INDUSTRY NEWS
Unqualified, self-taught therapists pose major challenge for industry
NEWS
Image by Valerio Lo Locarno from Pixabay
DIY beauty treatment videos and the mushrooming of home salons run by therapists who have not undergone formal accredited training are some of the biggest challenges facing industry professionals.
This emerged from a recent Professional Beauty Focus Group comprised of established industry stakeholders in the beauty supply and training sectors, who also pointed out that such so-called therapists are undercutting the professional sector with very low treatment prices.
The focus group participants noted that the use of cheap brands purchased by salons or therapists randomly on the internet is another big issue. Such products usually do not come with a proven track record in the professional industry, nor do they offer practical brand product training.
One of the participants in the focus group said that unqualified, self-taught therapists may also pose a potential threat to customers as they likely do not have a sound knowledge of skincare product ingredients and how they work on the skin, or of the structure of the skin.
Another industry stakeholder noted that even aesthetic devices for minimally invasive treatments, such as used in micro-needling, are now available for purchase on the internet, and come only with a manual and no practical training.
The participant continued: “So anyone can buy this device, even if they haven’t done a beauty therapist or somatology course. The use of such a device by an untrained and inexperienced person could potentially damage the client’s skin and possibly lead to infection.”
Educating the public
All the focus group participants agreed that a major problem was how to educate the public about the above issues, given that cashstrapped beauty consumers are invariably seeking the lowest prices for both treatments and products.
It was unanimously suggested that salons and spas should encourage their therapists to use social media to educate the public in this regard.
Regulatory body
In a subsequent Professional Beauty focus group attended by 40 industry professionals (mainly salon owners), the need for a regulatory body to control the high number of unqualified therapists flooding the industry was identified.
Said one of the focus group participants: “Our industry will always have challenges unless we create a licensing structure for therapists and implement proper regulations.”
Another industry professional added: “This issue is really complex as some employers hire unqualified therapists to avoid costs. There is also the serious problem of unemployment in South Africa – some of these unqualified people that we are complaining about are supporting families so we can’t take away their bread and butter.”
Said a focus group participant: “Because there is no regulation in the industry, this makes challenges in the informal sector even greater, as someone who sells shoes one day can open a salon the next day.”
Menna Kleine, newly elected co-vice president of SAAHSP (Professional Body for the Skin, Body & Nail Care Industry), said that it was the aim of SAAHSP to become a statutory body that could regulate the industry.
“However, to do that, we need buy-in from more salon owners and therapists in terms of becoming members of SAAHSP so that we can be fully representative of the industry,” she said. As one focus group participant pointed out, there is a big problem with those suppliers of equipment who supply non-qualified therapists. There was a general consensus that suppliers should only open accounts for customers who they vet to ensure they are properly trained and qualified.