It seems that teenagers (boys and girls) are becoming focused on having their eyebrows the latest “shape”, at a younger and younger age. There are numerous options for them, to include plucking, threading and waxing. There are “risks” with any beauty treatment and the basics apply of ensuring teenagers go to a reputable beauty salon and the beautician has all appropriate qualifications. A properly qualified beauty therapist should be asking for parental consent if the child is below the age of 16. A lot of beauty therapists have Professional Bodies, who leave it down to the therapists own discretion as to the minimum waxing age, and really what they feel comfortable with.
Insurers are, however, likely to stipulate that any child under the age of 16 must either be accompanied by a parent or have a clear and genuine parental consent. Of course, the difficulty in seeing a child with a parental consent is that most teenagers would have no difficulty in producing professional looking ID, let alone forging a parental consent.
It is important that anyone having a wax treatment has a “patch test” first, to ensure that they have no sensitivity to the wax. This particularly applies to teenagers, who may well have very sensitive, adolescent skin.
Jefferies has recently acted for a young teenager, who had her eyebrows waxed for the first time at a local beauty salon. She had no patch test and the wax was applied liberally across the eyebrow and the lower forehead area. This teenager suffered an extreme reaction. As the wax was removed, so was the first layer of skin, leaving behind extensive raw patches of skin, which were extremely obvious and, clearly, very painful. This teenager was not only in pain, but embarrassed and mortified and, potentially, has been left with permanent scarring.
We are seeing increasing numbers of claims against beauty therapists, whether it be through lack of patch testing, for a waxing treatment or an eyelash tint, through to fairly serious burns from laser hair removal. Teenagers are easily swayed by an offer of cheap, quick and available treatments, but please try to make it clear if treatment is not carried out properly and safely, then there is the prospect, ultimately, of long term damage. If you think you have suffered physical harm through a negligently performed beauty treatment, then please contact Sarah Mitchell or Ben Ho on 01702 443472, and we can discuss with you the possibility of pursuing a compensation claim.