Botched hair treatments lead to calls for regulation

Marica Gauci has often come across clients with missing patches of hair as a result of botched straightening treatments.

The experienced hairdresser has dealt with people who have suffered blistering and scalp burns because of a bad bleach job.

One client even asked for help after a barber posing as a hairdresser caused irreversible damage to her hair.

But there was little Gauci could do because there is no regulation of hairdressers and beauty therapists handling potentially dangerous chemicals and machinery.

“At the moment anyone can open a salon or work as a therapist or hairdresser – with or without qualifications. But if you don’t know what you’re doing you can do serious harm to someone,” she said.

Gauci is president of the Hair and Beauty Federation, which is now campaigning for the authorities to regulate the trade.

Registration of adequately qualified aestheticians, hairdressers, nail technicians and others involved in beauty, would ensure clientele are in safe hands, she explained.

According to Maltese law, hairdressers, and therapists in the beauty industry are still considered a ‘craft’ even though their work has evolved and can impact their client’s physical health...