If you like to invite illness, go shave your face and clean your ears

The process of “cleaning” in barbershops is not clean at all. The Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City tested samples of ear swabs and combs from a barbershop and found several types of fungi that can cause skin infections, ulcers, conjunctivitis, and even lung infections.

At CK barbershop on Nguyen Hien Le Street, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, the barber brushed a customer’s hair with a comb that had two broken teeth. After cutting and trimming, he took a hair-covered towel that was stained and draped it over the customer’s head and neck, then used an old brush to clean the fine hairs from the customer’s ears.

When it came to shaving the face, the barber broke a brand new razor blade in half and inserted it into the shaving razor “to ensure the customer feels completely safe and is not worried about HIV transmission.” However, immediately after, he picked up a powder puff with a handle that was grimy, and the puff and powder box were full of fine hairs from multiple people before applying it to the customer’s face. Thus, aside from the razor blade, the scissors, clippers, brushes, towels, and powder puffs were shared among dozens of customers daily without being sterilized or disinfected. After shaving, the barber poured a blue liquid onto his hands and rubbed it on the customer’s forehead, claiming it was Camelia disinfectant.

The disinfectant and face powder used in these barbershops only served to reassure customers. At Tan Binh Market, many solutions of this type are available in various colors and scents, without labels or production information. All are stored in plastic containers, priced at 8,000 VND per bottle. The face powder is shockingly cheap: 1,600 VND for a pack of “special” type.

Heating cotton swabs over a flame to… disinfect

The ear cleaning kit at CK barbershop includes several tools, primarily an ear razor, a long stick with a tiny spoon at the end (also known as a curette) used to scrape earwax, tweezers, and a long stick with a cotton ball on the end. The entire kit is stuffed into a dusty tube made from an old 333 beer can. The ear area is very sensitive and easily injured, but the ear razor is never replaced.

The barber twirled the ear razor in the customer’s ear a few times, used the curette to scrape, and then used the tweezers to remove earwax of various colors: black, yellow, and white. For each piece he extracted, he diligently wiped it on the customer’s forearm. The customer simply brushed it away with their hand, disregarding where it went. Finally, the barber took a round cotton ball… heated it over a flame for a few seconds and then swabbed it in the customer’s ear, claiming it was to kill germs under the hot flame.

From roadside barber stalls to air-conditioned barbershops, facial shaving and ear cleaning are common practices. For children, whose delicate skin is much more prone to cuts than adults, the risk of disease transmission from unsanitary tools is significantly higher.

Transmission through… barbers

Many people think they don’t need to worry about dirt at barbershops because “who doesn’t shower right after getting a haircut?” This lax attitude contributes to the poor sanitation in these establishments. The owner of barbershop N. bragged that he had been in the business for seven years, serving 15-16 customers daily. “If I encounter a customer with visible skin lesions, I wouldn’t want to serve them, but if they wait too long, I have to cut their hair; otherwise, they’ll say I’m discriminating and lose customers,” he confided.

Combs and scissors are washed daily, but the clippers and ear cleaning tools are never disinfected. He insists: “If someone bleeds during shaving, they leave immediately; they wouldn’t come back next time. Bleeding is not a concern because the razor is used only for that customer.” However, he neglected to mention that all other tools are shared!

Even the barber’s hands are a reservoir of germs. Throughout a session, he applied “disinfectant” on customers’ faces, shaved, cleaned ears, trimmed nose hair, and flicked debris from the razor onto the floor, all while eating, smoking, and handling cash without washing his hands even once. Each customer received the same hands on their face and forehead.

Among those who get haircuts and ear cleaning at various barbershops, from luxurious to budget-friendly, almost no one bothers to bring their own tools. Dr. Pham Thi Kim Anh, Head of the Dermatology Department at Ho Chi Minh City Dermatology Hospital, noted that when she brought her own comb and towel to a barbershop, everyone looked at her as if she had descended from the heavens.

High risks of fungal and bacterial infections

According to Dr. Kim Anh, there are many types of fungi on the scalp; even dandruff is a type of fungus, so using shared combs can lead to transmission, even without any skin abrasions. If hands contaminated with Aspergillus Flavus touch the eyes or are ingested, it can cause conjunctivitis, reddened skin, scaling, or lung diseases. If sterilization is not done correctly, this type of fungus cannot be eradicated. Heating a cotton swab over a flame cannot kill fungi.

Pharmaceutist Pham Thi Thu from the testing department at the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City reported that the institute found 30 types of fungi that cause hair loss, dandruff, and other scalp and skin diseases on the combs from barbershops. Furthermore, ear swabs were heavily contaminated with various fungi such as Staphylococcus aureus (causes skin diseases, redness from the base of the nail, dermatitis, boils, ulcers, and is very difficult to treat) and Aspergillus flavus (highly toxic, found in the lungs, nasal cavity, ears, and forehead; when infected, it is very difficult to treat and can cause necrosis and abscesses). If hands contaminated with these fungi are used for eating, they can cause gastrointestinal diseases.