Manicuring Industry Needs Polishing, Officials Say

After searching through the worn desks, dog-eared notebooks and snapshots of smiling graduates at Tam’s Beauty College, state investigators reported some startling discoveries.

Teachers often ditched their own classes, the investigators said, and some lessons were taught in English--although most students spoke only Vietnamese.

Pupils skipped classes too and even tampered with a time clock to more quickly accumulate training hours.

Classrooms were infested with roaches, and the stench of mold, mildew and urine hung in the air.

Alarmed at the conditions at Tam’s, tucked in a strip mall on the edge of Little Saigon, state officials last month took the unprecedented action of shutting it down.

Officials stress that the majority of the state’s 179 accredited beauty schools provide solid services and skills that each year help launch successful careers for thousands of students, many of whom receive federal loans and grants. But the extreme conditions at Tam’s provide a troubling view of what officials describe as a worsening problem in California’s estimated $2-billion-a-year manicuring industry.

This year alone, more than 40% of California’s cosmetology students failed their exams, suggesting inadequate training, said Betsy Imholz, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based Consumers Union, which monitors vocational schools.

Cheating on licensing exams has become a persistent statewide problem involving both students and instructors, according to state authorities who license and regulate the industry.

State inspectors say they barely have enough staff to adequately respond to the 2,250 complaints so far this year from beauty-school students, salon patrons who were injured by ill-trained manicurists and others.

These problems often shortchange thousands of predominantly Vietnamese students and unfairly tarnish the image of the nearly 84,000 licensed manicurists statewide and about 40,000 salons and beauty schools, industry watchdogs say.

“The industry has grown immensely. With that, we are seeing bigger problems,” said Susan Harrigan, assistant program administrator for the state’s Barbering and Cosmetology Program. The broader public concern, she said, is about the potential health risks involved as manicurists routinely use sharp instruments to snip cuticles and handle harsh chemicals around customers.

“In this day and age of HIV and hepatitis, anything that can pierce the skin should be as clean as possible,” said Harrigan, who quickly cautioned that there have been no known cases of HIV or hepatitis being transmitted during a manicure.

*

Van Thai Tran, the attorney representing Tam’s and its owners, said criticism of the school has been exaggerated. He said school owners admit there were problems at Tam’s and they were willing to remedy them. But they didn’t have enough time or money to do it by the state’s deadline.

Beauty colleges catering to immigrants emerged about 10 years ago, as a new wave of refugees faced cutbacks in federal aid. Cosmetology-related professions, especially manicuring, were appealing because students could invest as little as $250, some additional money for tools and about three months of training.

Le Nguyen, manager of Little Saigon’s Asian-American International Beauty College, defends the industry as the “stairway leading immigrants out of poverty, out of welfare.”

“Thousands of students are productive, tax-paying citizens today because we were there for them,” said Nguyen, whose students have won international awards for their work.

A former Tam’s student, Canh Lieu, said he is still bitter about his experience. When the school shut down, he lost his $250 tuition and has had to pay for a new cosmetology program at another school. But the Vietnamese immigrant who now lives in Orange is worried that the controversy will forever follow him.

“I’m going to have to work much harder to convince people that I’m playing by the rules,” he said, clenching his jaw. “I feel like there’s a stamp on my forehead because of all these [violations] that I had absolutely no control over.”

*

State officials are also concerned about having more regulatory control over the industry.

In recent months, they have added two inspectors and are scrambling to hire more, partly in response to calls for greater regulation from some of the profession’s trade associations, salon owners and others.

Problems that critics say both the industry and government should address include:

* The need for additional state inspectors. Nine Sacramento-based inspectors are charged with monitoring all the colleges, salons and manicurists in California, a total of more than 124,000 businesses or licensed individuals.

* The flood of new students. Although federal regulations require schools to find jobs for at least 70% of all graduates in short-term training programs, there are still seven beauty school graduates for every job available statewide, according to a 1997 U.S. General Accounting Office report. As a result, many local graduates have to go out of state to earn a living.

* Wide-spread cheating. During the past three years, hundreds of students statewide have been disqualified from taking their licensing exams because of cheating, according to state officials. Investigators said they have found evidence that students paid as much as $1,500 for documents falsely certifying their nonexistent training. A Vietnamese-language exam is now in use after a 1995 incident in which a glut of test-takers were caught cheating with the help of a translator.

* The wisdom of taxpayer subsidies. Since the 1970s, the federal government has provided loans and grants to poor vocational students and others who meet certain criteria. In 1990, $725 million in federal funds were used to subsidize 96,000 cosmetology-school graduates nationwide, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Education inspector general’s report on the subject. The glut of workers raises questions about whether taxpayers should be footing the bill.

* Difficult working conditions. The oversupply of students has created an intensely competitive environment in which manicurists try to drum up business by dropping prices. That’s not a problem unless--as some critics fear--safety and quality controls are compromised in an attempt to cut costs.

*

A dirty work station or an improperly sterilized tool can spread bacteria and diseases, causing infections that can lead to serious injuries, Harrigan said.

A Sacramento woman recently had a finger amputated because of a blood infection caused by unsterile tools and state officials said they have found other cases in which customers were injured.

Records were not available on individual Orange County cases, but Harrigan said such incidents usually include manicurists mishandling equipment or chemicals. Rashes, and nails falling off are just a few of the results.

