Health & Fitness
How to Spot a Great Manicurist
Thinking about getting your nails done? Here's how to find the right person for the job.
I have worked with some great and not-so-great manicurists in salons. This week I'm going to show you what to look (and look out) for.
First, you want your manicurist to be a little crazy. The fact is, the best manicurists are completely obsessed about details and doing a terrific job. They will make sure the shape of your nail is absolutely perfect. Your polish will be flawless. They might use a magnifying lens to check and refine the surface of your nail safely instead of just filing away painfully to the nail bed. You might say they are more than just a little OCD when it comes to giving you a perfect polish.
Second, a great manicurist is concerned about your health and safety. She washes/sanitizes her hands before she greets you. Her tools are always clean and sanitized. If she uses an electric filing tool, she will never use a bit that has filings on it from the client(s!) who were there before you. She uses top of the line products and acrylics. She is careful when doing acrylics to only file the very surface of the nail to give the acrylic something to adhere to instead of just blazing away until it's painful. A great manicurist will see the health of your nails and recommend ways to keep them healthy. Also, she will know that certain health conditions can first present as a problem with the nails (like a bad thyroid, for example) and gently recommend a visit to the doctor just to be sure.
Third, a great manicurist simply does a great job with confidence and grace. Your polish is absolutely perfect. She moisturizes your cuticles and recommends you continue to do so at home. She uses a good base coat and top coat so your nails aren't yellowed by polish. She is professional, polite, and genuinely cares about you. She really does want you to look your best. If you find such a manicurist, keep her! There are a zillion nail shops opening every day, and great nail technicians are hard to find. For example, you might be stuck with one of these:
- A shop that uses UV lights to sanitize their tools. It's not good enough! Fungus can still grow in those environments.
- A manicurist who files your nails to shreds.
- A shop that uses cheap top coats and base coats, causing the natural nails to yellow or become brittle.
- A shop that uses cheap, illegal acrylics they got on the internet that can leech dangerous chemicals into your system. If your shop can offer unbelievably low prices, there's probably a reason for it.
- She doesn't recommend ways to keep your manicure chip free. After all, a few chips will bring you back sooner, right?
I went to a cheap shop once for a manicure. I got an acrylic set. She used glues that burned when she applied them and the acrylics had a terrible smell. She drilled my nail beds to smithereens, and cured my acrylics improperly. It took two days for my fingers to stop hurting and four before the nail beds no longer felt tight. And the manicure itself was terrible. I went to another shop the following week to have it fixed and the nail tech was stunned at what he saw. The tips weren't even completely glued on risking a fungus infection. He did the best he could, but he filed my nail beds down even further. I went to him for two months, until I gave up. I didn't think a manicure should be painful.
A month later I found a wonderful, amazing manicurist who I will stalk if she ever moves away. She removed my acrylics and gently buffed out the damage. I am still growing out the acrylic set, and you can still see the half-moon shaped ridge that was gouged out when they used their electric filer at the wrong angle, but my nails are getting there. They have stopped breaking. When I asked her for a new set, she told me no. Instead of making money giving me what I wanted, she said she wants to wait until all that damage is grown out so she can do it safely. I am never, ever leaving her.
