The Lorient court sentenced five beauticians for “illegal practice of medicine”. They performed pulsed light hair removal, a method reserved for doctors.
Wax and pliers – that’s it. To depilate their clients, beauticians must stick to these two methods exclusively, as defined by a decree of 1962. By its decision, the court of Lorient has just recalled the border between aesthetic practice and medical act.
Confiscated material
Five Breton beauticians were sentenced for “illegal practice of medicine”. Their fault: having performed hair removal by “intense pulsed light” (IPL). This almost permanent hair removal technique, also called “flash lamp”, aims to burn the pigment of the hair. Many beauticians’ offices offer it on the territory… completely illegally.
Indeed, despite repeated requests from beauticians, this practice remains the prerogative of dermatologists. It is considered a “medical act” in its own right. As such, five doctors specializing in aesthetics established in Quimper, Pornic and Brive as well as the trade union federation of aesthetic medicine, based in Rennes, have lodged a complaint against the beauticians. They won their case.
The defendants will have to pay one euro to each of the six plaintiffs for the damage suffered. And above all, they will have their equipment confiscated, amounting to nearly 40,000 euros “in kind or in value”. The deputy prosecutor had requested a 5,000 euros suspended fine, as well as the confiscation of the material, during the hearing on October 6.
30,000 beauty institutes practice it
According to the plaintiff’s lawyer, recourse to this method by “pulsed light” cannot “do without a prior medical diagnosis of the skin”. Dermatologists can issue a contraindication in the event of melanoma, tattooing or strong pigmentation, in order to avoid “any risk of burns”.
The lawyer for beauticians, for his part, affirmed that the technique “presented no danger to human health” and recalled that the training followed by his clients had been the subject of a certificate issued by a doctor. In addition, he underlined “that 30,000 beauty institutes in France use this process”. According to the complainants, other similar proceedings are underway in Nantes and Quimper.
The war of the hair
This trial is sure to revive the war between dermatologists and beauticians. The latter denounce the stranglehold of health professionals on the lucrative hair market, even as they follow training in dermatology and new hair removal technologies. As the story goes daily 20minutes, some dermatologists themselves admit that “doing hair removal is stupid” … But for other practitioners, pulsed light and other laser rays are not trivial techniques, and fall within the medical field.
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