis.

- I wear a mask while seeing clients and I am totally happy for my clients to wear a mask while am doing their eye makeup. I start with the eyes so the mask is on for a lot of the makeup portion if the client so wishes. Obviously for foundation the mask does need to come off. I am also very happy to use the clients own lipstick during this time, as even though I use the method described above to disinfect, I understand if they would prefer to stick to their own lip products. I have also switched to disposable lip brushes.

- I have stopped using my Beauty Blender as it’s difficult to disinfect on location and replaced it with disposable makeup sponges.

- For hair styling  there has been varying in opinions on the use of hairdryers. Some stylists are not using them as the fear is they would blow air around too much and spread the virus. I am leaning towards avoiding blowdrying when it’s not necessary. But luckily most styles I create on set or at a wedding - apart from blowdries on short hair - can be achieved without the need to do a blowout first.

- I disinfect all hair tools in between clients and thoroughly wash them at the end of each day.

- For weddings, I will work with the wedding planner to allow for slightly longer appointments as well as limit the number of people in the room.

I ask my clients to please inform me if they are not feeling well before the appointment as I’ll need to reschedule if they are showing any signs of the virus. I follow the same guidelines myself. I also ask all my clients to let me know if in the days after our appointment they start feeling unwell as I will need to contact any clients I have seen after.

We are all in this together and we all share the responsibility to control the spread of the virus. I look forward to a time post Covid-19 but for now, I want you to feel safe in booking my services!