COSHH in hairdressing: Is your salon safe?

1. What does COSHH stand for?

Firstly, let’s clarify what COSHH is: the acronym COSHH stands for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. UK law requires all employers to ensure they are controlling the use of harmful substances in the workplaces. This means that any dangerous substances must be identified and precautions should be taken to ensure workers know how to use and handle them safely.
Every salon needs to do the following:

• Carry out a risk assessment to identify potential hazards
• Reduce any potential harm and monitor this on an ongoing basis
• Offer training to employees who are working with these substances

2. Which substances are hazardous in a hairdressing salon?

Liquids, vapours, dust, gases and fumes are often used within a hair salon and can all be hazardous to health. Creating and following a risk assessment will ensure employees use these substances safely to guarantee the protection of themselves and their customers.

Substances can include:

• Shampoos and conditioners
• Hairspray
• Hair dye
• Cleaning chemicals and disinfectants

3. What effects do hazardous substances have on health?

Hazards in a beauty salon can be caused by the incorrect use of substances, impacting the health of employees and customers. Depending on the product and use, the impact can be immediate or longer-term issues can be caused.

Short-term issues could include:

• Chemical burns
• Skin irritation
• Inhalation causing a bad cough

Longer-term problems which could occur are:

• Asthma
• Contact dermatitis

It is important to be aware of all of these risks and include them in your risk assessment to ensure that hair salon hazards are reduced and monitored on a continued basis.

4. PPE within a hairdressing salon

Using personal protective equipment (PPE) within a hairdressing setting will help to mitigate the risks associated with COSHH. Manufacturer’s guidelines will help with deciding whether PPE is needed, so be sure to read packaging instructions on every new product being used within your salon.

You may wish to consider using the following to protect your employees:

• Gloves
• Aprons
• Facemasks
• Goggles

5. Other health and safety considerations in a hairdressing salon

Whilst COSHH considerations are imperative when working in a hair salon, there are also additional health and safety risks that you must be aware of and be able to respond to accordingly.

This includes:

• Fire hazards
• Slips, trips and falls
• Lone working
• Manual handling

It is important to be aware of these potential hazards to ensure that you are abiding by UK hairdressing laws and regulations and keeping your salon safe.

Find out more about our COSHH online training course

If you are looking to better your understanding of health and safety in a salon, you may be interested in our ROSPA-accredited COSHH online training course. Part of our Chemical Hazards eLearning catalogue, the course provides the information required for those responsible for using, handling, transporting and storing hazardous substances, and does so in a bite-size way.

At the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• Recognise what is classed as a hazardous substance
• Identify who is affected by COSHH regulation
• Take the steps to prevent or minimise exposure to hazardous substances
• Explain the need for, and importance of, safety data sheets, product labels, and hazard warning symbols.

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