Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
No Treatment for pregnant woman at Cherie
I've just been turned away from Cherie on Green Lanes for a leg wax because they don't wax pregnant women.
There is absolutely no health and safety reason for this, and when challenged the woman in charge simply said it was her decision.
I walked away feeling a bit humiliated but thought I'd let others know so they can avoid the same experience.
Tags for Forum Posts: Cherie's
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Burgoyne Bec on
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I think that this is probably the right conclusion to draw from this whole experience (objectively). Subjectively, I still feel pretty humiliated and like I would not be welcome in Cherie, despite the very reasonable albeit belated explanation from the owner.
Let's hope that we can all move on now and others are a bit more aware of discrimination laws and whether waxing is safe in pregnancy!
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Hi Bec,
I’m the manager of Cheriee and I was very concerned to read how your visit to us today made you feel. I’d like to start by reassuring you that our only concern is our customers’ welfare. We’ve been trading in Harringay in the same premises for over 50 years and have built up long-term relationships with our clients through a genuine concern to deliver the best solution for them.
I’ve taken some time speaking with my team to find out more about the events that occurred when you visited today and I’d like to explain what happened.
First of all it’s worth saying that because we offer treatments using a range of powerful products, we always take the utmost care to understand our customers before proceeding with any treatment. We do this to maintain the highest professional standards as well as jealously to guard your well-being. We’re particularly careful in the event that any of our customers should come to us whilst they are pregnant or breast feeding, since the body goes through various changes at these times and can be more sensitive to any products we use.
Working with individual clients over time, our beautician develops a deep understanding of how their individual bodies react to various products. This gives them the confidence to continue to treat our customers when they are pregnant. However, when a pregnant customer arrives at the salon who we’ve never treated before, we are very cautious and we’re reluctant to engage in any treatment that might harm either you or baby. This was what was behind our decision today. I understand that you asked about treatment in some very sensitive areas. We hadn’t worked with you before and we don’t know how your body reacts to the various products we use. In circumstances like this, our professional approach means that we reluctantly decline treatment.
We're here to do business and we’ll very gladly work with pretty much every customer who comes into the shop to deliver what they feel they want. However, if there is any circumstance where we are less than 100% certain that our treatment will be completely safe we will always let the customer know. As I understand events, our beautician suggested that your regular salon may be the better option since they will already have developed an understanding of your body.
I'm sincerely sorry if you felt that you were being discriminated against in any way today. It certainly wasn’t the motivation behind our decision. I’m sorry if that wasn’t clearly explained to you. We’d love to welcome you back, even if you’d like to just pop in for a coffee and a chat and I’ll be happy to explain to you in a little more detail how we work in the best interests of our customers.
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Thanks for explaining the position. I don't think it's unreasonable to have a policy on this, I just wanted a bit more explanation than "you are pregnant, I don't take pregnant clients". A patch test could have been offered or your staff member could have explained that you use harsh products and recommend I seek another place that offers organic skin sensitive wax. The NHS guidance on this and hair colour is, by the way, very positive these days as there is little evidence of harm to the mother or baby.
For anyone interested the guidance is reproduced here
http://www.emmasdiary.co.uk/pregnancy-and-birth/pregnancy/1st-trime...
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Here, read this paper on pregnant women and benevolent sexism.
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Permalink Reply by HoL Site Admin on
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To be fair to the business and to protect the site against any possible legal claims, the title of your post has been changed. Having dealt with two sets of lawyers last week, the site needs to be cautious.
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Permalink Reply by Malc B on
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I understand your concern - however on this occasion, I think you're in the clear. See, e.g. the paradigm example of unlawful discrimination provided by the Citizens Advice Bureau's guidance on the topic:
"A shopkeeper refuses to sell you cigarettes because you’re pregnant, as she’s concerned about the health risks caused by smoking in pregnancy. This is unlawful discrimination, even if the shopkeeper was acting out of good intentions."
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/discrimination/what-are-the-diffe...
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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That's interesting. It's clearly a bigger issue than I realised.
However, setting legal considerations aside for a moment, I think there is a real difference between the sale of cigarettes and a wax treatment in that in one case a business is selling a person a chemical for them to self-administer. In the other the business is administering the chemical themselves. I still understand the caution.
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I'm not sure I understand why that is a meaningful distinction. In both cases a service provider is refusing to provide a service to a person with a particular characteristic (here, because they are pregnant) for no reason other than because they have that characteristic (and because they presume to know what is in the best interests of persons with that characteristic).
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In law and in ethical terms directly causing harm and supplying the means for a person to harm themselves are both transgressions but they are very distinct actions.
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Sure, there is a distinction. I just don't think it's a meaningful one in this context (e.g. the logic of the cigarette example would carry over to a shisha pipe cafe). I suspect we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one!
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