Doing the Hand Jive: Questions about manicures

In My Humble Opinion
1

OK, so I’ve just had my second salon manicure, and they were so radically different that I have to ask which one is more typical, and whether I’m right to be annoyed over the second one.

Background: I started polishing my nails around the same time I started Weight Watchers in April, just for fun and to remind myself that I was doing something good for myself. But I’m pretty sloppy at it: can’t seem to clean up the cuticles right, always want to glob on thick coats instead of being patient and doing several thin ones, etc. So when I’ve had a special occasion, I thought I’d try getting it professionally done. Here’s how they went. I may not have the order of tasks exactly right, but it’s roughly correct.

Manicure #1: Local one-woman salon

~ Cuticle goop/cleaned up hangnails & dead skin
~ Shaped nails with some sort of glass-looking file
~ I chose my color from about 500 choices (no lie: her little room had wall-to-wall bottles)
~ Must have been 4-5 neat, thin coats of polish, with time under the dryer between coats
~ No basecoat/no topcoat
~ I expected her to have to “clean up” any overbrushing, but there was none (!).
~ Lotion and hand massage
~ Total time about 75 minutes. Cost $15.

It came out very nice-looking, but there were two things about the whole experience that turned me off:

(1) Tiny room, no windows, fluorescent lighting. A little claustrophobic.
(2) We got to chatting, which was nice, except that I got to hear all about her relationship drama. Kind of a sad-sack/soap-opera experience. I don’t mind having a personal conversation during personal services, but it got to be a little TMI from a total stranger, you know?

So I thought next time I’d try a “regular” full-service salon. That one was today.

Manicure #2: Full-service salon

~ Cuticle goop & hangnail/dead skin cleanup
~ Shaped my nails with some kind of really rough raspy thing, rougher than any I’ve ever seen. I thought she’d go over them with something finer, but no.
~ Lotion and hand massage. Rather greasy, actually, and my skin still felt oogy after I left the place.
~ Applied basecoat.
~ I chose my color from about two dozen bottles. They had several shades of gross pink, several shades of gross red, a couple of mauvy purples, a yellowish gold, white, and a skin-tone color. Looked like all creams. No metallics, no pearls. I did ask if there were other choices, but she said that was all they had.
~ Two quick coats. Rather quickly and sloppily done, with no dryer in between, and I’m not sure the first coat was dry before she did the second.
~ Applied topcoat. This involved not only brushing from cuticle to tip, but also a swipe across the end of the nail, which left polish on my fingertips.
~ Cleanup with orange stick and a bit of cotton dipped in (I assume) remover. I had to point out a few bubbles and one honking big “notch” near the cuticle on my ring finger where the polish didn’t cover. She didn’t clean off the aforementioned topcoat from my fingertips. It was annoying me the rest of the day.
~ Sat for a few minutes and then she said I should be dry and she could check me out.
~ At the counter, I reached gingerly into my purse for my wallet and dinged two nails!! I showed her and she said she’d fix them. Quick polish removal, hasty reapplication. She di not clean off the overbrushing on these two fingers. Then she had to run off to her next client because she was running behind. (!)
~ Total time about an hour. Cost $25.

I was disappointed in a lot here: I still had rough edges, sloppy application, the stuff on the tips of my fingers, the horrible color selection . . . It felt like money down the rathole. Even with my poor polishing skillz, I thought I could have done a neater job myself. And shouldn’t you be able to leave the salon “ready to go,” without having to handle everything as if your nails are still wet?? There was what appeared to be a dryer at her workstation, but she never used it or asked me if I wanted it.

I went to lunch with my friends (which was part of the reason for the manicure), but when I got home just now I took it all off. Oh, and I stopped on my way home to pick out a few fun new colors just as consolation. I’ll redo my nails tonight for tomorrow’s party.

And I have a whole new respect for Manicurist #1. Now I realize what an excellent job she did (and I think she’s underpricing herself!). Next time I think I’ll go back to her, and just find a way to keep the conversation light. Maybe now that she’s told me all that other stuff, we can just talk about kittens and rainbows ‘n’ stuff. :slight_smile:

So, what do you think? How do your manicures usually go? What’s usual? I’m new at all this. I never wear makeup, and “doing” my hair consists of air-drying it, then brushing it out and sticking a barrette or clip in it. No girly-girl me, so I have no idea how salon stuff works.

