ARE YOUR FEET SAFE?
Pampering focuses on escape: visiting a spa usually helps pain and stress fade into the background. When relaxing at the foot bath, concern for your health and safety may not be the first thing on your mind. Before your feet go in a whirlpool, have you ever considered where the water comes from, or if the technician has taken every precaution to make everything clean and sterile?

Being conscious of the salon’s environment — where your skin has direct contact with various instruments — is vital. In the past few years, infections from pedicures have become a common occurrence. Unsanitary conditions introduce your skin to bacteria. When this happens, sores appear a week after getting a pedicure. They look like a mosquito bite or fissure, can last over four months and cause severe scarring — even with antibiotic therapy.

Podiatrist Carla Emery-Culberson has been in the business for 25 years. After treating patients with these infections, she decided to open 26 Bones Foot Spa. As the medical director and owner of this safe haven, she provides customers with the utmost care, factoring your medical history and current condition into every treatment.

“Many of my patients are afraid to have a pedicure because they’re concerned for their safety,” she says. “It should be relaxing, but you should be able to trust the pedicurist, too. People can go to our salon and not worry — it follows guidelines and protocol.”

When this kind of pedicure infection first appeared in the early 2000s, the cause was identified as rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM). It’s usually found in soil and water, and doesn’t always promise infection. The problem was that these foot baths were not clean. Not only was the water not being properly sterilized, but pipes don’t completely drain after every use.

Pipes play host to an army of ingredients: bacteria, soap film, hair, dead skin, body oil, dirt and feces. Any dark, damp area is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. This is why most new pedicure chairs come with pipeless technology, using half the power of a conventional pipe system. Every time water is released from the tub, it goes directly through a drain instead of circulating through dirty, stagnant water.

“It’s kind of like going to a bathroom with commercial flushing,” Emery-Culberson says. “It goes directly to the sewer line: there are no additional avenues or alleys.”

She says there’s no way of knowing if a pedicure chair is new and up with current technology unless you ask the technician. New chairs are designed to auto-clean. When it empties, there is no cross-contamination in the water. All the chairs at 26 Bones are pipeless.

“Just because you see a whirlpool, that doesn’t mean it’s pipeless,” she says. “Pipeless technology is a trend of the future, but each facility has to invest in it.”

It’s also important for the salon to have everything up to code, with licenses and inspection certificates in plain view. Texas Department of Licensing and Registration (TDLR) have grown stricter the past few years with sanitation violations. Salons in Houston, Beaumont and Dallas have all received hefty fines and punishment for unsafe practices.

“We know that nail salon customers can develop serious infections from dirty, unsanitary conditions in a nail salon,” said William Kuntz, TDLR’s executive director, on their Web site. “Salon customers have a right to know that every safeguard has been taken to protect their health and welfare. We will respond forcefully every time we find a salon that fails to meet basic sanitation guidelines.”

Dirty tools also spread infection. The 26 Bones staff closely follows the TLDR’s sanitation guidelines, requiring salons to clean, disinfect and sometimes dispose of instruments between every customer.

Of course, there are ways for you to be prepared. The first step is walking through the salon doors with healed, healthy skin. This means no freshly shaved legs, sores or cuts. The quickest way for bacteria to spread is through broken skin. Women who shaved or waxed their legs before a pedicure were almost five times as likely to develop a lesion.

Emery-Culberson believes skin shouldn’t be broken during a pedicure either, so 26 Bones doesn’t use scrapers or pumice stones. They only use products designed to smooth, soften, hydrate and exfoliate the skin. Individual facilities have to be willing to purchase spa-quality products instead of taking shortcuts.

“We do no scraping, cutting or filing: everything is done through products,” she says. “We want clients and technicians to realize you don’t have to scrape the foot to have a pedicure. Skin shouldn’t be treated like that; it should be conditioned.”

Sometimes skin or nails aren’t in the right condition to receive a pedicure. Nails should be healthy before entering a salon. This is why before treatment, clients at 26 Bones are asked to complete a medical questionnaire.

“A lot of technicians don’t realize they have to say no to some clients,” she says. “We combine your experience with the knowledge of your medical history. Our nail techs will look at your skin to make sure they know the best service for each individual client.”

Just like using products to soften skin, 26 Bones avoids any gluing or artificial products: their treatments enhance the actual nail. Everyone, including diabetics and clients with arthritis, have pampering options at this salon. Emery-Culberson mentions that runners and athletes don’t typically go the pampering route, but their feet need just as much attention because of constant activity and training demands.

“I like to call it ‘people that ignore their feet but want to take care of them,’” Emery-Culberson says. “We have a variety of treatments that help you feel good and change your skin’s texture: anything to relax the buffer between your foot and the ground.”

SPAS AROUND AUSTIN
26 Bones Foot Spa
1403 W. 47th St.
512.420.8106
www.26bonesfootspa.com

Lake Austin Spa Resort
1705 South Quinlan Park Road
512.372.7300
www.lakeaustin.com

Woodhouse Day Spa
3600 North Capital Of Texas
Suite 180
512.306.1100
www.austin.woodhousespas.com

Central Texas Foot Spa
1600 W 38th St. #300
512.420.8016