Maintaining the cleanliness of your lash extension tools should be just as important as maintaining the cleanliness of your workspace not only during this epidemic but AS ALWAYS - as everything needs to be sterilized and disinfected.
First off - How do you clean your lash tools? What is the best method for sanitizing lash tools? Proper cleanliness is important in a day-to-day, come-and-go setup of a lash extension field of business. A healthy setting is one that is thoroughly neat. Lash artists must maintain a spotless working environment, disinfect materials, and ensure that everything is organized and super prepared to work with.
To avoid the spread of germs or icky-eye infections as a lash artist, it is critical to keep your hands and workstation sanitized at all times, as well as all your lash equipment fully decontaminated. As a lash artist, you must prioritize the following to guarantee that everything is gleamingly sanitary.
Here are the basic easy-peasy decontamination techniques:
To be readily equipped with the basics of how to properly maintain these tools in good shape, let’s first understand what cleaning, sanitizing, disinfection, and sterilization are before getting into the process of sanitation of your lash extension tools/equipment.
- Sterilizing: To stop the spread of bacteria, sterilization uses heat to eliminate it. Most lash salons use glass bead sterilization for lash tweezers. It helps kill bacteria from the hard surfaces on every tool.
- Disinfecting: This method is used to lash salon lower bacteria to a safe level using products that contain germicides or Barbicide.
After every lash client, tools and other equipment used should be disinfected before using it on the next client.
- Sanitizing: In order to lower the number of bacteria to safe limits, sanitizing using products with alcohol helps get rid of or lessen microorganisms.
Sanitize the bed area, tools, kits, and other areas that lash clients might have contact with. And also, sanitizing thoroughly after the end of the shift is important to prepare the work area and tools for the next working day.
- Cleaning: It is the process of removing undesirable elements from a space or thing, such as dust, pathogens, and other contaminants. Make use of soap and warm water. These will remove bacteria from a surface particle of an area, tools, or equipment.
Maintain a consistently clean workspace by regularly mopping, vacuuming, dusting, and wiping down surfaces like your floor and bed area.
Eyelash Extension Salon Sanitation
If cleaning and sanitation are ignored, tools in your lash station including tweezers, lash washing brushes, lash wands, and your hands can be the cause of spreading eye infections among your lash clients.
Therefore, one of your key objectives should make sure that your lash room and eyelash extension kits are 100% sanitized thoroughly neat and sufficiently well maintained.
Proper Sanitation of Lash Extension Tools
Keep in mind that not all of the equipment and supplies you used for lash extensions application should be kept after using; some should be thrown after a single use. Tapes, single-use mascara wands, glue wipes, cotton pads, and adhesive rings are examples of tools and supplies for lash extensions that should be disposed of right away after using to a single client.
How to sanitize lash extension tweezers?
As the primary tools in lash application, lash tweezers must be cleaned always. Imagine what would happen if there were still adhesives on the tip of tweezers - Yaks! Yikes! One of the most crucial things for a lash artist to stay on top of is hygiene because it can cause possible harm to your client if not practiced properly.
First step: Pre-treatment
Grab some water and antibacterial soap, then begin to rub gently. Clear out the entire visible buildup of dirt and adhesives in your lash tweezers. Check between the tips to see every possible sticking adhesive.
Second step: Rinse
Use lukewarm running water to rinse the lash extension tweezers. To dry, get a fresh towel and gently tap the tweezers.
Third Step: Cleanup
Get your go-to cleaning solution, then soak your tweezers in it. Use a little container that can hold your tweezer completely flat and submerged in the solution.
Note: Don’t use water when cleaning your adhesives bottles - Do you know that many people assume that a glue bottle is a typical plastic bottle? Even so, the "breathable" material (PE combined with laminated nylon) aids in the stability of the glue in your glue bottle (in a completely "closed" container).
As we all know, when lash extension adhesive comes into contact with moisture, it reacts and begins to dry itself. Because of this, it is not advisable to clean the glue bottle with water or any other liquid.
Fourth Step: Dry
To prevent recontamination, remove the tools and supplies for lash extensions from the container using clean tongs or gloves. Use water to rinse. You may need to rinse off certain disinfectant solutions before allowing them to dry. Grab a clean towel, then dry.
Your lash extension tools and materials can also be air-dried in clean towels.
