Going to the nail salon can be a relaxing experience. However, unclean tools shouldn’t cloud your mind. A woman puts those worries to bed by revealing a hack on how to tell if a nail salon cleans its instruments.
The video featured TikTok user Jessica (@jessica_marierdhap) who works as a registered dental hygienist. This time, she revealed a hack that “p*sses off” nail techs. As a self-described germaphobe, she wouldn’t allow any nail tech to “use dirty instruments” on her.
“I’m gonna teach you guys how to call them out, too,” she told her 11,000 followers. “And how to avoid toenail fungus when you go and visit these nail salons.”
Then, the video cut and she unveiled an instrument sealed inside a transparent package. “So, a lot of them think if it’s in this, it looks like they sterilized it. Wrong,” Jessica stated. She said, it wasn’t sterilized because there was a red dot in the upper right-hand corner which means it’s “dirty.”
Next, she revealed a clean instrument that had a black dot in the same spot on the package. “Black means clean. Red, dirty,” she explained. If a nail tech pulled out a package with the red dot, the content creator urged her followers to “run.” Jessica concluded the video by asking her viewers to get the word out.
Jessica reiterated this in the caption, “Do you visit the nail salon?! Do you know if your instruments are clean or not? Let me know in the comments am I the only one who looks at this?”
The Daily Dot reached out to Jessica via TikTok comment and direct message. The video amassed over 834,000 views, leaving viewers confused as to why some nail techs don’t clean their tools.
“I don’t understand why it’s so hard for nail techs to just clean their tools. Like, what’s the big d*mn deal?”
“I don’t understand why they aren’t more regulated,” a second commented.
So how do you know if your salon cleans its instruments? According to Voesh, “Clean, hygienic salons use brand new nail files and buffers on every customer. Safe salons use either an autoclave or dry heat and hospital-grade disinfectant to sterilize their metal tools and kill any harmful bacteria.” In addition, the consequences of unclean tools are dangerous and can cause “athlete’s foot, staph infections, herpes, HIV-1 and Hepatitis B and C.”
In Jessica’s TikTok, others shared their nail salon experiences.
@jessica_marierdhap Do you visit the nail salon?! Do you know if your instruments are clean or not? Let me know in the comments am I the only one who looks at this? #NailSalon #Hygiene #Clean #CleanTok #DentalCare #Instruments #fyp #Tip #Tips #Healthcare #Health #Germ #Germaphobe #Nails #Fake #Real #CleanNails #CleanInstruments ♬ original sound – Jessica_marieRDHAP
“Mine doesn’t even pull it out of a package!” one viewer stated.
“Not me having 6 infections in my ring finger and almost [getting] it amputated from dip powder cause they cross share the powder and nail files,” a second shared.
“I stopped going when I realized that the same fingernail polish bottle/brush that I pick out…goes on about 100 more toes before it gets to mine,” a third recalled.
