Beauty salons cited for risky business
MUNCIE — Several Indiana beauty salons have been cited for use of razor devices/credo blades to shave, reduce or remove calluses, using prescription skin-numbing lotion for an eyeliner tattoo, unsanitary equipment, unlicensed workers and a fraudulent license.
The Indiana attorney general's office filed a recent complaint alleging that T-Nail, 839 S. Tillotson Ave., maintained among its manicurist instruments for use on clients a razor device/credo blade. The devices are prohibited under Indiana law because they can cause bleeding, potential infections and remove healthy as well as dead skin.
Based on an inspection conducted on March 19, 2014, the complaint also alleges T-nail employed two unlicensed manicurists (one an unidentified male, the other a female, Tu Thi Cam Nguyen, who reportedly held a license from Texas) and that it failed to post each employee's license in work areas where they were clearly visible to customers.
T-Nail continues to face an unrelated lawsuit accusing it of causing a customer's life-threatening bacterial infection.
Owned by Tim Tai Vo, T-Nail is defending a lawsuit filed a year ago this month by Muncie resident Bruce Walters, who was hospitalized for three weeks and underwent five surgeries after receiving a pedicure at T-Nail on June 23, 2013.
T-Nail's lawyers deny the allegations in the lawsuit, which asserts that "medical providers universally determined" Walters' infection started in his right great toe that was gouged during a pedicure by an unsanitary instrument. The pedicure nearly cost Walters his life and his leg, the lawsuit says.
The salon did not respond to a letter mailed to it by The Star Press last week seeking comment on the AG's complaint.
After Walters and his wife received pedicures at T-Nail, he traveled on business to Washington, D.C. When his wife spoke to him on the phone within a week, Walters was incoherent. His speech was slurred and he was unable to say where he was or the date. His wife called paramedics, who found him sitting on the front stoop of his apartment, barely functioning.
Walters was transported to Georgetown University Hospital with a life-threatening staph infection, according to the lawsuit. His toe, foot and leg were red, swollen and nearly unrecognizable. The lawsuit says Walters continues to suffer pain/swelling and still faces the possibility of amputation.
When choosing a beauty salon, Brian Shrieve, president of Amber's Beauty School in Muncie, recommends you take into account a salon's reputation, including what you have heard from friends and family; look for licenses; don't get caught up with looking for "the best deal" when it comes to price; ask the salon what continuing education programs it has and observe cleanliness.
"If you can see things that you think are dirty or not taken care of, it is likely there are many things you do not see that are even worse," he told The Star Press.
Beauty salon safety including credo devices is a statewide issue, and just because a technician displays a license doesn't always mean it's legitimate.
In other recent complaints, Silky Nails in Fair Oaks Mall, Columbus, was cited for dirty file-drill bits that had not been disinfected, nail debris among manicurist instruments, eyelashes adhered to mascara wands and eyebrow combs, use of credo devices, built-up debris in a pedi-chair filter, displaying an expired license for manicurist Ngoc-Ai T Nguyen, and possession of prescription EMLA skin-numbing cream, which had been used on a customer who suffered corneal chemical burns during permanent eyeliner tattooing. The salon lacked authority to use anesthetics.
In Hammond, Tu T. Lee, doing business as Davi Nails, was cited for use of credo devices and for lint and soap scum buildup in foot bath filters. Elite Nail Spa, Mishawaka, was cited for failure to display licenses, storing dirty pedicure foot files and dirty tissues alongside new sanding blocks in a shopping bag, and re-using disposable files. Vi Chi, owner of Art Nail in Evansville, was cited for an unlicensed pedicurist and use of credo blades. And in Franklin, Anna Hong Nguyen was cited for having falsely claimed she obtained 1,500 hours of cosmetology education from the state of Texas, a fake credential she used to obtain a license in Tennessee and then in Indiana.
An investigation by The New York Times published in May found that manicurists are routinely underpaid and exploited, and endure ethnic bias and other abuse.
According to the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, it also seems clear that both workers (largely immigrant women) and clients are being exposed to potentially harmful chemicals routinely used in salons. The department encourages consumers to ask your salon to use fans and ventilation, to tip directly to technicians, to ask your technician to keep bottles closed when not in use, to ask your salon to carry non-toxic products and to encourage technicians to wear gloves and masks.
Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.