Personal Service Establishments

Guidelines

Many personal service procedures have the potential to transmit viral infections such as hepatitis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), as well as bacterial skin infections such as streptococcus and staphylococcus.

Personal service procedures include, but are not limited to, those listed in the table below. The inclusion of any personal service in this table does not imply that the Ministry of Health or health authorities endorse these services as safe or useful.

Examples of Personal Services Carried out by PSEs

Hair, Skin, Nails and Personal Wellness
		Body Modification
Aromatherapy	Manicure	Body piercing
Beauty parlour services	Massage (excluding RMTs*)	Ear piercing
Cosmetic laser services	Microdermal abrasion	Micropigmentation
Face painting	Mud / steam bath	Tattooing
Floatation tanks	Pedicure	Tattoo removal
Electrolysis	Shaving
Esthetics (skin and body therapy)	Tanning (indoor)
Hair/barber services	Teeth whitening (excluding dentist)
Health spa, skin clinic, medical spa	Water therapy**
Makeup	Waxing, lash and brow tinting

*Registered Massage Therapists (RMTs) are regulated under the Medical Practitioners Regulation.
**The Pool Regulation applies to hydrotherapy pools and therapeutic baths.

Guidelines for Personal Service Establishments

The updated Guidelines for Personal Service Establishments (PDF, 939KB) (November 2014) have been developed to help PSE operators prevent health hazards that may endanger or transmit infection to their clients or themselves. For a summary, see this fact sheet: Updated B.C. Guidelines for Personal Service Establishments  (PDF, 63KB)

Note: Operators performing personal services to or on the body of another person within a health authority facility must comply with the provincial  Best Practice Guidelines for Cleaning, Disinfection and Sterilization of Critical and Semi-critical Medical Devices (PDF, 2.1MB).

Guidelines for Personal Services offered at Tradeshows

The new Guidelines for Personal Services offered at Tradeshows (PDF, 311KB) (February 2014) clarify the expectations of personal service operators at tradeshows, and provide guidance on preventing health hazards. For a summary, see this fact sheet: New Guidelines for Personal Services offered at Tradeshows (PDF, 72KB)

Guidelines for Body Modification

The new Guidelines for Body Modification (PDF, 1.0MB) (December 2014) clarify what is expected of PSE operators who offer body modification services, and provide guidance on preventing health hazards. For a summary, see this fact sheet: New Guidelines for Body Modification (PDF, 36KB).

These guidelines include tattooing and piercing, so the older Guidelines for Tattooing and Guidelines for Piercing are no longer needed.

Personal Service Establishments