Managing hazardous substances and irritants in the hairdressing and beauty industry
Guidance for employers on how to manage hazardous substances and irritants in the hairdressing and beauty industry.
Background
This guidance can assist employers to comply with their obligations under Part 4.1 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (OHS Regulations) which outlines the duties and responsibilities related to the handling, storage, and management of substances that pose a health and safety risk in the workplace.
Hairdressers and beauty therapists come into contact with a range of products each day at work. These include:
- shampoos and conditioners
- dyes
- bleach
- wax
- massage oils
- skin products
- nail glues
- nail polishes.
These products are made up of different chemicals and materials, including hazardous substances that can harm people’s health.
Irritants are a subset of hazardous substances that may cause injuries on contact with the skin, the eyes or airways after single exposure or may occur slowly with repeated exposure.
Hazardous substances and irritants can enter the body in different ways, including:
- when breathing
- absorbing them through the skin from continual wetting and drying skin and handling chemicals in hairdressing and beauty products which can cause the skin to dry out, flake, split, crack and blister.
Exposure to hazardous substances can cause short and long-term health problems, including:
- irritation
- poisoning
- chemical burns
- cancer
- asthma
- dermatitis (eczema)
- organ diseases.
Hazardous substances in the hairdressing and beauty industry
- Hair dyes and colours
Hair dyes usually come in a cream or liquid form. Toxic ingredients like paraphenylene diamine (PPD) and hydrogen peroxide are common in dyes. PPD and hydrogen peroxide can cause:
- eye, nose and throat irritation
- serious skin disorders like dermatitis.
Temporary dyes are easier to wash off than permanent ones, but they often contain azo dyes or phenylamine. Research suggests a link between exposure to these chemicals and the development of certain cancers.
Safety tips
- Ask your suppliers for help with choosing PPD-free products.
- Make sure employees mix dyes somewhere isolated and well-ventilated.
- Make sure there’s enough ventilation in parts of the salon where dye will be used.
- Wear protective gear like nitrile gloves and aprons.
- Regular use of fragrance free moisturisers on hands and wrists
- Store powders in unsealed containers.
- Peroxide solutions
Peroxide solutions usually contain between 7 to 12% hydrogen peroxide. The more concentrated the solution is, the more hazardous it is. Commonly used peroxide solutions include developers and activators. Hydrogen peroxide can cause:
- eye, nose and throat irritation
- dermatitis
- severe eye damage.
Peroxide solutions are usually mixed with bleaches and dyes to lighten hair. When they are mixed with other substances and touch your skin, peroxide solutions can be more likely to cause allergic dermatitis.
Safety tips
- Use products with lower hydrogen peroxide concentrations.
- Make sure employees mix dyes somewhere isolated and well-ventilated.
- Make sure there’s enough ventilation in the parts of the salon where peroxide solutions will be used.
- Wear protective gear like nitrile gloves and aprons.
- Regular use of fragrance free moisturisers on hands and wrists.
- Powdered bleach
Powdered bleach contains a range of persulphate salts including:
- ammonia
- sodium
- potassium.
These substances can cause eye and nose irritation.
When the skin is exposed to powdered bleach mixtures repeatedly or for too long, it can cause:
- eczema
- dermatitis
- sensitization.
Exposure can also come from breathing in the bleach dust, or from the dust going into the eyes. Even small amounts of bleach dust can cause irritation. Because the dust is so fine, and looks almost invisible in the air, it may be hard for people to realize they’ve been exposed.
Safety tips
- Use powdered bleach in granule form instead of fine powder.
- Use dust-free powders.
- Use powders in screw top containers instead of bags.
- Use products that are ammonium persulphate-free.
- Make sure there’s enough ventilation in the areas of the salon where powdered bleach products will be prepared and used.
- Wear protective gear like nitrile gloves and aprons.
- Use fragrance free moisturizers on hands and wrists.
- Hair sprays and aerosols
Hair sprays including lacquers and styling mousses are generally not classified as hazardous, but they can still irritate the skin and eyes. This is because some contain alcohol such as isopropyl alcohol or ethanol.
Aerosol hair colours, however, are classified as hazardous. This is because they have ingredients like:
- ammonia
- diamine sulphate
- phenylene diamine.
