The road to relaxation is paved with warning signs of dangers.

Placid pampering can quickly turn into a nasty nightmare, however, if the salon or spa you’re visiting doesn’t take its business as seriously as you take your coveted escape.

Everything from a simple manicure to a Brazilian wax — even a walk through a salon — can warrant loud, alarming caution signs if things such as sanitization and proper licensing aren’t strictly followed. Take a look at some of the warning signs we’ve put together for you to watch out for during your next salon or spa visit.

SLIPPERY WHEN UNSWEPT

Even the salon that boasts the cleanest tools can be the culprit of an accident if its stylists get lazy with the broom. “People don’t realize how slippery hair is on the floor,” said April Melone, director of client relations for Stardust Salon Systems, a salon product distribution company.

Melone is licensed to perform cosmetology in four states but currently can’t practice her love for hair due to, not one fall in a salon, but two. The first resulted from too many hair tool cords entwined on the floor. The second fall, which ended her career, stemmed from another stylist’s negligence.

“She kept her hair in a pile and wouldn’t clean up her station,” Melone said. “I walked right by it, skidded and — boom! — I was on the floor.”

Melone stayed flat on her back for weeks. Not expecting the fall to spur an early retirement from cosmetology, she passed on a workman’s compensation claim but regrets it now. “(Falls) happened all the time there with kids,” she recalled. “That’s why they kept a big bowl of lollipops handy.”

Melone declined to name the salon.

PEEPING TOMS CROSSING

When Monica Parmenter visited the Tan Factory on Craig and Tenaya Roads on June 20, she was greeted by more than a new bronzed bod when she lifted her bed open. “I heard something and looked up and there he was on a ladder,” Parmenter said of the man who looked to be conducting maintenance in the next tanning booth when he saw her naked. “He looked right at me and kept doing what he was doing.”

Parmenter grabbed her clothes, got back in the bed and proceeded to get dressed with the top closed above her.

She flew out of the booth, asked the person working how they could allow that to happen and rushed out of the salon without an answer. Several phone calls later, The Tan Factory corporate office offered her eight days credit ($15) and Parmenter filed a police report. She declined the credit and is still waiting for police to review surveillance tape as they assured her they would.

Parmenter continues to tan but travels out of her way to visit a salon she trusts. The Tan Factory didn’t return calls seeking comment.

DANGER OF FALLING HAIR

The horror stories of women going to a salon, asking for a brave new color and walking out with patches of hair missing are all fabricated to make us leery of bleach products, right? Wrong. “Oh yeah, we’ve had complaints where there’s been hair loss,” said Annie Curtis, chief inspector for the Cosmetology Board of Nevada. “We get those all the time.”

While salon patrons may refer to it as their worst nightmare realized, the cosmetology board just calls it “melting hair.” It usually occurs when a “stylist didn’t use the proper procedure” because they’re working without legitimate licensing. If that’s the case, the stylist in question will be penalized, which normally amounts to a slap on the hand. Unlicensed stylists withstanding, if the hair grows back, the board classifies it under “bad haircut,” according to Curtis.

PERMANENT SCARS AHEAD

When a chemical peel gets executed properly, the client should walk out of the spa with no traces of a procedure left on their face. If it’s done without testing and correct precautions, however, the result can turn out a little different. “I remember a case where a lady had a chemical peel that left her with scars,” Curtis said. “She had to have plastic surgery to get rid of them.”

The case Curtis refers to marks the one incident in her 20-year tenure with the cosmetology board that she recalls a license revocation. The board put forth the severe action because the cosmetologist veered out of her scope of practice. “Cosmetologists aren’t supposed to do chemical peels,” Curtis said. “They can only do facials that work with the first layer of skin.”

GERMS MERGE AHEAD

Twenty-six year old Jill Rimpa thought she was doing her feet a service with her every-other-week pedicures. When she noticed black spots creeping up under her nail bed after three visits, though, she questioned her judgement. “It was really clean inside,” she said of the nail salon in Summerlin. “They pulled the tools out of a drawer and I assumed they were clean, but I guess not.”

Now it’s dark polish for the remainder of the summer because her toenail infection doesn’t hurt, “it’s just ugly,” she said.

Rimpa got off easy. Paula Abdul’s unsanitary manicure landed her in and out of hospitals two years ago, pushing her to urge California legislators to enforce more stringent regulations on nail salons.

But the worst off of them all, was Kimberly Kay Jackson, a Texas woman whose negligent pedicure was literally the death of her when a cut caused by a pumice stone led to a staph infection that led to a fatal heart attack.

Most infections from manicures or pedicures stem from dirty tools or dirty water. It’s not enough to simply dip the tools in the blue disinfectant solution once after one client and begin working on another. The tools should be washed and then disinfected, according to Curtis of the Cosmetology Board of Nevada. Also, pedicure tubs need to be thoroughly cleaned between clients using cosmetology board-approved disinfectant. A quick rinse alone can’t rid of the previous client’s bacteria and germs.

BURNS BELOW

Think of the last place on your body you’d want to get burned. That’s exactly the area that a cosmetologist applied scorching wax on before having her license suspended and earning herself the maximum fine the cosmetology board can assess, $2,000. “The woman (who brought the charges) was having a Brazilian wax,” Curtis said. “And the board ruled that the cosmetologist hadn’t tested the wax first.”

The client also took the cosmetologist to civil court, where the unsightly evidence was produced to illustrate the woman’s claim. “I saw the pictures. They looked pretty bad,” Curtis said.