A video, making its rounds on Facebook, purportedly shows a 9-year-old girl, working in a salon, giving a pedicure.

The seconds-long video shows the young girl, filing a customer's nails. The customer posted it on social media, slamming the salon, Nail Creations, for putting a child to work.

The message posted with the video said, “Just paid $20 for basically a 8 year old to do my toes. Seems legit. I will never be returning to that nail salon.”

Erie News Now caught up with the salon owner, Nga Rastatter, to hear her side of the story. She says her daughter was not giving a pedicure, just helping to remove nail polish, on what was a busy day, “She did it for fun, I asked her (the client) if that would bother her and she said fine, and she agreed to it,” said Rastatter.

The owner says her daughter helps with odds and ends around the salon at times, during the summer, but does not usually perform services.

Rastatter says her daughter only removed the client's nail polish, to save time for the client and keep her daughter entertained, until a professional nail technician performed the client's pedicure, “Julia doesn't do nothing, my daughter is 9-years-old she just took off her polish with cotton, for her to enjoy and have fun and make her feel mature,” said Rastatter. “She feels like she's like a big helper, but I don't let her do nothing else, so it really upset me, seeing all the comments on Facebook everybody in the world thinks I let a 9-year-old work on a pedicure it is so untrue and it's not right,” Rastatter continued.


Erie News Now visited Toni&Guy, Erie's well-known cosmetology school, to learn more about the laws when it comes to nail technicians and their licensing.

Academy Director, Darlene Newell, says the Pennsylvania Board of Cosmetology requires nail techs to have 200 hours of training, and it's not only to hone their skills, but it's also for safety, “Skin is the largest organ of the body, so it harbors a lot of bacteria, so when you're working on specific areas, such as the nails or the feet, with the nail technology you have to know how to protect not only the student or stylist working on the client, but the client as well,” said Newell.

When the current 52 students at Toni&Guy graduate, they will have completed more than 1,000 hours of training to get their cosmetology license, “They have to understand why they're doing what they're doing, and how to prevent infection, diseases, and disinfection control through that education,” said Newell.

The salon owner tells Erie News Now that was the first, and the last time her daughter helped out with services for a client.