# The proliferation of "nail salons" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 20, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411 "2016-08-20T13:47:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/1 "2016-08-20T13:47:27Z")
I see these places everywhere, but the sheer quantity of them seems to be a rather recent phenomenon. I used to think that it was mostly due to low startup costs: a card table and a few bottles of goop. But what was the popularizer of these places? Was there a magazine advertising campaign or something on the tube? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/2 "2016-08-20T14:06:42Z")
These things go in cycles. Yes - start-up costs are low and they, in the UK at least, often get cheap rents and tax holidays for the first year or so. No qualifications are required either, so anyone can do it. As I walk around our local shopping centre I used to complain that ‘every second shop’ was a shoe shop. Then it was card shops, then phones, then juice. The latest seems to be coffee shops and I boggle at the idea that we have so many people who are prepared to spend so much on hot beverages. As I sit sipping a double espresso of course. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/3 "2016-08-20T14:35:24Z")
I have the sense that nail decoration technology and complicated technique have proliferated, so there may be more money in the business than there once was. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/4 "2016-08-20T15:11:18Z")
It is also reasonable to assume that young women have more disposable income than they used to. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/5 "2016-08-20T15:14:32Z")
[This investigative report](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/nyregion/at-nail-salons-in-nyc-manicurists-are-underpaid-and-unprotected.html) from The New York Times describes the terrible abuse suffered by some nail salon workers. So one answer is that it’s easier to make money if you underpay your employees, or don’t pay them at all. ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/6 "2016-08-20T15:17:53Z")
It is partly due to actress Tippi Hedron’s original efforts to help Vietnamese refugee women establish careers. > **[How Tippi Hedren made Vietnamese refugees into nail salon magnates](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32544343)** > > After the fall of Saigon, refugees from Vietnam fled to California, where actress Tippi Hedren changed their lives - and the beauty industry in Los Angeles. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/7 "2016-08-20T16:01:26Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > [So one answer is that it’s easier to make money if you underpay your employees, or don’t pay them at all. It also makes for a high cash flow front for money laundering. S’all good, man! Stranger ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/8 "2016-08-20T18:12:45Z")
I don’t see any good data related to year but there’s been some growth in demand as men became customers. That would tend to drive either bigger salons or more of them. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/9 "2016-08-20T18:16:36Z")
in some cases Mom runs the nail salon while pop runs the chinese restaurant nearby. ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/10 "2016-08-20T18:26:18Z")
I thought that in the US, the influx of Asian women doing nails made manicure/pedicures very cheap. Since they were so cheap, it became reasonable for women to get a mani/pedi every few weeks. With so many women now getting regular nail treatment, there is a much larger market and thus more nail salons. ---
**Author:** ![Verily](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e9a140/32.png) [@Verily](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Verily)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2016, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/11 "2016-08-21T03:54:10Z")
What I’ve always wondered is why so many nail salons have names like “Amy Nails” or “Tina Nails”. Not “Tina’s Nails”, or “Tina’s Nail Salon”, or “Salon Tina”. “Tina Nails”, as though it were a woman’s name. I’ve lived in two different states on totally opposite ends of the U.S., and have seen plenty of salons in both whose names took this form. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2016, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/12 "2016-08-21T03:56:24Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > These things go in cycles. Yes - start-up costs are low and they, in the UK at least, often get cheap rents and tax holidays for the first year or so. No qualifications are required either, so anyone can do it. > > As I walk around our local shopping centre I used to complain that ‘every second shop’ was a shoe shop. This was quite an important element of the second series of the _Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy_ radio series, IIRC. > [@](#): > > Then it was card shops Cards? As in playing cards/_Magic: The Gathering_-type cards, or like the “Birthday/Social Occcasion” cards? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2016, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/13 "2016-08-21T05:38:13Z")
Pedicure chairs. Makes it very relaxing. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2016, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proliferation-of-nail-salons/763411/14 "2016-08-21T12:05:23Z")
> [@Verily](#): > > What I’ve always wondered is why so many nail salons have names like “Tina Nails”. Not "Tina’s Nails. I think it’s a matter of English translation. There are languages where “Tina Nails” it the proper grammar. Many of the nail salons seem to be run by immigrants, so maybe the name makes sense in their language.