PETALING JAYA: Introduce professional licensing similar to the doctor’s annual practising certificate for beauty practitioners, industry players say.
Malaysian Association of Wellness and Spa president Dorothea Justin said there is a need for a proper regulatory body to offer and monitor professional programmes to allow beauty practitioners to seek proper accreditation and to ensure the programmes offered meet certain standards.
“We don’t want people to claim that they are beauticians after going for an overnight course, so that is why we are now working with the Human Resources Department of Skills Development to establish modules for beauticians and aestheticians.“There are a few levels: beginners can start with Level 2 or 3, whereas those who wish to go beyond and become professionals must sit for certain specific certifications.
“These practitioners must also be required to go for industrial training to get certified,” she added.
Dorothea said beauticians must keep themselves updated on the latest techniques, trends and products by attending seminars, beauty shows and training programmes to collect points for their continuous professional development.
“For example, under the Traditional and Complementary Medicine Act 2016 (Act 775), those practising therapeutic Malay massage and chronic pain post-natal massage need to apply for the certificate of practice renewal every year.
“It would be good if we can apply this to beauticians who are doing more than basic facials,” she said.
She hopes the government would discuss with stakeholders on the types of procedures that beauty practitioners would be allowed to offer.
“Some of the cosmetic procedures will include injections; we hope they will guide us on what the requirements are or accreditation needs for us to perform such procedures and not just disallow us from doing it.
“Perhaps the revised beauty guidelines can use the word cosmetic procedure rather than a surgical or dental procedure to clearly demonstrate that it is being carried out for cosmetic purposes.
“The key aim of the regulation is to correct the public safety issue by requiring all beauticians who perform the specified non-surgical cosmetic or aesthetic procedures to provide evidence that they meet a new and yet to be defined minimum standard of training, education and skill competence,” she said.
Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) Minister Datuk Rosol Wahid told The Star that the ministry, together with the Health Ministry (MOH), are engaging with stakeholders to discuss the plan to better regulate the beauty industry and make necessary amendments to the Beauty Industry 2013 guidelines.
Dr Chong Clinic Group chief executive officer and consultant aesthetic physician Dr Chong Tze Sheng said the increase of unlicensed and unregulated procedures could be fuelled by a cross-jurisdictional situation as beauty centres and aesthetic clinics fall under the jurisdiction of different ministries.
“All aesthetics clinics are under the MOH care and regulations but beauty centres are under KPDNHEP.
“We are under different jurisdictions, so maybe that’s why there are many unlicensed and unregulated procedures,” he said.
He added that public education, too, is of importance as based on his personal observation, there has been an up to 50% increase of patients suffering side effects from injections and treatments from beauty centres.
Medical director of Alainn Clinic Dr Nurul Ain Abdullah said the government needs to push for public education as the public are not able to differentiate between healthcare centres with a licence to practise medical aesthetics procedures and beauty centres.
She said the public need to be made aware of the types of beauty services available and where they should seek treatment such as beauty salons/centres for non-invasive treatments, aesthetic clinics for minimally invasive treatments and plastic surgeons for surgical procedures.