Image of lash tweezers dried in a towel
Fifth step: Store
The most crucial step is storage. Your lash equipment and supplies should be placed inside a drawer or container that has been cleaned and sanitized.
You can use disinfectant wipes to clean the storage container for lash adhesives and tweezers, and then let it air dry before storing tools.
How to properly maintain them: Non-disposable tools vs. Disposable tools
One most useful tool in lashing is lash tweezers, which are non-disposable tools. It directly touches lash clients' sensitive parts of the eyes, which means these tools should be properly clean and maintained. You can clean these tools with soap and water to get rid of any leftover lash adhesive or other dirt. Be sure to then disinfect them with Barbicide.
Between sessions, you can clean your workspace, including the massage table or chair that your client is lying on, using disposable disinfection wipes. Additionally, you have the option of using disposable "bed sheets" for massage tables, which greatly simplify and speed up cleaning after each client.
There are other things you use in a lash extension application and the majority of the materials ought to be disposable, including eye pads, glue rings, micro brushes, micro swabs, eyelash tapes, etc. Throughout the procedure, these items are usually most used and should be thrown away after using to each client.
Good Hygiene Practice for Lash Artist
Wash your hands
Make sure to wash your hands with antibacterial soap and warm water both before and after doing the lash extensions application in every client. If you touch something while wearing the gloves, you can also do this between sessions. Make sure you store your gloves securely and away from toxins. Infections can harm your reputation and career.
Personal Cleanliness
When you approach your clients, make sure your breath is fresh. You are positioned so close to the client when giving them eyelashes that they can smell you. You must keep in mind that it is part of lash extension sanitation practices that each lash artist should be personally clean when dealing with lash clients. After all, the client will surely come back when she sees that everything in the lash salon including you is clean.
Tie Your Hair
As a lash artist, tying your hair is a part of good hygiene practice. No lash client wants to sniff on your hair when getting lash extensions. Make sure your hair is tied back so it doesn't fall onto the client's face or body.
Sterilization Equipment
Tweezers and other equipment for lash extensions can be easily sterilized using glass beads. These are really quick and use little energy throughout the day. It works great with scissors as well! Maintaining and practicing sterilization is a game changer for a lash salon.
Disinfectants
Part of the practice as well as check your cleaning materials before using them. You must always use the disinfectants that are advisable to use in a tool. Do not forget to adhere to the instructions for creating the disinfectant medium. Once it is expired, you should throw it, and it is not advisable to use it after expiry. Using expired disinfectants might cause damage like rust to your tools, which is not good for you.
Sterilize mascara wand
When you choose to reuse a mascara wand, always clean it before using it for other clients. But better if you can also give the mascara wand to the lash client you used on them as a gift they can use to adjust the lashes later.
Disposables
As you work, keep your salon and station clean by using disposables such as eye pads, gowns, gloves, arm sleeves made of polyurethane, bed sheet coverings, and towels. After usage, you can properly dispose of them in the proper disposal area.
Checklist for Daily Lash Salon Sanitation
Cleaning your workspace and tools is an essential part of your daily responsibilities as lash artists. Just take 10 to 15 minutes between each application of eyelash extensions so that you can do basic cleaning and sanitizing procedures.
- Any reusable tools should be thrown right away
- Rinse the equipment/tools in clean water.
- To clean reusable instruments, use warm water and soap.
- To get rid of any residues, rinse the tools with fresh/ clean water.
- ·Use a disinfectant. Do not forget to correctly follow the disinfectant's instructions.
- Air dry them.
- The tools should be kept in a tight container or covered with a fresh cloth.
A must-have for lash technicians are not only the skills they have but also a clean and safe environment for their lash clients. As the saying goes, first impressions last. When a client enters the salon, being able to see that everything is clean and neat gives her the opportunity to trust you and your service.
Also, lash technicians need to place a lot of importance on good hygienic habits as well. The fact that you will be working so closely with the eyes, which are renowned for being sensitive, must be kept in mind. Your client's eyes are likely to become inflamed and irritated if you use unclean lash extension supplies and tools.
Poor cleaning procedures for applying eyelash extensions can spread the infection and irritation among your lash clients. This could make a bad impression and maybe a hindrance to your growth that potentially damages your lash salon reputation.