Improving the Occupational Health and Safety in the Hairdressing sector – A long-term commitment from the EU sectoral social dialogue stakeholders

The hairdressing sector

The European hairdressing sector, as defined within the NACE classification system (96.02), employs more than one million workers (including employees, self-employed and agency workers) offering services like hair washing, cutting, dyeing, waving and barbering, as well as beauty treatments such as facial massages, manicures and make-up application for around 350 million potential customers[1].The sector is characterised by micro and small enterprises with an average of fewer than three workers in around 400,000 hairdressing salons[2]. Health and safety risks are a very important issue in the sector and have been identified in past years by…