General Safety and Sanitation Procedures — practice questions
17% of the exam ≈22 real questions 27 free questions here
The biggest block on the theory exam — 34%, about 22 of its 65 questions. Cleaning, disinfection and sterilization as three distinct levels; EPA-registered disinfectants and what the label claim has to say; porous versus non-porous implements; blood exposure procedure; and the Safety Data Sheets that OSHA requires you to have on hand. This is the domain most candidates under-study because it feels like common sense, and it is the largest one on the test.
Where people lose points
- Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilizing are three levels, not three words for one thing. Cleaning removes visible debris. Disinfecting kills most pathogens on hard non-porous surfaces. Sterilizing destroys all microbial life including spores, and salons do not sterilize — that is a medical standard.
- An implement must be cleaned before it is disinfected. A disinfectant cannot penetrate hair, product or skin debris, so an immersed but dirty implement comes out contaminated no matter how long it soaked.
- The contact time is whatever the manufacturer's label states, not a number you remember. The label is the legal instruction, and "ten minutes" is a common exam distractor precisely because it is the answer people guess.
- Porous items are single-use. Orangewood sticks, buffers, sponges and paper files go in the bin after one client. Only non-porous items — metal implements, shears, most clipper blades — get cleaned and disinfected for reuse.
- Safety Data Sheets replaced Material Safety Data Sheets and follow a standard sixteen-section format. The exam still calls them by the current name, and the point being tested is that you must have one accessible for every product in the salon.
Drill: General Safety and Sanitation Procedures
27 free questions from this domain, each with an explanation and a cited source. Timed at real exam pace.
27 questions
Pass line: 75%, same as the real exam
See the answer and explanation right after each question.