Beauty industry to draft guidelines on best practice

Beauty salons will draft guidelines to regain the trust of consumers after "high-risk" treatments that left one woman dead and three ill in hospital.

In two months the city would also see the first indemnity insurance plan for salons, so they can compensate customers if a treatment goes wrong, the Federation of Beauty Industry said.

The plan to set up guidelines on best practice comes as the federation said a one-year government review was too long. It was also unhappy that there were no operators of beauty salons on the panel that will assess the industry.

Nelson Ip Sai-hung, chairman of the Federation of Beauty Industry, said: "I am very disappointed that the government could not provide a prompt guideline or take any action sooner."

An outline of the proposed guidelines will soon be distributed to those in the beauty industry, clearly defining common treatments and high-risk medical therapies. Only doctors or specialists would be able to administer high-risk treatments, Ip said.

A relative of one victim in serious condition, meanwhile, who only gave his name as Mr Leung, appealed to other affected clients to approach him so they could together seek legal action and damages against the DR beauty chain.

"Someone has died," he said. "But after so many days, there has been no assistance [and no contact from DR]. I think this is really irresponsible."