I mentioned a few posts ago that I got acrylic nails for the first time in 20 years.
Can we take a minute to celebrate that I’m posting often enough now that I can actually refer to posts I’ve written recently? It’s amazing how much more motivated I am to write when my website looks a little nicer. I’m so vain.
Speaking of my vanity! Back to my acrylics…
So I loved having nails. I don’t normally have nice nails. They rarely get long, they’re not nicely shaped, and they’re on the ends of stumpy fingers. But when they were long? I suddenly loved my stumpy old lady hands! And the clicking! And the scratching! And even if I was running errands in my pajamas and a frizzy bun I felt fancy!
Well…I used my Indigo Girls concert tomorrow night as an excuse to get them filled.
WHO AM I?
I obviously got a different shape too, and I think I like this one better. It’s also a bit easier to type with this shape. And how about that fun color! EEEEK.
So now I have to issue TWO public apologies to my dead Mom.
(Oh, boy. That took a turn!)
My Mom got her nails done every 2 weeks when I first started taking care of her in 2018. I found it so frustrating because it was hard to schedule around the three days I was there every week and it seemed like such an expensive and frivolous habit for someone who had such extreme money problems. And GOD, if we had to go THREE weeks between sessions you would think she was being forced to walk around with a “KICK ME” sign on her back, she felt so embarrassed.
Then, when she moved here (during the pandemic, mind you) it was VERY important to her to find a nail person as soon as the Covid Precautions eased up a bit. I could not believe how much she kept wanting to get her nails done WHEN THE WHOLE COUNTRY WAS SHUT DOWN. And if I thought her money problems were bad in 2018? They were WAY WORSE in 2020 and yet…she insisted on getting her nails done. Which I took her to do and bitched about it CONSTANTLY.
APOLOGY #1: Dear Mom, I’m sorry! I get it now! Having acrylics is so fun and joyful and you had a hard life and I shouldn’t have given you so much grief! It’s not a dumb habit at all! I wish you could see my nails now!
Now, I mentioned the first time I got my nails done I went to her old technician. And y’all? IT HURT LIKE A MOTHER F*CKER. Afterwards I asked Nikki, “Did yours hurt?” She said, “No…???” I started feeling a little bad because Mom bitched all the time about this technician hurting her. She didn’t want to use anyone else because he did such a good job, but she would bitch about it and I would (inside my head, of course) just think she was being whiney because she had a tendency to whine about EVERYTHING that was even remotely uncomfortable.
Welp…I went to a different technician yesterday and it did NOT hurt ONE BIT.
APOLOGY #2: I’m sorry I dismissed your complaints, Mom. That guy was REALLY aggressive and rough! I wish I had encouraged you to try someone else! Although, my nails don’t look as good as when the aggressive guy did it so…I kinda understand why you stuck with him. But I will not be doing that! It’s not worth the pain!
Anyway – this is not a habit I can afford. I’m not sure how I stop, do I make a session to get them removed? I think I’ll do that and maybe try just a gel manicure and see if A) that’s a more affordable options and B) if it makes me like my hands more.
But dude…I totally wish I could justify doing this every two weeks! I love it so much!
Totally get it! I got regular, then gel manicures, and loved how my hands and myself looked after my nails were “pretty”. Then I found the nail stickers and they’re much cheaper and last just as long as a gel manicure. (At first I tried Color Street, then found Dashing Diva at Ulta and Wal-Mart. Dashing Diva is cheaper and I like them better.)
I love having my nails on but don’t enjoy the process because my fingers are sensitive. My nails are paper thin and get nasty hangnails without acrylics. I wore acrylics for 15 years then my lady mostly retired. From then I only got them for special occasions. Then during the pandemic I watched quite a few nail YouTube (Long Hair Pretty Nails and Nails Career Education) and decided to do them myself. Started with dip acrylic but now do polygel as they stay on for a bit longer. I’m still slow as molasses because it takes me 5 hours but I love having them on. There are reasonably priced kit on amazon.
I get it. I’ve been doing dip powder nails for the last couple of years after not being a nail person at all. It is a mood booster having nice strong nails. I usually get a French manicure, and it isn’t obvious when they are growing out, so I can go a month or more between visits. I need to go again… I let them grow out so much that I wound up cutting them off and now I have a super short, flimsy, cracking, peeling mess of fingernails.
If you want to take them off, I just let them grow out and cut them myself. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and one will break off all the plastic but leave the nail. I don’t see any reason to pay someone to do this for me, and soaking your nails in remover for like 30 minutes seems like a waste also. I do my nails every 2 weeks and I love it!
Highly recommend doing SNS (dip powder) nails! I usually get them redone every five weeks or so, and they don’t chip at all. They obviously start to grow out a bit, but meh, who cares!
On my to-do list is definitely Getting My Nails Professionally Done. Any tips? (Pun most definitely NOT intended.)