Abstract:
Over the past few years, hairdressing, especially among men, has gained popularity and this has
been attributed to the increase in disposable personal income and peer pressure among mainly
the youth to conform to the latest hair fashions, generally initiated by sporting and film
celebrities. Shaving is part and parcel of a man’s lifestyle and is accepted as a component of
masculine grooming. This has given rise to the trade of barbering, which can be traced back even
to Old Testament times (Ezekiel 5:1). It is quite usual to find a number of barber shops in major
towns and cities in our world today. This has been due to the increasing demand of barbering
services among men, as well as the income generated from such services. Even with the
increasing popularity of barbers today, there has also been increasing cases of infection
transmission through barber shops reported in several countries. This can be attributed to the
very nature of shaving, which involves skin contact and use of sharp blades, making it a potential
mode of infection transmission. In response to this, various techniques for cleaning and
sterilization of shaving equipment have been employed, in an effort to reduce the rates of
infection transmission during the process of shaving in barbershops. However, in as much as
sterilization techniques are being used in barbershops, transmission of bacterial, viral and fungal
infection still occurs, raising the question of whether these sterilization techniques are actually
effective in accomplishing their purpose. This study, therefore, sought to determine the efficacy
of one of the most employed sterilization techniques, that is, UV sterilization, by sampling six
barbershops within Juja town. The study involved a cross-sectional design whereby barbershops
with the UV sterilization chambers were sampled. Sampling involving wet-swabbing the tips of
the electric shavers before and after UV sterilization for each barbershop. The samples were
then taken to the laboratory to be analyzed to meet the objectives of the study.
