Can You File a Lawsuit Against a Nail Salon or Beauty Salon?

If you were burned, scarred, infected, or otherwise injured at a beauty or nail salon, you may be entitled to compensation. Here’s how to file an injury claim.

Every month, more than 100 million Americans visit day spas and beauty salons for hair styling and color services, manicures, pedicures, facials, and more.¹

While regulations vary from state to state, every nail and beauty salon must have a valid business license, every cosmetologist must be certified, and the salon owner is required to take reasonable steps to avoid harm to customers.

Reputable beauty salons carry liability insurance to protect the owner from expensive injury claims.

If you’ve been injured through the negligence of a nail and beauty salon, you have the right to expect full compensation for your medical expenses and emotional distress.

When Is the Beauty Salon Responsible?

Every beauty salon has a duty of care, meaning it must take reasonable steps to protect clients and guests from harm. If a salon negligently breaches its duty of care and causes harm, the salon is liable, meaning responsible, for the resulting damages.

A bad haircut or uneven spray tan may be unsatisfactory service, but these aren’t reasons to file a personal injury claim or lawsuit. Most of the time, a dissatisfied customer can speak to the salon owner for a full refund or account credit.

Customers who suffer verified injuries due to the negligence of the salon owner or staff are eligible to seek compensation from the salon’s insurance company.

Whether you are filing a premises liability claim after a slip and fall, or a claim for injury related to a salon service, you’ll have to prove the salon was responsible for your injury.

Building a Strong Injury Claim

The beauty salon’s insurance company won’t be in a hurry to compensate you for your injuries. You have the legal burden of proof to support your claim, meaning it’s up to you to prove the salon is to blame for your injuries.

You’ll need good evidence to build a strong claim.

To prove you have a valid claim, you’ll have to show:

  1. The salon owner should have foreseen the potential for harm
  2. The provider did something wrong or failed to do what a competent nail technician or esthetician would do
  3. Their negligence was the direct and proximate cause of your injuries
  4. You suffered verifiable injuries and other losses that justify compensation

Liability for Faulty Products or Equipment

Beauty salons treat clients with lotions, waxes, cosmetics, dyes, and many other preparations that are applied to the hair, skin, or nails. Salons also rely on a variety of tools and equipment, like curling irons, tanning beds, UV-light nail dryers, mechanical treatment chairs and beds, pore extractors, and more.

Defective beauty products or equipment can cause severe injuries to helpless clients. If you’ve been injured by a beauty preparation or faulty equipment, you can seek financial compensation from the manufacturer of the harmful product or device.

There are three categories of liability for defective products or equipment:

  1. Defective Manufacturing: Salon customers can be injured by errors made when a product or tool was manufactured and packaged. For example, a batch of face cream with an unknown harmful chemical mixed in.
  2. Defective Design: Dangerous design problems will affect the entire line of that product, like a line of tanning beds with inaccurate timers.
  3. Defective Instructions or Warnings: Injuries can occur when a product or device doesn’t give clear instructions or warnings about potential harm or side effects, like an exfoliating face cream that fails to clearly warn that use on irritated or acne-prone skin may result in permanent scarring.

Big manufacturing companies have an army of lawyers to defend them. Talk to an experienced personal injury attorney about a potential product liability case.

Evidence Can Make or Break Your Claim

Establishing your claim and gathering good evidence starts at the beauty salon. You must have evidence of fault for your claim to succeed.

Speak with the Salon Owner or Manager

Let the owner know if you were nicked, cut, burned, or suffered any other type of injury at the hands of a salon technician. Don’t be embarrassed to bring problems to the owner’s attention. Most salon owners or managers want to know if you’ve had a bad experience.

Sometimes, symptoms of injuries develop over hours or days. That burning scalp may become a mass of bleeding sores, or that spot near your toenail can become hot, swollen, and painful.

After you’ve seen a doctor, call the salon owner to report the problem and ask for the salon’s insurance company’s contact information.

Seek Prompt Medical Attention

Never refuse or delay treatment. If you’re experiencing heavy bleeding, suffering a severe allergic reaction, having shortness of breath, or any other rapidly developing symptoms, ask someone to call 911. If paramedics want to take you to the hospital, go with them.

If you’ve already left the salon, have a medical evaluation as soon as you begin to see signs of infections or other problems. Be sure to tell your medical providers where, when, and how you were injured.

Identify Witnesses

Witness testimony is strong evidence you can use to support your salon insurance claim. Independent eyewitnesses have no financial or personal interest in the outcome of your claim, and insurance company claims adjusters take them more seriously.

Maybe an eyewitness saw the nail tech use the same instrument on you that was just used on the previous customer. Or a witness may have overheard a technician admit overheating the wax that burned you.

Get the names and contact information of potential witnesses. If the person is willing to write down what they saw and heard, ask them to sign and date their written statement.

