Recently a beauty salon in my hometown found itself at the centre of fraud allegations and was forced to shut down. It emerged that certificates being issued to trainees featured illegal and unauthorised branding and were therefore not accredited. It is alleged that a number of young women paid out hundreds of pounds for training, only to be handed certificates which were, quite literally, not worth the paper they were printed on. This dreadful situation not only robbed young people of an opportunity, forcing them to start over again, it put clients in danger too.
Nobody likes to feel like they’re being bossed around and told what to do. Too many restrictions and regulations can limit the flow of the moment and hinder creativity but a lack of regulations can have truly dire results. The answer is to find a balance which keeps everybody confident, safe, happy and, of course, looking good. Or, as Hilary Clinton put it:
“There is nothing magic about regulations, too much is bad, too little is bad.”
Thankfully the vast majority of companies in the beauty sector care more about their clients than they do about cutting corners. We want to build trust and confidence in our industry. To such ends the Beauty Backed Trust is creating a directory of beauty professionals who can be trusted to deliver a reliable and professional service. At the moment the directory only lists Makeup Artists, Massage Therapists and Nail Artists, but new categories are being launched each month. This will offer a much-needed, self-regulated service which people can trust.
In December 2021, the Beauty Backed Trust launched an inquiry in order to find out more about what the consumer understands about beauty qualifications and what they look for when choosing a salon or therapist to go to. Results showed that 56% of consumers believed the industry was regulated, comparing results to those in 2019 30% believed it was and 25% didn’t know. A startling current perception given it remains almost as unregulated as it was 3 years ago. Consumers also believed their therapists held relevant qualifications (70%) although over 90% would not feel comfortable asking to see their qualifications and 71% stated they didn’t know the difference between a regulated qualification and non-regulated short courses.
The better we act as a sector, the more alienated the bad businesses become. Unscrupulous companies who put profit before people can do us an awful lot of damage. The government is well aware of the dangers they pose to us all, and they will act accordingly. But if we are to maintain the perfect balance between ‘too little’ and ‘too much’ regulation it is up to all of us to do our bit. As the American billionaire Jamie Dimon puts it:
“Good regulation should be conducive to business and to customer protection.”
It is in the best interest of the entire beauty industry and their clients to get the balance right. But we need to work in such a way that too much regulation or too little becomes an obstacle to good practice. This is something we are passionate about at good to glo™. We want to streamline the regulatory, compliance and legal side of the industry so that you can get on with the important work of making people look awesome. We also want to make client compliance as easy as possible so that your business can also be confident in regulatory processes.
And so The Beauty Standards Forum was created alongside Angela Thiagarajah of Nouveau Lashes and Rebecca Crawforth of Navy Professional'The Beauty Standards Forum' was created. The Beauty Standards Forum is a committee group that’s mission is to ‘Improve safety standards within the beauty industry, together’. Run by beauty industry professionals for beauty industry professionals, who meet regularly to discuss regulations and compliance. At the meeting on 17th March 2022 we identified a lack of consumer education as well as huge disparities in the information provided amongst beauty therapists especially when it comes to patch testing and professional accredited qualifications. As an industry we need to self regulate until the government steps in. As a collective, we need to do better. We are just getting started, follow us on instagram @beautystandardsforum and keep your eyes peeled for a website coming really soon.
Download our online compliance tool/app which takes the guesswork out of patch testing. Our software solution to patch testing makes recording and auditing patch test and strand test information as easy as posting a new profile pic.
Still unsure of the chemicals you are using every day in your sector? Our training is written by our in-house scientist, Dr Mike Stephenson PHD (Chemistry) of the University of Cambridge and available to all beauty professionals. Modules include:
Module 1: How to stay compliant and protect the health of your staff and your customers
Module 2: Structure of the Hair & Skin
Module 3: Hazardous Chemicals and Allergic Reactions
Module 4: Safe usage of hair dyes and tint products
Module 5: Safe eye treatments
Module 6: Safe hair treatments