In most cases, citations are issued and the violators are asked to submit a letter saying they have corrected the problems, sometimes in addition to paying fines between $25 to $1,000. Unless the case involves severe health hazards, inspectors do not have time to do follow-up checks, ensuring that the problems indeed have been remedied, state officials admit.

Although revocations of individual or salon licenses are unusual, authorities have had to take such extreme measures, usually against repeat offenders or in the most atrocious cases. In the fiscal year ending in June of this year, authorities revoked 21 licenses statewide, almost doubling the 13 revocations of the previous year. In the past four months, 11 business and individual licenses already have been revoked.

“Keep in mind, though, that in terms of numbers, it amounts to only a small portion of the industry. . . . But it’s that small percentage that’s giving the wrong impression,” Harrigan said.

Little Saigon, with six schools, is believed to have the highest concentration of beauty colleges in the state and draws students largely from Orange County’s Vietnamese community--the largest outside Vietnam.

While exact figures are not kept, industry experts estimate that Vietnamese immigrants make up 60% to 80% of the manicurists in California and 40% to 60% elsewhere in the nation.

*

Success stories abound of refugees who are making thousands of dollars weekly doing nails, sometimes charging up to $100 for elaborate services in posh surroundings.

But in many of the discount salons that dot area street corners, manicures and pedicures are offered for rock-bottom prices--in some cases $10. At such prices, manicures now are affordable to a wider range of people, including teenagers with weekly allowances.

Critics say an all-out price war has been waged at the expense of customers--and workers.

Many Asian immigrants toil long hours and generally do not earn as much as non-Asians, said Janet Borgens, vice-president of the California Cosmetology Assn. Many also work six days a week without benefits--effectively earning below minimum wage, she said.

“That’s exploitation in my mind,” said Borgens.

Linda Nguyen, 34, of Costa Mesa, for example, said she works 10-hour days, six days a week, and averages about $40 a day in income.

She has relocated nearly a dozen times in the last few years, leaving one salon for another when business became too slow. She has commuted as far as Desert Hot Springs for jobs. And while she’s now working in Lake Forest, competing with at least 15 other salons nearby, Nguyen doesn’t think she’ll last in the business.

“This is definitely not working for me,” Nguyen said. “I used to think that I could someday afford a house. But that’s so out of the question now, it’s unbelievable. I’m thinking that by the end of this year, I’ll try something new, get out of the business.”

Borgens and other critics want greater oversight at trade schools and salons to ensure that students get the proper training, workers are treated fairly and customer safety comes first.

“We’re going to be tightening up and directing more inspectors to the schools,” Harrigan said. “We feel that that’s an area that needs more of our attention.”

Others, including nail salon owners and trade associations, have joined in the battle to raise standards in the nail industry.

For example, Diep Nguyen, a Vietnamese salon owner in Canoga Park who also teaches at trade shows, is on a mission to ensure that lessons are properly translated into Vietnamese.

“School is where you start to learn,” said Nguyen, 31. “If the right things are not taught, you will not absorb them.”

*

The California Cosmetology Assn. is trying to address some of the problems through educational “refresher” courses at professional gatherings.

Cindy Drummey, who publishes a magazine called Nails, said the self-scrutiny will ultimately be good for business.

“I think in the end, following this transition period we’re going through, it will force the industry to get better,” she said.

For many years, Tam’s also was considered a quality school. Although the college will have a chance to open its doors again next year, its classrooms now sit empty.

The school’s owners, Kien Tam Nguyen and Minh Tam Nguyen, denied requests for interviews.

“My main contention is that if you go into any school, you’ll find one violation or another. . . . Tam’s was [the state’s] sacrificial lamb,” said Tran, Tam’s attorney.

Violations have recently been discovered at two other Little Saigon schools, although they were not as egregious, Harrigan said.

“We try our very best to make sure that the people who get these licenses are competent and will not harm the consumers,” Harrigan said. “Unfortunately, we’re running into a lot of people who are looking for ways around it.”

*

Thao Hua can be reached at (714) 564-1038 or by e-mail at thao.hua@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Ensuring a Safe Manicure

State officials say that with only nine Sacramento-based inspectors overseeing about 40,000 beauty salons statewide, they depend on consumers to do their part by promptly reporting suspicious activities. Things to look for:

* Licenses: Insist on seeing the manicurist’s license, check the expiration date and you may even ask to confirm it with a driver’s license or other forms of identification.

Make sure the establishment has a license and a health and safety poster within view of all customers. The poster (20 by 12 inches) offers consumer protection information, as well as a toll-free number to call if there are problems: (800) 952-5210.

* Work Station: Examine the work station. It should be clean, with a fresh towel for every customer. There should be no nail clippings from previous customers scattered about. Disposable tools should not be reused.

* Tools: Pay attention to the tools. They should be stored in a covered container or soaked in disinfectant. The disinfectant should be clear, not cloudy, which could be a sign that it is no longer effective or it is a substitution for a disinfectant.

* Equipment: Nail-drilling equipment should not be used on natural nails.

* Hand Washing: Make sure manicurists wash their hands and ask you to wash your hands before work begins. This helps limit the spread of bacteria.

Sources: California Department of Barbering and Cosmetology, California Cosmetology Assn.