These ingredients can cause:
- skin and eye irritation
- burns
- organ damage
- cancer.
These aerosols should never be used to dye eyelashes or eyebrows.
Safety tips
- Make sure employees use sprays away from other employees and clients.
- Make sure there’s enough ventilation in the areas of the salon where these products will be used.
- Wear protective glasses.
- Regular use of fragrance free moisturisers on hands and wrists.
- Nail products
Nail procedures which may cause exposure to hazardous substances include:
- acrylics
- dip powders
- airbrushing
- filing
- removals.
Some of these procedures use liquid solvents and lacquers, which may contain:
- ethyl methacrylate
- methyl methacrylate
- acetone
- amyl acetate.
Nail procedures can generate mists, sprays, fumes, vapors and dusts that may be hazardous. Anyone at the salon can be at risk of exposure, not only the nail technician.
Safety tips
- Make sure there’s enough ventilation in the salon.
- Keep nail products at a lower height than the worktable, so it’s not in the breathing zone.
- Close the lids of products that aren’t being used.
- Put used cotton buds and wipes in a bin with a fitted lid.
- Wear protective gear like nitrile gloves, face masks and protective glasses.
- Eyelash extensions
Eyelash extensions are semi-permanent fibres that are glued to natural lashes to make them appear longer, thicker and darker. The glues used in eyelash extensions can contain cyanoacrylate, making it a hazardous substance.
Cyanoacrylate can cause:
- skin sensitisation
- eye irritation,
- skin irritation, including allergic contact dermatitis.
Safety tips
- Use local exhaust ventilation.
- Adopt work procedures that minimizes splashes and spills.
- Clean equipment and work areas regularly.
- Use protective equipment such as nitrile gloves, face masks and protective glasses.
- Use fragrance free moisturisers on hands and wrists.
- Chemical peels
A chemical peel is a treatment used to improve and smooth the texture of the skin. Chemical peels are mostly done on the face, but they can also be performed on the body. They are intended to remove the outermost layers of the skin.
Chemical peels can include trichloroacetic acid (TCA), phenol or glycolic acid at varying concentrations. Exposure to these chemicals can cause adverse health effects such as skin irritation and eye damage.
Safety tips
- Make sure there’s enough ventilation in the salon.
- Use protective equipment such as nitrile gloves and protective glasses.
- Use fragrance free moisturisers on hands and wrists.
Legal duties
You have responsibilities towards everyone at your salon under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHS Act). This includes employees, people who rent a chair in the salon space, clients, and visitors.
Employers
As an employer, you must provide and maintain a workplace that is safe and without risks to health, so far as is reasonably practicable.
You must help your employees do their job safely by giving them necessary:
- information
- instruction
- training
- supervision.
You also have specific duties under the OHS Regulations. These include a duty to eliminate any risks associated with hazardous substances at your salon. If it’s not possible to eliminate a risk, you must reduce it as far as is reasonably practicable.
Self-employed
If you work for yourself and don’t have any employees, you’re considered self-employed. You might:
- have your own salon
- rent a chair or a room in someone else’s salon.
Either way, you have a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that people aren’t exposed to risks arising from your work.
Managers
If you manage or control a salon — regardless of whether you’re the owner — you must ensure that the workplace and the means of entering and leaving it are safe and without risks to health.
Risk management process
A safe workplace needs an organised approach to identifying and controlling hazards and risks. This approach is called the risk management process.
The risk management process is a cycle of 4 steps, with consultation happening at every step.
The risk management process requires a plan — a risk control plan. WorkSafe has a risk control plan template that may help with your planning available on the WorkSafe website at The risk management process.
Employers must consult with their employees about things that directly affect, or are likely to directly affect, employees’ health and safety.
You must consult with employees so far as is reasonably practicable. If the workplace has any health and safety representatives (HSRs), they must be consulted as part of this process.
Any consultation with employees and any HSRs must involve sharing information about their health, safety and welfare. You must give employees a reasonable opportunity to share their views. You must also take employees’ views and suggestions into account when making decisions on how best to eliminate or control risks.
For further information on consultation, see WorkSafe’s consultation guide for employers.
