QuestionHi I am getting very upset with myself I had a very nice clien and when she came in to get a blance I notic she had a fungs or I think that it is a fungs its green and a little black I am worried that i am giveing this to other pepole because I notice it on another person I also notice it on anther person so I threw everything out brush,nail adheseve but didnt throw out my monimer is that the reason that it is spreading please help before I lose all my pepole.
sighn fungs
AnswerSounds like Psuedamonas Aeruginosa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudomonas_aeruginosa
It's a pesky little bacteria that exists in 90% of all soil and water, and is generally not a problem. But when it gets a chance to live between a natural nail and nail enhancement, it just loves that dark, moist, warm environment and can grow very fast, feeding off the protein of the natural nail. The bacteria itself isn't what you see when you look at that greenish-blackish stain, the discoloration is a by-product of the organism itself, called "pyocin." (bacteria poop, in the absolute simplest terms, but don't tell your clients that unless they have a REALLY good sense of humor!)
The good news is: when this cootie is living on the natural nail, under a nail enhancement, it's pretty easy to kill. Just take the product off the nail. Douse the infected nail in some thymol or Hydrogen Peroxide (h2o2 will bubble and make everyone feel like it's doing something, which is good for everyone psychologically.) And then let the nail dry out completely. Leave the product off the nail for awhile and when you can see that the stain isn't getting any worse, you should be able to put a nail back on. BUT, that stain won't go away entirely. The Pyocin actually stains the nail plate and it has to grow out. DO NOT let your client soak her nail in bleach-- it doesn't help much and bleach is just horrible for skin! You can buff it off if it's very light and hasn't eaten down into the nail to far, but it's never a good idea to file too much on a natural nail; it's much better to just deal with it for a couple of weeks and let it fade on it's own.
Now. The hard part. There is pretty much no way of figuring out where it came from. Unless all your clients are getting it, then it's a pretty good bet that it's something you are doing or something in the salon.
I live in a largely agricultural area and most of my clients do some sort of gardening at home, and during the summer a lot of my clients go swimming in lakes and rivers. Every year I battle this stuff through the spring and early summer. It does start to get to you and make you feel like you're doing something wrong.
But if a client's nail lifts and she gets dirt or water under it and doesn't do anything to DRY IT OUT, then there's a good chance she's going to start a cootie-colony under there. Try to press upon your clients the importance of making sure their nails aren't lifting and just dabbing them with a little hydrogen peroxide now and then when they've been out in the garden. And using cuticle oil to keep their nails and cuticles hydrated so their skin doesn't dry out and shrink away from the product.
Do you re-use buffers and files? Or do you throw them out after each client? Do you disinfect your buffers and files? How do you disinfect? Do you spray or do you soak everything in disinfectant? When you take your implements out of the disinfectant, how do you dry them? Do they get put into a container while they are still wet at all? Or do you make sure they have a chance to dry THOROUGHLY before you put them away? What disinfectant do you use? Do you mix it properly, according to the directions? (You don't use your Barbicide extra strong, do you?) And how often do you change your disinfectant?
Disinfectant only works so well, so long. If you mix it too weak, it doesn't work. But if you mix it too strong (this makes me crazy) it also doesn't work, AND it can start to corrode your metal implements! If you don't change it often enough it can actually start to grow bacteria in it, and if your implements are stored while they are still wet they can grow bacteria on them EVEN THOUGH they were wet from the disinfectant! AND make sure that you are washing your implements with soap and water and drying them off BEFORE you put them in the disinfectant.
If you disinfect your files and/or buffers, make sure that you use a scrub brush to scrub them down with soap and water before putting them in the disinfectant.
And don't forget your drill bits if you use an efile. Make sure you throw those sanding bands away after each clients-- they shouldn't be costing you more than 7 cents a piece anyway. And make sure you include all your metal drill bits in the disinfection process.
Do you use a table towel? Make sure table towels get changed between each client too. And if you keep a towel on your lap, make sure that gets changed too.
Do you have clients wash their hands with soap and water before you begin services? Do you wash YOUR hands with soap and water before services? These things can help too.
If you use your monomer in a dappen dish then, yeah, go ahead and clean that out and refill it with fresh monomer. And clean out your sculpting brush really well and wash it with shampoo and let it dry completely.
Hopefully it's just a coincidence that more than one person has it at the same time-- maybe they all went to the lake. But keep your work habits as clean and safe as possible so at least you can rest assured that they didn't get it FROM YOU.
Good luck!