Take Photographs and Video

If you suffered a sudden injury, use your cell phone to take pictures of your injury and the surrounding area. If you slipped and fell on soapy water, photograph or video the place where you fell and the water. If your phone has an audio function, record what the technician has to say.

Take Detailed Notes

Even if you have a video recording, be sure to write down everything you recall about the circumstances leading to your injury and statements or comments made by the salon workers.

You can use anything the technician says as an admission against interest to support your claim. That could be an apology, an excuse for the mistake, or an outright admission they caused your injury.

Try to gather critical information like the salon worker’s name, how long they’ve worked at that salon, and how much training they’ve had.

Document Your Economic Losses

You need copies of medical records for all treatments you’ve had for your injury.

Make copies of your medical bills, receipts for out-of-pocket expenses, and if you miss work, get a letter from your employer verifying your lost wages.

Dealing with the Insurance Company

If the salon owner hasn’t put you in touch with their insurance company, you can send a written notice of your intent to seek compensation for your injuries.

After contacting the insurance company, you can expect to hear from a claims adjuster within a week or two.

By the time you first speak with the adjuster, they will have already spoken with the beauty salon owner to get their version of the incident. If the adjuster decided the salon wasn’t negligent, your claim might be flatly denied.

Most likely, the adjuster will ask for your side of the story and may ask permission to record your conversation. You’re not obligated to give a recorded statement. You have the right to consult a personal injury attorney before agreeing to a recorded statement.

If you’re comfortable telling your side of the story, you can agree to the interview. Keep in mind the adjuster is trained to get you to say things that can be used against you. Stick to the facts, don’t give opinions or volunteer information that suggests you share responsibility for your injury.

Don’t discuss a settlement until you’ve recovered from your injuries. However, be aware of your state’s statute of limitations for injury claims.

Handling Your Own Injury Settlement

If you’ve fully recovered from minor injuries, you should be able to negotiate a fair insurance settlement without an attorney.

Calculate a fair settlement amount by totaling your medical expenses, out-of-pocket costs, and lost wages. Add one or two times that amount to compensate for your pain and suffering.

Submit your compensation demand in writing, enclosing copies of your medical records and bills, photographs, and other evidence.

When You Need A Personal Injury Lawyer

If you’ve suffered a serious injury from negligence at a beauty salon, you’ll need an attorney to get the compensation you deserve. Insurance companies avoid paying high-dollar injury claims. Adjusters won’t offer as much money to seriously injured claimants who don’t have an attorney.

Don’t settle for less than you deserve. Most law firms offer free consultations to injury victims. There’s no obligation, and it costs nothing to find out what a personal injury attorney can do for you.

Common Beauty Salon Accidents and Injuries

Every customer injury is unique. However, injuries at beauty salons generally involve these situations:

Slip and falls: The most common reason for injuries at any business are conditions that lead to customer slip, trip and falls. Wet floors, electrical cords, bags and purses left on floors, and spa chairs and tables that are too high are a few examples of conditions that can cause customers to stumble, trip, or fall.

Insufficient or improper training: Cosmetologists and estheticians must be properly trained and certified to perform every service they offer safely. Types of services include haircuts, hair coloring, manicures, pedicures, waxing, facials, massages, and more.

Failure to conduct pretreatment skin patch tests: Chemicals applied to customer skin or hair should be tested on a small area first to check for a reaction before proceeding with treatment. Common chemical treatments include hair colors, relaxers, straighteners, tanning solutions, skin peel treatments, and more.

Misused chemicals: Chemicals can cause harm if used past the expiration date, when left exposed to the air, reused, or when improperly mixed with other chemicals.

Failure to follow treatment procedures: Client injuries often result from failing to follow product guidelines and safety procedures.

Strict application procedures guide almost every service in a beauty salon, whether it’s the amount of time a hair dye is left on, the temperature of the wax, electric appliances, or the use of sharp nail care tools.

Unsanitary tools and surfaces:  Using unsanitary instruments can lead to serious bacterial and fungal infections. Improperly sanitized tools, foot basins, and treatment beds can spread serious infectious diseases, including MRSA, that can become life-threatening.

Faulty equipment: Hair dryers, curling irons, tanning beds, movable chairs, and wax warmers are just some of the equipment used in beauty salons than can malfunction, causing electrical shocks or burns.

Common Types of Beauty Salon Injuries

Slip and fall accidents can happen at any business, resulting in broken bones, concussions, and other impact injuries.

Other injuries can arise from beauty salon services, such as:

  • Thermal burns
  • Chemical burns
  • Bleeding wounds
  • Allergic reactions
  • Staph infections
  • Diseases such as hepatitis and HIV
  • Neck injuries

Some beauty-service injuries and bacterial infections may be serious enough to lead to amputations or permanent disfigurement.

Beauty Salon Injury Questions & Answers