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Self-regulating scheme will monitor firms and set standards for therapist qualifications, sales systems and service quality

Beauty salons will soon have to decide whether they want to abide by a set of industry standards to guide their businesses after the Consumer Council demanded self-regulation of the trade.

Two beauty industry groups have agreed to draft a code of practice, which will become the guide to the voluntary scheme. The code will set the standard for sales practices, service quality and beauticians' qualifications.

There is currently no law regulating the qualification of beauticians, who use laser and intense pulsed light machines. The Department of Health had in March proposed banning the use of lasers by beauticians.

Consumer Council chief executive Pamela Chan Wong-shui  said the need for a code of practice had come as these services became more popular.

The council received 501 complaints involving the beauty industry last year. Most of them concerned service quality. There have already been 226 complaints in the first half of this year.

'The complaints we received for the beauty industry are not relatively high, but we are aiming for zero complaints,' Mrs Chan said.

One of the main  complaints involved pre-paid services, she said. Many beauty salons urge customers to pay for 10 or more facial, slimming or body treatments at a time to get a  discount.

The council has received many complaints about salons not being able to carry out the services after payment. Some customers  had not been able  to schedule an appointment while others had found the salon closed or moved to another location.

Mrs Chan said the code of practice would set out the ratio of the number of beauticians to the number of prepaid coupons or services the salon could sell.

Consumers welcomed the move yesterday.

Linda Kwan, a 50-year-old housewife, said she had lost her trust in beauty salons after one left her with a minor scar on her face. But she hoped  the new rules would help the industry.

'They often exaggerate and do not carry out [the services]  they say they will. Only 30 to 40 per cent of [what they say] is true. I feel they made me spend a lot of money and I fell  into a trap,' she said.

Businesswoman Irene Poon, who is in her 40s, agreed. She said beauty salons needed to cater to working women who required  their treatments during peak hours.

'I have to keep up my appearance because I have to meet customers,' she said.

The beauty trade groups will form an 11-member taskforce to draft the code of practice. About 50 beauty salon representatives attended a seminar at the council yesterday to discuss the code.

There are about 6,000 beauty salons  with 33,000 employees in Hong Kong. Mrs Chan said it was too early to say how many of them would take part in the scheme.

Details of how consumers would be able to differentiate salons practising the code had also not been drawn up yet.

The beauty industry  will also establish  an arbitrary committee, which will answer consumer complaints.  It will monitor the salons that take part in the scheme.

'The good thing about a self-regulatory system is that we are doing this from a business perspective,' said Nelson Ip Sai-hung,  convenor of the Federation of Beauty Industry.

'We will consider consumer concerns but will also take the bottom line of businesses  into account.'



Practice code looms for beauty salons