Can you get a pedicure if you've got fungal toenails?

[NowhereToSleep]

If someone turns up for a pedicure and they've got nasty yellow fungal toenails, will they be shown the door?

Asking for a close friend.

In any reputable place yes.

Yes, they won't touch them, it would contaminate all their equipment and they don't want to spread it to themselves.

You can get treatment, but not from a standard high street salon - it should be a specialist treatment from qualified podiatrist.

There are definitely services available which will treat the issue sensitively, and help rebuild the nails to look good.

Search for 'anti fungal treatment and pedicure' providers in your area, that should turn up specialist podiatrists that can help your friend.

Why would you not get them treated / healed before the pedicure? I'm waiting for my fingernails to heal from a bad gel colour job and painful colour removal before I inflict them on the salon for a fresh gel colour.

I’ve been attempting to clear my fungal nail for 20 years. That’s why people might not want to wait. But yes, you need specialists.

I hope so, but if not, please list the place here so I know to never go.

Trained nail tech here. You would be refused a pedicure and politely asked to rebook once the fungus was gone. It’s not individual salon policy (or shouldn’t be) it’s basic hygiene training. Sorry.

Toenail fungus is a bugger to shift, is why. This friend has already spent £400 on unsuccessful laser treatment and probably another £100 on topical treatments.

You seem nice.

Yes, I am nice enough to not want fungus spread to me from a nail place.

What a weird statement!

What have you tried so far?

I don't have fungal nails, but I get a medi pedi every three months or so at my local chiropodist. I don't like pedicures as my toes would never pass the beauty test and I'd feel mortified, but it's fine to go to the podiatrist, they've seen it all, and the job's a good 'un. Professional and keeps issues like ingrown nails at bay amongst other things. If I bring my nail polish she will paint my toenails aswell at the end of the treatment! Great service.

Which is precisely why a decent salon won't give you a pedicure if you have fungal nails. They risk passing on a very difficult-to-treat condition on to their other clients.

Of course they shouldn't be doing cosmetic treatments on anyone with infected nails, fungal or otherwise.

I don't think @JustJoshing was being unpleasant there at all!

If a nail salon will give a pedicure to someone with an infectious fungal nail condition, they are absolutely best avoided. You've said yourself - it's really difficult to treat, so obviously other people aren't going to want to catch it. It's not a criticism of people with fungal nails, any more than saying 'I'd rather not eat a meal prepared by someone with norovirus' is a criticism of people with noro.

The podiatrist my DC goes to offers ‘toenail reconstruction’. Maybe try a podiatrist or chiropodist.

I had a toenail infection, it took over 6 months to grow out with medication prescribed by GP. My salon still did my pedicures BECAUSE they are so fastidiously clean.
They never use the same nail files/foot files on the same client (each client has a folder that contains the tools used for their treatments) , the foot soak sink is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected between clients (I see her do this), anything that is used by more than one client is soaked in disinfectant and cleaned between uses (cuticle clippers).
When it eventually grew out, she threw away all the tools from my file and replaced with new ones to prevent my old files reinfecting me.
She wears gloves while’s doing the treatment.
I’m not sure that many salons are this clean though.

I’ve had a fungal infection for over a decade, I’d never dream of going somewhere and pass it on no matter how desperate I am to have my feet pampered as that’s how I got mine in the first place. I’ve had anti fungal meds but they didn’t work, I’ve asked to have the toenail removed but they didn’t GP said they can’t and I can’t afford private.

I try and pamper my own feet, I have 2 electric manicure sets, one I use on my fungal toe and the other on the rest of my toes, also an electric foot roller. A couple of years ago I used the roller on my fungal toe on full power to thin the nail out, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as it hurt like hell especially after I poured tea tree oil on it, but it’s never got quite as thick again.
over time it’s not that much of a chore, I do my nails & heals, put on some moisturising socks and relax.

The only thing that sorted my fungal toenail was those heavy duty drugs- terbafine? Or something like that. And nope no pedicure in the meantime.

If you want to cover the nails in the meantime then those nail stickers that look like polish are probably the best option to avoid contaminating a bottle of polish and reinfecting yourself.

She's got a good point. If it's proving hard to shift then you'd think the owner of the toenails wouldn't want to pass it on to anyone else. I'd not be happy knowing this person had been before me.

I feel for your friend, but would you genuinely be happy to go to a pedicure place where the tools may have been used on someone with fungal toenails?

Your ‘friend’ needs to go to a medically qualified podiatrist to get some proper treatment. Just guessing with cosmetic and home treatments is a waste of time and money.

Fungal infections can go on for decades, becoming more and more entrenched if not treated properly, as you’re finding out. Even with effective treatment its a very long job and no reputable salon will see you for a pedicure until its completely gone.

20 years here too… I’m convinced I caught it from having pedicures. The only thing that seems to give some improvement which although it sounds a bit off the wall is Vicks vapour rub. I’m starting to get healthy nail grow through although I think it needs reevaluating in 12months to see if the improvement is long term.

A proper podiatrist is the person to sort this out

Fundamentally I haven’t taken it that seriously. I haven’t ever done the terbinafine tablets from a doctor. I have looked at having the nail removed but am too cheap. It’s only in one nail. Ive done Curanail for a while. At the moment I use terbinafibe cream twice a day. It does at least seem to be slowly breaking down the nail, I think it looks better, but so far it’s been well over a year.

to truly get rid of it your friend needs to ask their GP for terbinafine. But no, I would not go to a salon if I had an injection it can easily spread.