Most people these days only know about artificial nails through seeing or visiting one of the nail salons that are in EVERY strip mall, in every city, big and small. They know that its cheap, fast and that it stinks in there. Nine out of ten people that walked into my salon were so thrilled to hear English. Not only because it is hard to communicate your desired service in a non English speaking salon, but that they feel like the nail technicians are talking about them. Just a silly feeling I know, but more over, they miss the relationship and experience with the person that is holding their hand.
I was a manicurist back in the day when the only manicurist that people knew was Madge, in the Palmolive commercials. A time when getting a manicure was a real sophisticated experience. You've heard no doubt that people tell their hairdressers everything. Well, they were always willing to tell me their whole lives story in the first ten minutes of meeting them. I guess it feels secure while holding hands and I was looking down, not at their faces while they spilled everything, and I mean intimate summarizations to a total stranger. They raised me from a sheltered 18 year old to a shocked and well informed adult. Lets say I got a valuable education in human behavior. Never a dull moment!
Hairdressers did manicures until the introduction of artificial nails. They came to my part of the world, (Southeastern United States) in the late 70's. In 1981 I earned my Cosmetology license and unlike most hairdressers, I decided that specializing in nails was more to my liking. In addition to having very sensitive skin that couldn't take all that shampooing I didn't like standing with my arms up all day. So, I opted to set down with my head hung over a table. At that time, most states did not require ANY kind of licensing. However, as a cosmetologist, I was covered. In fact,every one in our nails only salon worked under my license while they went to school to become licensed manicurist.
We were the first ones in our town to offer artificial nails and people loved them. They were so new that there were no specialized products or equipment to perform the service, so we improvised. The first product was actually the same thing that was used for making dentures. It didn't matter to customers that it was hard as a rock, took forever, and smelled to high heaven and cost a lot. It was like gobbing on an extension of concrete and then trying to file it into something that we could put polish on. They were thrilled.
Well, there's a lot more to it than that.
I have had a lot of experiences through 20 plus years at the table, and now I am going to tell
you, the public all about it. The good, the bad, the ugly, my truth.
This series of articles will tell you what that smell is about, and answer the questions about your nails needing to breath and if artificial nails hurt your nails and what you can do to help grow natural nails. I am going to tell you how to recover from damaged nails, and a whole lot more.
Sign up to get your first letter in the series right away, then you will get more of the story everyother day.
I hope it is both entertaining and educational.
Be good to your nails.
Terri Stanley
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