BANGALORE: Not so long back, Veena Naik, a bride-to-be decided to go to the parlour, on the eve of her wedding. Her aunt recalls the horror: “She visited the parlour to get her waxing done. Everything went well. On the day of the wedding, my niece woke up to find that her skin had erupted into angry red rashes.” It was later found out to be a common type of skin infection. Yet, hundreds of parlours in our city, with scant regard for hygiene, continue to operate unhindered. City Express follows the beauty trail.A few months back, an IT professional Sharmila Kishore decided to get a fruit facial done from a well-known spa in Indiranagar. When she reached there, she was convinced by the manager to use a new international product on her face. She paid extra for the facial. The massage felt good. A week later red welts were seen on her face. She rushed to a dermatologist, only to be told it was an allergic reaction to a chemical and that it was impossible to identify the chemical. Horror struck, she confronted the parlour manager only to be told that nothing could be done as she had volunteered to use the product herself. “Only then did I realize my mistake. I cannot take them to court, as they do not come under any regulation in the country. They cannot even be brought under the Health Department, as they claim to be just beauty parlours,” sharmila lamented. While cosmetic procedures such as botox, laser treatment and surgical procedures like liposuction and breast implants come under Health Department, the smaller parlours that have mushroomed, over the years, from the living rooms of women and who look towards making some money, go unregulated. BBMP’s Chairperson for Standing Committee on Health, Geeta Shashikumar, however, quashes any such notions of non-regulation. “These parlours have to seek a trade license. However, there are too many parlours which operate without such licenses. The customers have to check for the license and alert the officials to penalise these illegal parlours,” she said. Leila Shaw, who runs a spa in J P Nagar, also puts the onus of safety on the customers. “Whether male or female, they need to be aware of the health hazards. They need to insist on seeing the expiry date on products and also check for clean, safe materials to be used. We actually get customers who check to see if the tools for manicure and pedicure are heated or sanitised. No business person will want to see a customer go dissatisfied and the quality will be automatically upgraded,” she said.So, the next time you go into a parlour, remember to go in for safe products and protect yourself from infections and allergies.
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