2

My spa has a great nail tech who can do a basic pedi in 30 minutes and a basic mani in about 20 or so. I’m not sure why yours took so long. As I recall, it cost about the same as what you said for #1, but there was a basecoat and topcoat and I had plenty of time to sit with the dryer. There was also a hand/up the arms massage, and she cleaned up the nails and around them too. If another person came in, I would move and just air dry my hands. I had picked the color after I came in the door. A bit of chatting but nothing heavy like what you said. It was done in the front lobby of the spa, well lighted and spacious, with soft music and good-smelling fantasy anion humidifiers.

I would try to have my cash or card out of my wallet ahead of time just so I wouldn’t have to risk messing up the nails reaching for them.

I tend to be more partial to pedis; they are more relaxing, and I need someone else to reach down and scrub the calluses and trim the toenails neatly. I get to sit there in the massage chair and let them dry.

3

The first one is what a manicure is supposed to be like (although normally you’d get a base and less layers; I’ve never gotten a topcoat or used one). The second one is a cheapo who might as well be massacring your nails as hacking your rosebushes to geranium size.

Sadly, most real manicures seem to be agoraphobic or at least have no problem working in a place that looks like a boutique’s trying rooms.

4

#1 sounds lovely, but the order in which she did things is a bit off, based on my experience.

Usually, the places around here do the soaking, trimming, gooping, shaping with a rough board, then a spongy block softer buffing. The lotion and massage part comes next, then you get up and go to the sink and wash your hands. They usually have a bunch of nail brushes soaking in that blue-cide stuff at the sink so you can pay particular attention to cleaning the remaining lotion out from around your nails.

Return to the station, and they ask for the money then, before applying the polish. Pay, then it’s 2 coats of color and 1 of clear topcoat, with zero drying time in between, just however much it dries on it’s own. Each station has a small fan dryer, but if they’re busy, they’ll invite you to the big weird drying table. It’s got some sort of ultraviolet or something light and looks like this.

Never a basecoat, never more than two coats of color, and it’s rare to have someone inexperienced enough that they need to do clean-up after polishing. If they do, though, it’s a quick swipe with orange stick and remover, they don’t redo the entire nail. Maybe a quarter of the time, they do the swipe the ends of the nail tip with the top-coat, but only if my nails are long enough that the brush doesn’t touch my fingertip. Most salons have at least 100 color choices. About 20 minutes total, but that’s when they’re done, add another five or ten sitting around waiting for them to dry.

Paying before polish makes a lot of sense, and they’ll carry your purse and stuff to the drying table if you need to move there. It’s kind of weird deciding about a tip before they’re done, and I totally wonder if the time and attention paid to the polishing stage changes based on the tip given in advance, but paying first makes total sense so you don’t dig around with wet nails.

5

#1 sounds much more typical, although as Queen Tonya said the order seems a little off to me.

Most of the places I have been do a base coat and a top coat in addition to two coats of color, but it seems some places don’t bother with this especially if they are giving dry time between coats of color. The dry time isn’t unheard of, but it’s not typical in my area at least. I wonder if that’s what is adding to the time, 75 minutes is a long time. I would say the longest a very good manicure should take is 40-45 minutes including dry time, and that’s a generous estimate. Some places of very good quality could have you in and out in 25 minutes.

It’s not at all unusual that a manicurist doesn’t need to do any touch-ups or fix mistakes.

#2 is just a bad salon.

However, leaving a salon, any salon, I generally find I need to take a little extra care with my nails for a few hours. I think that is just the nature of nail polish. Before the nail polish goes on, I get out my car keys or anything else I might need from my purse. In the winter, I would avoid putting gloves on. I would not go straight home and start doing dishes.

6

I also wonder why it took 75 minutes. No manicure should ever take that long unless it’s including fancy extensions and lots of extra massage time or something.

