Visiting a beauty salon may seem a low-risk pursuit but with little regulation of the industry, there are dangers to beware of, warns Suzanne Harrison
AFTER SEEING AN advertisement for a reasonably priced manicure and pedicure at a well-known salon in Central, Margaret decided to sign up.
'The first time I went, it was OK,' she says. 'She was a really nice woman. But I got a funny feeling and remember saying, 'Do you know what you're doing?'. She just said, 'I've been doing this for years and no one's had a problem'. I was halfway through the package, when, during one pedicure, I had a feeling she'd cut my big toenail on an angle. This was a week before I went on a skiing holiday.
'I started feeling it on the plane to Switzerland,' says Margaret (not her real name). 'The nail was growing in and my toe was turning red. It got so painful I went to the doctor and he had to operate. I hobbled around for a few days. My only luck was that he gave me enough morphine to dull the pain so I could go skiing.'
When Margaret returned to Hong Kong, she went to the salon to complain. She made a fuss at the counter and they changed the rest of her nail package for facials. Not long after, she had a manicure at another salon in Central.
'This time, the girl cut my finger. Blood was dripping everywhere. The therapist was very young, and kept shooshing me, so no one could see what was going on. They didn't even give me a discount and I had to pay the full $200.'
