Wow. I had no idea that people were spending so much time on their nails. I trim mine every few weeks. I file occasionally. I once had a manicure, but hated every second of it.
But to answer the OP, I’m firmly in the camp that fake nails are trashy.
Like tremorviolet, I get fake (in my case, silk) nails because my natural nails are hopelessly thin and split and break down to the quick. I keep my enhanced nails fairly short - 1/8 inch beyond the end of my fingers because I have really small hands and short fingers and like to visually lengthen them just a touch. My goal is to have my hands and nails look well groomed and like I don’t really spend a lot of time on them - and I don’t. I use a very light peachy pink polish that looks like nicely buffed natural nails.
Because the silk overlay makes them much stronger (and they’re still pretty short), I can work in the yard, sail a 50’ sailboat, type really bleeping fast, and
generally operate my hands like a normal human.
I don’t really care for long nails or bright colored nail polish personally. As for “trashy”, I can only say that I have never seen an SVP or CXO of either sex with anything other than natural or natural looking nails.
I think they can be trashy, but it depends on what they look like. I have to have an acrylic coat over my real nails because they’re not good enough to grow. I do it because Z.R. Test really likes nails and because I think they make my short fingers look better. I always do them rounded to make them look less obviosly fake, and then I do them a color that’s conservative or trashy depending on what I feel like. This week I went for trashy.
I’m a 34 year old IT manager, FWIW.
That is the worst nail color I have ever seen! Dayglo green? What clothes do you wear with that? vomit smiley
Yes, they are quite green. I wear a lot of black. I wouldn’t say they are inherently more unnatural than many of the dark colors, but they are certainly more unusual. I get a lot of compliments from teenagers on them.
This is one major reason why I never really got into fake nails when I was younger; the couple of times I had them, it was difficult for me to feel like I was getting the fake nails as clean as I could with natural nails. I now have natural nails that get up to 1/4" long before causing problems at work; it’s really not fun to have handling books break and bend your nails back. I mostly keep them natural, but occasionally will paint a coat of nail polish on them; I’d do it more often if my nails didn’t naturally have an anti-nail polish coating on them and chip within 1 day of wearing, regardless of treatment.
Fake nails with French manicures remind me of a handful of things when I see them: pornography (lots of ladies in porn have them), sorority events (lots of sorority girls I knew had ‘em), and high school formal events. I’m not really a big fan of fake nails in general, but they can and have been done in a tasteful manner. I just don’t see too many women in their 30s or older with fake nails that have tasteful designs; the few that I do see tend to be big ol’ claws with airbrushing design. How do you wipe your butt with giant 3" nails?
I keep hearing this, and I just don’t get it. I have the exact same space under my nails regardless of what is on top of them.
Do you guys get fungus between your nail bed and the acrylic or something? Because that is usually the fault of your nail tech and her lack of proper sterilization techniques or doing a shitty job on your nails…
I have been wearing acrylic nails for over 20 years, and I have never had a fungus or a problem washing my hands.
I like long acyrlic (or natural, I don’t care) nails with nail art. they are kind of trashy, but trashy in a way I enjoy. That said, I don’t have long nails, myself. I’m a housewife who does all of her own housework, plus gardening, crafting, redecorating… I couldn’t work with those long nails. I also have a weakness for big, long Soap Opera Hair with lots of curls and frills. Like Joy on My Name is Earl – again, it’s tacky but I like it, although I’d never, ever bother with it for myself.
Anyway, I do have fake nails because I was a nail-biter and my own nails are weak and wimpy. Here they are (damn, my hands look old!). I keep them short so I can work with them, and rounded because I prefer that. You’ll notice the little design on the ring finger. That’s new – I never used to get nail art. But I did, on a lark, at Christmas and my husband really liked it. When I went for a fill in January and just had them painted plain, he asked about it – “How come you didn’t get the little designs?” So I’ve been getting ring finger art ever since.
As I said – I like them. But it wouldn’t break my heart if someone else thinks they are trashy. I’m more than will ing to own my trashiness. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m not aiming for elegant.
That is the single cutest thing I’ve seen on the interwebs today- the story, not the design, though the design looks nice too.
Yes, I feel that way, too. I do get used to the feel, but at first, my nails feel “heavy” and closed off. Weird! It doesn’t stop me from using polish–at least not on my toenails. I no longer wear fingernail polish–too much to upkeep. Also, gardening season is about to start, so there go any nice nails I had.
I’d say it was spam.
Reported.
One time in my life—only once—have I seen elaborate nail art that I considered truly classy. On a cashier in the ladies’ jeans department in Macy’s back in Ohio, the last time I shopped there. Her nails were a brilliant white, decorated with delicate gold filigree designs. Aesthetically, it was a resounding success. I don’t care for fancy nails in general, though. My daughter goes for that stuff, and I’ve given her rides to Georgia Ave. in the Petworth area in DC to get her nails done at one of those salons, and they look nice on her, but it isn’t something I’d ever consider doing. These days I don’t even bother with nail polish; I just buff them up real shiny when I want 'em to look spiffier.
That shit looks straight up demonic, yo.
Dude, another zombie thread? They’re taking over.
Wait, I swear I didn’t reanimate the zombie. I saw this thread near the top of the current IMHO lineup. But now there’s nothing between the last 5-year-old post and mine. Assuming I didn’t time-travel, how’d I even see the thread? Was there a demonic post that got deleted or what?
I wondered if you’d been hitting the punchbowl early! Probably it was a spammer who resurected it and got sent to the cornfields.
I miss my nails. 
**eleanorigby **was exactly right; once I started clinicals, anything and everything was banished from my fingernails. Now that I’m working in home health care, I have brief spans of time where I could get away with nail stuff, but then I get a new wound care patient or some other hands on care that precludes it. Since that’s fairly unpredictable, I haven’t had gels or acrylics for years now. Not worth the time or money investment only to have to have them removed at short notice.
I have, however, fallen in love with nail polish on a strip. Trashy, sketchtastic nails without the commitment! They’re DIY and come off with nail polish remover. I use them for special occasions, and don’t care if I have to take them off the next day. They don’t add length or thickness, although a few of the more metallic patterns do add a little bit of strength and nail-tear resistance.
A spammer revived the thread. Spammer has been wished to the cornfield.
I don’t have the time or money for acrylics, and my nails are weak and brittle and all that. Recently I finally took the advice of many people to try OPI Nail Envy, and by golly, it works! I’m a stay-at-home-mom with all the housework that entails, also an internet junkie so I type a lot, and Nail Envy lets me wear polish without problems. W00t w00t!