How to Check If Your Nail Salon Passed Its Health Inspection in Toronto
The results are public, almost everything passes — and that is exactly why the database is useful in a way most people miss.
In short
Toronto Public Health inspects every nail salon, hair salon, barbershop, tattoo and piercing studio in the city under a program called BodySafe, and the results are public. You can search any business by name or address and see whether it passed, got a conditional pass, or was closed.
Here is the part that changes how you should use it: almost everything passes. In the city’s own open data, 8,576 of 8,586 inspection records are a pass — 99.9%. So the database is not a way to catch a bad salon. Its real value is that it tells you exactly what the inspector looks at, and you can check most of the same things yourself in the first thirty seconds of your appointment.
Key facts
| Program | BodySafe, run by Toronto Public Health |
| What it covers | Hairdressing and barbering, nails, tattooing, body piercing, electrolysis and other aesthetic services |
| Where the rules come from | Ontario Regulation 136/18, Personal Service Settings |
| Inspection frequency | At least once a year, plus complaint-driven visits |
| Results published | Yes — searchable by business name, address and date range |
| Outcomes | Pass · Conditional pass · Closed |
| Pass rate | 99.9% in the city’s published records |
| Outside Toronto | Your local public health unit inspects, but not every unit publishes results |
What is BodySafe?
It is the same idea as the restaurant inspection stickers you have seen on front doors, applied to places that work on your body.
Ontario groups these businesses as personal service settings — any premises offering a service where there is a risk of contact with blood or body fluids. That definition is broader than most people expect. A nail salon qualifies because cuticle work breaks skin. So does a barbershop with straight razors, a lash studio, an electrolysis clinic and every tattoo and piercing shop.
Public health inspectors visit at least once a year and respond to complaints in between. In Toronto the results are posted publicly. Enter a business name or an address, pick a period, and you get the inspection history.
How to check a salon in three steps
Outside Toronto, call or search your regional public health unit — Peel, York, Durham, Halton and Hamilton all inspect personal service settings, though what they publish varies.
What do the three outcomes mean?
| Outcome | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pass | No infractions identified at that visit |
| Conditional pass | Minor infractions found. The business stays open and must correct them |
| Closed | Serious health and safety infractions. The premises is ordered shut |
A closure is rare and worth taking seriously. A conditional pass is not a scandal on its own — read the detail before you cancel anything.
If 99.9% pass, what is the database actually for?
Three things, and none of them is “catch the bad guys”.
It finds the genuine outlier. Ten records out of nearly nine thousand are not a pass. Those ten are exactly the ones worth knowing about, and two minutes of searching is how you find them.
It tells you what competence looks like. Once you know the inspector is checking for two separate sinks, sealed sterilisation pouches and single-use files, you can see those things yourself. The list below is the useful part of this article.
It settles arguments. If something goes wrong — an infection after a pedicure, a reaction after a piercing — you have a complaint line that inspects, rather than a bad review that does nothing.
Worth saying plainly: a high pass rate is good news about the industry. This article is not an argument that salons are dirty. It is an argument that you have a tool most people do not know exists.
What the inspector checks — and what you can see yourself
Under the provincial regulation, a personal service setting has to meet specific requirements. Several of them are visible from the chair.
What is banned outright in Ontario salons
Two services are prohibited in personal service settings in the province, and both are still occasionally offered:
If a business is advertising either one, you have learned something about how closely it reads the rules it works under.
Red flags in a salon
What to do next
Before your next appointment, search the salon in Toronto Public Health’s BodySafe records — it takes about two minutes and you only ever have to do it once per salon.
Then use the first thirty seconds in the chair on the two things that matter most: was the pouch opened in front of you, and does the file go in the bin afterwards. Those two answers tell you more than any review.
Looking for somewhere new? Browse beauty and wellness businesses in Ontario on Ontario24 and contact them directly. Ontario24 is a classified directory — we help you find and compare, and we do not inspect or vet anyone, which is precisely why the public inspection records are worth knowing about. Our safety tips cover the same habit for other trades.
Before you call anyone, it helps to know what this job should cost and what the next one will. What things cost in Ontario in 2026 puts 75 service prices in one table.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Toronto Public Health publishes results through its BodySafe program. You can search any personal service setting by business name or address and see its inspection history, including whether it passed, received a conditional pass, or was ordered closed.
At least once a year, with additional visits in response to complaints. Inspections cover cleaning, disinfection and sterilisation of equipment, and the premises must meet Ontario Regulation 136/18 for personal service settings.
Minor infractions were found at that visit. The business stays open and must correct them. It is not automatically a reason to avoid a salon — read what the infraction actually was, and check whether the same one appears at the next inspection.
No. Fish pedicures are prohibited in personal service settings in Ontario, because a tank of live fish cannot be disinfected between clients. Ear candling, sometimes called coning, is also prohibited as a service in these settings.
Reusable metal instruments must be cleaned, disinfected and sterilised, and should be opened from a sealed pouch in front of you. Porous single-use items — nail files, buffers, wooden sticks, pumice — cannot be properly disinfected and should be thrown out after each client.
Contact your local public health unit, which inspects personal service settings and responds to complaints. In Toronto that is Toronto Public Health through the BodySafe program. Complaints trigger an inspection, which is more than a negative review will do.
Yes. Personal service settings include hairdressing and barbering alongside nails, tattooing, body piercing, electrolysis and other aesthetic services. Anywhere there is a risk of contact with blood or body fluids falls under the same rules.
Sources
The BodySafe program, its inspection outcome categories and its public search are operated by Toronto Public Health; the pass-rate figure comes from the City of Toronto’s published BodySafe inspection dataset. Requirements for personal service settings are set out in Ontario Regulation 136/18 under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, with provincial guidance from Public Health Ontario. Checked on 17 September 2026. Rules and published data change — confirm current requirements with your local public health unit. Ontario24 is a classified directory: we do not inspect, certify or vet any business, and nothing here is a recommendation of a particular salon.