spa day

I have never been a "spa" kind of girl, but today I had a massage and a pedicure. Not many of my clients know that I do pedicures. Well I do. My new space is how shall I say... cozy. I do have room to do pedicures and I have clients the seek me out for that, but most people want the throne chairs. (You know with the water basins and massaging backs.) I have no problem referring people onto another place that is more to their needs, but where? The news stations in town broke stories (we had known about for a couple of years) about the infections caused by improper cleaning of pedicure basins and all of a sudden everyone wanted to know where it was safe to go. I have decided to find out where to get a good, clean, safe, reasonable pedicure in Wichita. So now once a month you will be privileged to hear my adventures in pedicureland.
First things first. Do NOT get a pedicure if you have any open sores on your feet or legs. This includes mosquito bites.
Second. Do NOT shave your legs right before you go. In fact you should have a couple days growth. These women are already scrubbing your feet, some leg hair will not offend them. Even if you do not nick yourself shaving the skin gets roughed up.
Third. Pay attention to your surroundings. There should be lots of hand washing going on. No mani/pedi tools laying about in the open. Clean not cloudy Barbicide (the blue stuff) in jars. If they are finishing up on a pedicure watch what they do to the basin. Did they just rinse it out with a hose? Did they pour something in it to soak?
Most importantly. Try not to just walk in off the street. Go in at least once and get info. See if they have a menu with pricing. Get a card. Ask about busy times. This will give you a chance to look around and see if the place is clean without committing to an actual service.
Waxing alert. If your nail salon has waxing as a service and they are licensed only to do nails this is illegal. They have no training in this except for some other girl showing them how to put it on. There has been a lot of burn complaints going to the state board and they were never supposed be doing this in the first place. Ask the person before they wax you. Are you a licensed cosmetologist? If they say no....run away. If they are doing this service out of their salon illegally they are also doing other things illegally i.e. not cleaning their pedi basins properly.