The Dangers of Salon Pedicures

Women and some men enjoy weekly or monthly pedicures to keep those toes and feet feeling and looking beautiful. The risks of a pedicure does not often come up as most people are unaware that they even face a risk going to a beauty salon and sticking their feet in questionable water.

The risk that people face at a salon when getting a pedicure is all in the small foot spa that bubbles and massages your feet. Salon workers are supposed to sanitize and clean the spas after every use but a majority of them do not. Even worse, many claim that it is impossible to clean it after every use which is not true since many others do clean it and keep it clean between uses.

Have you ever gone to a salon to find that a foot spa is clogged and you need to be moved to another one? What could be causing the clogging is all the dead skin from the many previous users in that same chair that you sat in. A great pedicure includes a soaking of the feet, toe nail clipping, foot massaging and dead skin scraping.

All of that skin goes back into the water and when drained the particles become trapped in different areas of the spa. With an foot spa that is no cleaned, a client runs the risk of infections getting into cracked heels or an open cut on the foot or leg. The most common infection is mycobacterial furunculosis. After becoming infected a patient can expect to see small bumps that resemble a spider bite that will begin to grow in size. After a few days the bump will begin to leak puss.

These bumps soon become open sores and even after they "heal" young women are now scarred for life as their legs are left with grotesque scarring from ankles to knees and sometimes up to the thighs. The amount of women who have become infected is relatively small but there are ways to help prevent such a thing from occurring.

Speak with the salon owner or workers to find out how and when they clean their foot spas. If they try to tell you that it does not need to be cleaned often, that is probably not the best salon to visit. The same goes for any salon where the employees try to avoid your questions. Check your legs and feet carefully before going to get a pedicure and make sure that there are no open cuts, wounds or sores. Wait until any cuts have fully healed before going to get a pedicure.