Eye Pro, Inc.

In my October column, I wrote about a longtime salon operator who recently encountered a couple of guests who didn’t like being asked to show the salon staff their eyewear before being able to tan. They felt it was demeaning and they were being treated like babies.

I am not making this up! I was contacted by a tanner in my state – Indiana – who wanted to know if it was the law that he had to prove he had eye protection. I sent him the 14-page Indiana law (with a three-page synopsis) and covered the several sections in Indiana regulations that stress the importance of eyewear. He wrote to me twice more, stating that even though the law states eyewear must be worn during a session, the law didn’t explicitly say he had to show his eyewear to salon staff every time, and he felt that he was being treated like a baby!

I asked several salon operators how they handle this situation with their salon tanners who feel the same way.

“If only two customers are having an issue out of ALL your customers, I would just tell them it’s really simple: This is the rule here and if they don’t like it, they don’t have to come back! My bottom line is that it’s YOUR salon and YOUR rules and you are only trying to protect them. We aren’t asking for anything out of the ordinary: when they tan, they have to wear eye protection and since we can’t be in the room with them to make sure they do it, the next best thing is to at least make sure they have it.”