The Straight Dope on getting a manicures: What is normal, and how do you make them last?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I discovered the wonders of a cosmetology school nearby, and since have gotten many a facial and haircut at the school, all with excellent results. I’ve never been a girly girl, so I’d never gotten a manicure. So one day three weeks ago, I decided to give it a go ($8 is nothing, and I heard they massage you!).

They filed, buffed, massaged, pushed my cuticles back (no cutting at the school is allowed), did a base coat, two of polish (clear), and did a topcoat. Possibly the polish was just 2 coats of Nail Envy (sp?). I was happy with how my nails looked - there was a few fuzzies in my nails, but I could very well have put them there myself. The SO thought they looked great, so that was a nice bonus. But oh, the lack of hangnails! I was in utter heaven. I’ve always moisturized with Neutrogena hand cream, but I got hangnails like the plague. Not after the manicure! So I got hooked.

I went a few days ago for my birthday to a local place. It was $12, so fairly cheap. No base coat, just one coat of polish and a top coat. Filed my nails back and forth (which I thought was a no no, but there was a language barrier so I didn’t ask). Cut my cuticles very well, however. They chipped two days later, and I vainly tried to re-do them at home. Let’s just say it looks like I got a preschooler to paint 'em.

Which was a more normal experience? What indicators can you use to predict your experience? I’d like to go to a real place (the beauty school is a bit of a hike for me) close by.

Questions:

  1. Is cutting the cuticles really bad? How dangerous, germ and infection wise? Does cutting them encourage their growth? To prevent hangnails, would I be best off just getting them pushed back?
  2. How on earth do you know if they’re going to do the standard base + 2 coats + top coat, like the school did for me, or the shitty quickie job of of the crappy place?
  3. Do any nail colors last longer than others? Or brands?
  4. How, at home, do I make them last longer - other than wearing gloves during cleaning and dishwashing?
  5. How do you find a good, inexpensive nail salon - something that’s going to go through all the steps but not a place that’s super relaxing or high end. Ultimately, I want a good end result - I’m not looking for an experience or relaxation whatsoever, but I DO want competence every time.
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Questions:

  1. Is cutting the cuticles really bad? How dangerous, germ and infection wise? Does cutting them encourage their growth? To prevent hangnails, would I be best off just getting them pushed back?
  2. How on earth do you know if they’re going to do the standard base + 2 coats + top coat, like the school did for me, or the shitty quickie job of of the crappy place?
  3. Do any nail colors last longer than others? Or brands?
  4. How, at home, do I make them last longer - other than wearing gloves during cleaning and dishwashing?
  5. How do you find a good, inexpensive nail salon - something that’s going to go through all the steps but not a place that’s super relaxing or high end. Ultimately, I want a good end result - I’m not looking for an experience or relaxation whatsoever, but I DO want competence every time.
  1. Don’t know.
  2. Ask. It’s best to have a good nail tech who will do a fine job that will last for a while.
  3. I find that OPI lasts a long time.
  4. Gloves; don’t chew on them; don’t do anything that would potentially mangle them.
  5. Language barrier can be a real problem. I would want to be able to communicate concerns to the nail tech. It might be worth a bit extra $ just to have that peace of mind.
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1) Is cutting the cuticles really bad? How dangerous, germ and infection wise? Does cutting them encourage their growth? To prevent hangnails, would I be best off just getting them pushed back? Cutting them can be bad if the place isn’t using clean instruments - one place I’ve gone to gives each client a new kit, and saves their kit for when the client comes back. I usually do mine at home, and I just push them back. It’s easier.

2) How on earth do you know if they’re going to do the standard base + 2 coats + top coat, like the school did for me, or the shitty quickie job of of the crappy place? You don’t, really, but I’ve never, ever gotten a manicure where they didn’t do a base & top coat, even the cheap as hell place in Walmart does that.

3) Do any nail colors last longer than others? Or brands? OPI, all the way. They make a line for Sephora, too - those don’t last quite as long, but are still good and a little cheaper than the regular OPI line. In general, shimmery & glittery polish lasts longer than flat colors, too.

