MY NIGHTMARE PEDICURE

Of all the salon treatments available out there the "Pedicure" is my favourite indulgence and I have had lots over the years yet I still struggle to find a really good "pedi".

Through a very bad experience a couple of years ago that left my feet cut to shreds I always now enquire as to whether the pedicurist that will doing my treatment is qualified or not? and I highly recommend that you do the same. 
On this particular occasion I was given a pedicure voucher for my birthday and the salon was beautiful.The pedicures where given outside under a gazebo with a beautiful view of the Indian Ocean....
"sounds heavenly" I can hear you saying...
well it turned out to be

 "My Nightmare Pedicure"

Sometimes what happens in salons, the pedicures are given to non qualified staff to perform and this is what had happened to me...
Well! what can I say they chose the wrong person on that day.
It transpired that the girl was new to the salon and had worked previously at a well know chain of African Spas but had no qualification or diploma.
The poorly managed qualified therapists had offloaded the pedi for her to do.

The comment earlier about my heels being "cut to shreds" was no exaggeration as she used a blade to remove the hard skin . She actually used the blade as you would foot rasp hence the severe damage..I later found out that these blade type tools are not allowed to be used in pedicures. 

I wished someone had told this to the salon!

After many apologies from the salon manager and a refund for the voucher I left only after demanding that the owner contact me once she could be located.

The full extent of the damage done only really became obvious several hours later.

My heels were cut,scrapped & very sore and it really didn't help my suffering that I had to go to Johannesburg the next day to do 3 days of stores visits.

This meant being on my feet the whole time. I could only wear backless shoes and to be honest I was in agony for several days and the full healing took a couple of weeks!

The camera function on my cell phone was put to good use as I took photos of my injuries....the owner did contact me and the photos were sent as evidence.

(thank goodness for technology)

She promptly contacted me again and was horrified with what she had seen and again was very apologetic. For fear of being sued she showered me with a multitude of free treatments, but to be honest there was not a chance that I would ever return.. free treatments or not!

I informed & advised her very politely...ummm...not really politely!  that it is normal practise to verify the qualifications of potential employees and have the therapist perform a few of the treatments for her, so she can experience exactly what the customer would be experiencing.

I did contact:

  The South African Association of Health and Skincare Professionals (SAAHSP) which gives peace of mind to the public by setting the standards for the health, skincare and nail industry to check if they were registered with this organisation but what a surprise they weren't!

http://www.saahsp.co.za

 Happy to say the salon closed shortly after my incident saving many other pedicure lovers from the
 "Nightmare pedicure"