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Unsanitary salons can lead to bacterial skin infections.

Almost a year after tougher state regulations became effective, a News 8 investigation found numerous health and sanitation violations at some North Texas nail salons.

The result of what the report found has already led state regulators to investigate at least a half dozen salons.

The state requires nail salons and their technicians to follow rules to protect customers from serious bacterial infection, but an undercover camera investigation found many of those health and sanitation rules ignored.

The state agency that oversees salons, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, says there are almost 5,000 such businesses in North Texas.

But beneath the polish of pretty pedicures and manicures is an ugly reality at some salons. A look into some salons found violations such as illegal blades, improper cleaning and disinfecting of spa chairs and the potential cross contamination of creams and lotions.

"We have lots of spas that do things right," said William Kuntz, the executive director of TDLR.

To see if salons comply, News 8 hired a state licensed manicure instructor, who has also worked as a private investigator, to shoot undercover video as a customer. She visited six salons, five of them randomly.

While visiting the salons she said she saw positive signs regarding sanitation like implements in sterilized bags, nail techs wearing surgical masks and implements in clear wet sanitizer. However, she also recorded nail technicians doing things that the state calls violations.

At Lovers Nails and Spa in University Park, a nail tech put instruments directly into a sterilizer without washing off skin and debris with soap and water after a manicure.

At DJ Nails in Arlington she saw indications of infrequent hand washing.

And at LA Style Nails in Fort Worth she reported the possible reuse of buffing blocks, which exposes a customer to the previous customers nail and skin tissue.

Since a new owner took over Angel Nails on McCart in Fort Worth, there were signs of improved sanitation. The state found serious violations at the business last year after the family of a Fort Worth paraplegic woman claimed she died from an infection she got during a pedicure.

Angel Nails has a new owner, but undercover video at the salon still showed problems.

News 8 showed the video to Kuntz. Among the things he saw was possible cross contamination when a nail tech continually dipped an applicator back into a jar of cream.

And TDLR saw signs of buffing blocks being reused on customers although the nail tech who would not identify herself denied it.

Even at the upscale salon Hollywood Nails and Spa on Oak Lawn in Dallas, undercover video showed questionable cleaning of spa chair basins.

After each customer, the law requires the salon to scrub the spa basin with soap and water, disinfect it with an EPA registered disinfectant and drain and wipe dry with a clean towel. Water-born bacteria can grow in spa chairs when they're not cleaned right, which can lead to life-threatening staph infections on the skin that only powerful antibiotics can knock out.

But at Hollywood Nails, video showed a nail tech scrub a basin after a pedicure, but then rinsed and walked away. At the spa chair on the right, the nail tech just rinsed after a customer left and there was no sign of scrubbing with soap or disinfecting.

And the nail tech working on the undercover customer repeatedly dipped his bare hand into a creme container that TDLR calls a violation.

When News 8 returned, Hollywood Nails declined to comment.

From there, we didn't need to look far—just down the street at Beverly Hills Nails—to find another violation. The video indicated a nail tech discreetly getting a tool from a drawer.

During a pedicure, the nail tech reveals what she picked up: a credo blade razor to shave callouses. But a cut from the blade can lead to infection, so the state doesn't even allow these razors in salons.

But when News 8 went back to Beverly Hills Nails, the unidentified nail tech in the video had a fuzzy memory.

"No we don't use them," she said when asked if anyone at the shop used such razor blades on customers' feet.

Kuntz said the video showed health and sanitation violations, such as the questionable cleaning of the spa chairs at Hollywood Nails.

"That is a serious violation because you can get the contamination from one client to another and that's something the public needs to be protected from," he said.

He also had a response to the nail tech at Hollywood Nails who repeatedly dipped his bare hand into a cream.

"The hand that is dirty will contaminate the cream then, and then the person that is subjected to that cream in the future would be subjected to that MRSA bacteria if that was present," he said.

Kuntz called the use of the credo blade at Beverly Hills Nails "a very serious violation."

But what TDLR found discouraging was that at all six salons, not even the one basic sanitation practice was followed consistently.

"In the videos that you have here, the consistent violation has been that the techs have not been washing their hands between clients," Kuntz said.

TDLR said has launched investigations into the six salons. No violations have been formally alleged by the state as of yet.

If the state does allege violations, the salons can contest them before an administrative law judge, then it goes to the Texas Commission on Licensing and Regulation and ultimately ends with a district judge.

E-mail bwatson@wfaa.com