  1. How, at home, do I make them last longer - other than wearing gloves during cleaning and dishwashing? Get a sticky basecoat, like this. They really do work. I get most of that stuff at Sally Beauty, but almost any place that sells nail polish will have something similar. Also, when painting, get as close to your cuticles as possible without actually touching them with the paint - the can make air bubbles so they chip more easily. And wash your hands before painting, to get any oils off your nails. My favorite top-coat is Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps,

**6) How do you find a good, inexpensive nail salon - something that’s going to go through all the steps but not a place that’s super relaxing or high end. Ultimately, I want a good end result - I’m not looking for an experience or relaxation whatsoever, but I DO want competence every time. ** Do you know anyone who gets their nails done? Try asking them. You can get a good manicure for cheap, but you’ll have to hunt around.

4

Where do you live? I get a lot of my referrals for local businesses on Yelp.

5

lorene, Yelp is used sporadically in Pittsburgh. I’m only 23, and nobody my age (in my circle) seems to pay for them, they do it themselves. Obviously, since I’m inept and enjoy the lack of hangnails so much, I’m going to pay to get it done.

Hmm. Is there any way to call the place and say “what exactly do you do?”. Would you get a standard reply?

I think that might have to be the case.

How often should I push my cuticles back myself? Does it have to be with “cuticle oil” or can it just be with some rich hand cream? Can I push them back myself if I have a polish on them, without ruining it?

6

Get into the habit of pushing your cuticles back every time your hands are soaked–like when you get out of the shower or after you finish washing the dishes without gloves on. Just gently, with your fingertips. If your cuticles are really in terrible shape, try some cuticle removal gel–Sally Hansen makes a good one.

7

How convenient this thread is. About two weeks ago, I painted my fingernails for the first time in something like 10 years. I’d forgotten how useless my left hand was until I tried to steady a tiny paintbrush, with varying success. I was also frustrated that after all of my efforts, the tips would chip off in about three days. Hmph! Stickey base coat, you say?

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Okay, this is why I love the 'dope. This sounds like it’ll actually prevent those awful hangnails I’m looking to avoid.
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Mine look like a toddler did them, and then sneezed all over them. Definitely worth the money to me.

9

When polishing the nails on your dominant hand, instead of holding your hand in the air and trying to paint nicely, try steadying your hand with the brush on a table or something. Holding your pinky out and against something solid can also help steady your hand.

Quick and dirty manicure trick: Don’t obsess over getting perfect paint every time. When I do my nails (and especially my toes), I do a base coat, two coats of colour, and a top coat, and (this is the trick) I don’t worry about getting it all over. I just get a nice solid coat on the nail and the skin around it, whatever. But I do it the night before–the next day when I’m in the shower and the skin is soft, the polish on the skin will just peel off smoothly. Make sure to moisturize. The end.

10

For me, yes. If I do nothing, I usually end up with a hangnail every so often. If I push them back regularly, no hangnails. (That’s one thing I miss about swimming regularly - I’d push them back when I got out of the pool. Never had hangnails.) Cutting them means horrible hangnails on every single finger.

11

The polish on a well done manicure for me lasts about a week - maybe two. If I want to keep really nice nails, I need to go about monthly or every six weeks to get the cuticles, good buff and file, etc. I find I can do the other work interim - once I get nice nails (and a little practice with the polish). Therefore, I’ve been known to spend $25 (without any sort of fake nail) on a good manicare, but do them only monthly and when I’m into my nails - and find someone I become a regular client of.

(Opi polish…)

12

The only real way to get a good place is to find someone who’s nails you admire and ask her (or him) where she gets them done and WHO does the nails.

And make sure they’re not Korean or they will talk about you in Korean and you’ll have to bring in your best friends father to translate the insults :slight_smile:

13

First thing that popped into my mind was that cutting the cuticles may be illegal, depending on your jurisdiction. I had a friend who was an aesthetologist (she did facials/skin care); and while she was going through school she told me that it is illegal in IL for aesthetologists to do extractions (i.e., pop pimples). Only dermatologists are legally allowed to do that here.