There should also be two coats of polish, as others have noted.

7

I thought most places have you pay before they put the polish on for that reason?

Anyway, I’ve never had a manicure take more than about 20 to thirty minutes. Most of the places I go to are pretty quickie type places…so, yeah. They do a top coat and I think a base coat and maybe two layers of actual nail polish. My usual place is about nine or ten for a regular and thirteen or so for a French. Usually places are a bit more expensive.

ETA: Yeah, me too. I try to avoid doing anything that would make me need to wash my hands for the next few hours. It is the nature of the polish.

8

Hm, OK, I guess that first woman spoiled me. Maybe all those extra layers and drying time really baked the polish on, because when I left, it felt like it had been “done” for a long time and I didn’t feel like I needed to be careful. I even wrote a check to pay her!

So thanks for the tip on having payment easy to access, etc. I’ll try to remember that in six months when I get my next manicure. :stuck_out_tongue: Though I do feel like going back to Manicurist #1 in a few weeks just for the hell of it, and (besides getting another manicure) telling her I owe her an apology!!

I suspect that the reason she took so long is that her shop is in a little “business incubator” building, where (I think) they give fledgling businesses a deal on the rent, etc. She didn’t seem to be very busy, so maybe she just took her time because she didn’t have anything else to do. I didn’t really mind because I didn’t have anywhere to be either. :slight_smile: And it’s nice because it’s local; I have to go 40+ miles to find a “regular” salon.

Thanks, ladies! :slight_smile:

9

Always always always get a base coat. It keeps the polish from staining your nails. Insist upon it. You don’t always need a top coat. I’ve found when I do my nails myself they last about a week. I’ve only had two or three manicures in my life, and they all seem to last about a week.

10

I concur that the second one was just a really bad salon. I’ve never experienced a professional nail person who got polish on my fingers or needed to do more than the teensiest clean-up at the sides.

In my experience, manicures take about 20 minutes plus drying time. They go: soak, cuticle clean-up and shaping, lotion and massage, pay, basecoat, two coats of polish, top coat with no drying in between, and then off to the UV drying table. There are always many many choices of color.

While I like manicures, I usually just do them myself. You can get salon-quality stuff at many beauty-supply stores, and it’s easy once you get the hang of it. I can’t get the polish on as well as they can, but I can do it well enough. I don’t do any dry time between coats, and I usually sit and read the Dope while it dries!

11

I don’t get manicures or polish my nails because of the nature of my work but I do remember reading a long time ago that nail polish takes about an hour to dry naturally but 24 hours to harden, so you do need to protect your polish for quite a few hours if you want to avoid chips, dings or polish being scraped off.

12

Yeah, there’s nothing like having really yellow fingernails because you didn’t put on a base coat. The darker the polish, the worse it stains, and I’ve always had red polish make yellow stains.

The second salon gave you a craptacular manicure. You should have complained to the manager before leaving, and shown how bad the work is.

You can try bringing in your own polish, if you are really really picky about the brand or the color. Most salons will have a great color selection, though, and decent or better than decent brands.

If I pay by check, I leave the amount blank, until I’m finished, and I don’t let go of the check til I’m finished. Usually I pay by cash, I get out the basic price and a generalized tip from my wallet. I put a bonus tip in a place where I can reach it easily.

13

Yeah, I know, and I’m usually assertive about stuff like that. But I was in a slight time crunch and had other errands to run, and I just wasn’t in the mood for it. If they were to call and ask how it went, as some businesses do, I’d probably spill, but I didn’t feel like complaining at the time. I just wanted to get out of there. And I sure won’t be going back.

I wondered about that too, but yeah, I thought the salon would have some fun color I didn’t have, and better quality too!

14

Slight thread hijack - I only get manicures sporadically and the past few times at very different salons, they’ve cut my cuticles. Not pushed back (which is what I would do) but sliced the things - which means 2 days later, I have horrible hangnails.
Is this normal these days? Do I just have to firmly request that it not be done?

15

They usually ask if I want them pushed back or cut and I just say pushed back. Though at some places they just start cutting and I have to tell them to push them back. Not sure why they do.