Operations of barbers, hairdressers must be regulated

The public is exposed to widespread danger due to the absence of a regulatory mechanism to monitor the operations of barbering and hairdressing saloons.
There is no system that monitors the safety mechanisms employed by barbers and hairdressers, therefore the public is exposed to the risk of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B.

Association of Barbers and Barbering Saloon Owners

The Secretary of the Ghana Association of Barbers and Barbering Saloon Owners, George Kwame Dogbe, admitted that there was no regulatory regime to guide the activities of barbers in the country.

He told the Daily Graphic that many barbers did not know how to sterilise their tools, thereby endangering the safety of the public.

“The misconception about the use of sterilising cabinets is a danger to this job and there should be more education to ensure that the right thing is done”, he said.

He called for the establishment of a regulatory mechanism for the growing cosmetology industry in order to ensure public safety.

Sterilisation cabinets

Enquiries made by the Daily Graphic in some saloons in the Accra Metropolis revealed that many saloon operators did not know how to sterilise their sharp tools such as clippers, needles and combs.

Operators of most of the barbering shops visited assumed that the sterilising machines or cabinets killed the bacteria on these sharp tools. They, therefore, did not disinfect these tools before placing them in the sterilising machines.

This, according to experts, is contrary to the instructions for the use of the sterilising cabinets.

They explained that the function of the sterilising cabinet was to prevent external bacteria from infecting the already sterilised sharp tools. The right procedure for sterilising these tools, according to them, is for these sharp tools to be cleaned with a disinfectant to kill the bacteria before they are placed in the sterilising cabinets.

Mrs Joyce Lamptey, President of the National Association of Beauticians and Hairdressers, bemoaned the absence of regulatory guidelines in the hairdressing and barbering industry and dispeled the notion that the ultraviolet rays in sterilising machines had the capacity to kill bacteria, adding that “the ultraviolet rays only prevent bacteria from infecting already cleaned sharp objects”.

By Franklin Badu Jnr/Daily Graphic/Ghana