HOUSTON — Sadiya Evangelista takes pride in the way she looks.

But a recent trip to a southeast Houston nail salon left her with a face she never bargained for.

“Sometimes we put ourselves through a lot of pain for the sake of beauty,” she said. 

She thought the hot wax she ordered would only remove the excess hair from her eyebrows.  But instead, it seemed to remove some of her skin as well.

“It looked like I was punched in the eye,” she said. “Next day, I went back to the salon. Showed them what they had done. I was concerned because it looked awful.”

Evangelista filed a complaint with the state, blaming the cosmetologist. No one at the salon would talk to 11 News.

But Evangelista took pictures she believes point to other problems at the establishment.

“As I approached the hot wax station, I saw there were several sticks they were using on other people, which is unsanitary,” she said.

So what’s a safety-conscious consumer to do before walking through the doors of a salon?

One option is to try the Web site for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. 

But if an open records request has not been filed, the only information available is whether or not a salon is licensed.

“The bottom line, there is no real way to determine the safety of any salon,” Evangelista’s attorney, Juanita Barner, said.

In Evangelista’s case, her suspicions were on target.

An open records request revealed her salon has been cited and fined for numerous violations, including the reusing of hot wax and other disposable items.

Texas lawmakers are considering a bill that could force unscrupulous operators out of business.

But that’s a measure that comes too late for those who feel they’ve already been ripped off.