TORONTO - With sandal season in mind, Sandra D'Alesio hurried out to beautify her feet between nursings of her six-month-old son, Anthony. But the moment she stepped into a scalding foot bath in a makeshift Hamilton salon, her experience - and her feet - turned ugly.
"I knew right away I was in the wrong place," she recalls. "I should have just turned away... But when you have a baby... you just want to get it done."
A teen girl whisked D'Alesio into a small kitchen that doubled as a nail salon. The girl sat her down at the lone pedicure station, then removed a tool that looked like a sander from a used nail kit.
What followed more closely resembled a torture scenario than a pampering session. The girl buffed D'Alesio's nails until she squirmed in the chair. Next, the girl used a razor-sharp device to scrape dead skin from the soles of her feet.
"It was literally the size of my two hands put together. It looked like a cheese grater and she grabbed my foot and she started grating it and grating it to the point where it was raw."
"I kept thinking that now that my feet are raw, and now that the sander has been used, I'm sure that they have opened up some skin. I wasn't outright bleeding at first, but it was gross."
Her skin peeled for weeks after; she had no cuticles left.
But it cost her only $20.
A plethora of cheap, chop-and-go nail shops have opened in strip malls and on main streets in cities across Canada since the trend took off in the 1990s.
The fast food restaurants of the spa industry -- no appointments necessary -- these salons skimp on luxury for the sake of cost and efficiency.
But industry experts, from foot doctors to cosmetologists, caution that some salons might skimp on a lot more than luxury, which can lead to health hazards.
They're called "ice cream pedicures," says Linda Bond, executive director of the International Pedicure Association. "You know, buff-and-fluff, (in which they) use that little old blade there and throw on some cream and slap on a new colour."
Service standards and advanced education are reflected in the cost and people should expect to pay more for higher hygiene standards, Bond says. "Their profit is in the numbers... look how many they do in a day, they use their files over and over again."
"If they're whipping you through and they're not taking 10 minutes between each whirlpool jet bath (to sanitize) then you can bet your booty that's what they're saving on."
Those soothing foot spas can contain more than just bubbles; they might be breeding grounds for bacteria and fungus, which can spread infections that could lead to more serious conditions like a staph infection, blood poisoning, hepatitis or tuberculosis.
The pitfalls of bad pedicures have made headlines in recent years, including Paula Abdul's 2004 hospitalization after a fungal fingernail infection, the 2006 death of a Texas pedicure patron after her foot was cut with a pumice stone, and over 100 Californians who contracted infections from contaminated foot baths at a salon in 2002 and 2003.
In most Canadian provinces, nail salons are not regulated, meaning lax training and hygiene standards often go unnoticed unless someone develops an infection, which may not be discovered until long after pedicure polish has chipped away.
A 2001 study published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health surveyed 120 salons in Toronto and concluded that infection control protocols need to be established for nail salons because of the potential for the transmission of infectious diseases.
The study found that technicians re-used almost all instruments, even when this was not the intent of the manufacturer. Isopropyl alcohol - not the more thorough autoclave device - was the most commonly used disinfectant. Many technicians did not wear gloves while performing procedures and most did not follow universal precautions when asked how they would react to cuts on either the client or themselves.
Jennifer Ponzi teaches a 16-week, 120-hour course, at the Toronto Academy of Nail Design. Six hours are dedicated to hygiene practice. At the end of the course, students receive a diploma.
Many community colleges, like Fleming College in Cobourg, Ont., offer nail technician training courses that include bacteriology and decontamination. But in most provinces, a course is not required, which means just about anyone can open a salon and deem herself a nail professional.
Lax regulations lead to lax hygiene, Ponzi says. But not only at low end salons, which she calls non-standard salons. "I've seen some pretty horrifying things at some high-end salons."
"You can't just point your finger at the non-standard salons and say they're not following the rules. Some high-and medium-end salons don't follow the rules either."
She says too often customers assume that because a salon looks clean, it is. But salons need to show customers that they are hygienic.
She's never heard a customer ask to see them sterilize or disinfect the tools or equipment.
In her 15 years in the business, Ponzi says she's never seen a health official stop by for an inspection, either.
Robert Chelin, president of the Federation of International Podiatrists, says he's treated many patients with infections resulting from botched pedicures.
"It could be fatal, there's always the chance," says Chelin, who practises in the Toronto area. "A fungus infection, certainly you're not going to die of in your nail, but a bacterial infection - yeah, you could get blood poisoning... it can travel in your system, it can take you down fast."
Chelin had just conducted a minor surgical procedure on a patient after a pedicure, during which an improper cutting technique on an ingrown nail led to an infection. "They just kind of clipped and tried to rip it out and he said he was bleeding, he started to hemorrhage."
In the absence of governmental standards, the IPA bestows a certified master pedicurist designation on nail technicians who learn infection control and are trained to recognize potential harmful conditions.
Experts like Chelin are looking to government regulation to enforce three standards in the industry that are required in other health professions - training, sterilization and proper instrumentation.
"What's the difference between a dental cleaning and a service that might involve breaking of the skin or drawing of blood?"
Chelin says more questions need to be asked by both the patron and the pedicurist. But most salons don't screen clients about underlying medical conditions, he says.
"I'm not saying don't go to those (inexpensive) places... But it's important that the clients ask the right questions."
Patrons should ask the employees to sterilize the nail kit, or put together their own kit and bring their own polish. At the very least, he says, people should bring their own base coat. And it's important not to shave for a few days before a pedicure because it opens your hair follicles to infection.
"I know people are conscious of money," Chelin says. "And the $25 pedicure job is very appealing, but sometimes in life you get what you pay for."
