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What are contraindications in beauty therapy?
What does contraindication mean? Contraindication is a specific situation in which the treatment should not be carried out due to harm and danger to a person’s health.
- A contraindication is a medical condition that could make it inadvisable for a beauty treatment to be carried out.
- Contraindications are something that may stop or restrict a service from being performed either before or after starting the service.
- This could either be due to conditions that could put your client at risk as well as illnesses that could be contagious and potentially affect you and your place of work.
Why do you have to learn the contraindications of the client?
It’s important to check any client for any contra indications prior to the treatment they are having as a contra indication is a reason that the treatment is not suitable for them and means that you cant carry out that treatment.
Checking for contra indications prior to the treatment can easily prevent any further harm to the client or yourself, and prevent the possibility of a claim being made against you.
Contraindication Example
Check list of the most common Contraindications, Conditions that may prevent, restrict Spa and Beauty Services.
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Fever
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Colds
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FLU
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Cold sores
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Warts
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Impetigo
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Boils
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Conjunctivitis
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Lumps
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Swelling
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Broken bones
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Bruising
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Allergy
The following conditions are contraindications that will not necessarily stop the treatment from taking place but they may mean that the treatment is restricted or may have to be adapted.
A list of more detailed Contraindications conditions, divided by Spa and Beauty services such as massages or manicures, can be found here
There are two types of contraindication
N1
Total (absolute) Contraindication – a treatment cannot be performed
Total contraindications refer to conditions that prevent your clients from receiving Spa and Beauty services therapy due to their illness posing too much of a risk to either yourself or the client.
Beauty and body treatments can hide a minefield of potentially damaging problems to the unsuspecting client, and at the end of the day it’s the Therapist’s responsibility to protect the client by ensuring the treatment booked is suitable for them.
It is in both in the Therapist’s and the client’s best interest to make sure that the medical questionnaire is answered honestly and is kept up-to-date. Be constructive and informative, professional and compassionate. Clients will appreciate your decision. After all, you are the professional and the expert. Explain that its for their own safety.
N2
Relative Contraindication – a treatment cannot be performed on affected area only.
Relative Contraindication– Be cautious and do not perform the treatment over the affected area. This is a localised contraindication.
There are cases when a client is not even aware of his/her condition, and you may be their saviour if you explain correctly what your concern is. I have heard stories from my colleagues when they had detected suspicious moles/marks that the client didn’t know existed, and after going to a doctor, client has been thankful to their therapist for being honest, direct and considerate about those things, whilst preventing from a potentially life-threatening condition.
In Conclusion
To be a therapist usually means working in solitude, taking risks and sometimes making important decisions all by yourself.
Most of the time, there is no-one to ask for a second opinion. How many times have each of us ended up putting on a brave face of a person who knows what to do, whilst “biting our lip” and hoping for the best.
Another scenario is hearing a complex medical condition the client suffers from, that we have never heard of. We often pretend we know what they talking about… Likewise, there are situations when we know that something does not look right when looking at the client’s skin/nails etc. The “yellow light” is shining, but we don’t know what exactly it is and therefore we act on the principle to “keep calm and carry on” with the treatment.
Lets face it, we all have dealt with such cases.
If you are a Therapist who takes pride in what you do – wanting to learn more and keep growing – whilst taking care of your clients’ safety, then the Salon Compass App is for you.
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