Figure 1: Steps in the risk management process
You should identify all the hazardous substances at your salon. You can do this by looking at a product labels. If a label has a diamond shape with a small symbol inside it, then it's a hazardous substance. These labels are known as the globally harmonized system of classification and labelling of chemicals (GHS).
Figure 2: Labels for low level toxicity, flammable liquids, vapour, solids and gases, fatal or toxic if swallowed, inhaled or in contact with skin.
Another way to identify a hazardous substance is by looking at its safety data sheet (SDS). SDSs give you information about the ingredients in a product and their health risks.
As an employer, it’s your duty to get current SDSs for each hazardous substance or product. You can get these from your supplier. Employees who may be exposed to a hazardous substance or product must be able to easily access current SDSs.
Even if a substance is non-hazardous, it's still a good idea to get an SDS for it. It’s a way to give your employees any information or instruction they need to do their job safely.
You must also create a hazardous substances register which lists all of the products that are used at your workplace. This register must include a list of the product identifiers and an SDS for each product. A product identifier is a specific name or code given to each hazardous substance.
As an employer, it’s your legal duty to eliminate or control any risks associated with hazardous substances at your salon. A risk assessment can help with this.
A risk assessment considers:
- what could happen if someone is exposed to a hazard
- the likelihood of that hazard causing harm
- what level of harm could occur if someone was exposed to that hazard.
If you already have knowledge of the risk and how to control it, you won’t need to do a risk assessment. You can go straight to implementing controls.
You must, so far as is reasonably practicable, eliminate any risk associated with hazardous substances at the salon.
If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate a risk associated with hazardous substances at the salon, then you must reduce the risk so far as is reasonably practicable, by:
- substituting the substance with a substance that is less hazardous, or
- use a less hazardous form of the substance, or
- isolate the source of exposure to the hazardous substance, or
- use engineering controls, or
- a combination of these control measures.
To do this, you must follow the hierarchy of control.
The hierarchy of control
The hierarchy of control is a system for controlling risks in the workplace. The hierarchy of control is a step-by-step approach to eliminating or reducing risks and it ranks risk controls from the highest level of protection and reliability through to the lowest and least reliable protection.
You need to decide on the most suitable risk controls for your salon. You might need to put multiple risk controls in place.
The following steps give an example of how to use the hierarchy of control for controlling the health risks presented by hair dyes.
Administrative controls and personal protective equipment should only be used when there are no other practical higher control measures available. For example, substitution of the hazardous substance, isolating the source of exposure, engineering controls.
- Eliminate hazards and risks
It’s not practical to eliminate hair dyes from the salon, because hairdressers need to offer colouring services. Let’s move down a level. - Reduce the risks through substitution, isolation or engineering controls
Substitute traditional dyes with ones that are PPD-free. - Administrative controls
Limit the amount of time hairdressers spend working with dyes each day. - Personal protective equipment
Make sure hairdressers are wearing personal protective equipment to protect them from harm, including nitrile gloves, aprons and glasses when working with dyes.
You must review and, if necessary, revise any risk controls in place when certain things happen. This is to make sure they work as planned.
This must be done in the following circumstances:
- Before any changes are made to systems of work.
- If a registered medical practitioner informs you that adverse health effects have been identified.
- After a notifiable incident involving hazardous substances.
- If risk controls don’t adequately control the risks.
- After receiving a request from an HSR.
Decanted substances
You must ensure that decanted substances are clearly labelled with the GHS product identifier. A product identifier is a specific name or code given to each hazardous substance. This also applies to substances that are moved to another container.
This is very important because:
- it helps prevent the misuse of substances
- it ensures that the appropriate SDS can be accessed when required
- it ensures substances are easily identifiable in emergencies.
Sometimes it might not be reasonably practicable to do this. For example, the container might be too small for a label. In these cases, you must find another way to identify the substance so that everyone who uses it knows that the product is a hazardous substance.
There are only 2 situations where a decanted substance doesn’t need to be labelled:
- When the contents are used immediately, and the container is cleaned so it’s no longer a health risk.
- When the contents are used immediately, and the remaining contents in the decanted container are neutralised, cured or chemically deactivated so they’re no longer a health risk.