Since cutting cuticles may well involve contact with blood (and therefore possibly with blood-borne pathogens), it may not be legal for anyone without an MD to do so. Although I did get the impression that this law re: extractions may be different in other states.

14

The way I keep my nails from chipping is at the end of the day I put on a real quick layer of Sally Hansen’s Hard as Diamonds. It’s clear so you don’t have to worry about doing it perfectly.

I get comments constantly about how nice my nails look.

15

Just pushing them back right after a shower makes a big difference for me.

I usually just slap a coat of clear or natural tint on my nails right after I’ve showered and pushed back the cuticles. I do this while my hair is in a towel. I put polish on my nails about twice a week, and on the other days, I apply a good hand lotion after the shower…I find that even if I wash my hands thoroughly, I’ll still have some lotion on my nails, and that’s no good when you’re trying to apply polish. Moisturizer or lotion will penetrate the skin much better if the skin is damp and warm, so I will pat my skin dry and apply moisturizer for about 5 days out of the week.

Every now and then I completely remove the nail polish, but usually I just slap a new coat on. I can do this because I almost always use a transparent coat, and because the new polish melts the old stuff a little bit, so I don’t get a line showing where the old and new polish meet.

Sally Hansen makes a pretty good top/bottom/general purpose polish in a natural tint. It’s a transparent pink, and it tends to even out the nail bed skin tones, if needed. It’s also dandy to use for a French manicure. I also like Sally Hansen’s No More Chipping clear polish, as it does seem to strengthen my nails.

Do not accept colored polish without a base coat. Many colored polishes will stain the nails, and the stain can’t be removed, it has to grow out.

Burt’s Bees makes a Lemon Butter cuticle creme (their spelling, not mine) that smells divine, and does a very nice job. In fact, I’ve never had a bad product from Burt’s Bees. If I have a crack in my skin, though, I’ll put A&D ointment in and around the crack, after a shower, and do that until the crack heals up. It smells kind of funny, but I really don’t want to deal with cracked skin. Besides putting it on after a shower, I’ll apply warm water to my skin, pat it almost dry, and then re-apply the ointment a couple of times a day.

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Questions:

  1. Is cutting the cuticles really bad? How dangerous, germ and infection wise? Does cutting them encourage their growth? To prevent hangnails, would I be best off just getting them pushed back?

I know a lot of people don’t like cutting them, but I’ve been having mine cut during manicures for years, and I love it. I think it might depend on how fast yours grow and trying different methods to see what works best for you.

  1. How on earth do you know if they’re going to do the standard base + 2 coats + top coat, like the school did for me, or the shitty quickie job of of the crappy place?

Seriously, I just go and get the manicure and then decide if I want to go back. I honestly don’t trust other people’s recommendations that much, because I’m picky. If I hate the end result, I take off the polish when I get home.

  1. Do any nail colors last longer than others? Or brands?

It’s not so much lasting longer, but dark colors show every little chip and scuff, which looks terrible sooner. The closer you stay to natural pinks and beiges, the more time you will get out of the manicure.

  1. How, at home, do I make them last longer - other than wearing gloves during cleaning and dishwashing?

I find the more I do on the front end, the less I have to worry about it later. After getting my nails done, they touch nothing for a few hours. On the couch, carefully turning the pages of a book, nothing. I don’t even wear my coat out of the salon, because I don’t want the fabric to brush over my nails. There’s dry, and then there’s really dry. I’ll add a coat of clear every few days. Other than that, I don’t do anything special to protect them.

  1. How do you find a good, inexpensive nail salon - something that’s going to go through all the steps but not a place that’s super relaxing or high end.

Again, if I need to find a new place, I’ll go to a couple and compare. It’s not that big a deal.

17

Yes. What is up with that? I’ll to a preliminary tap on my nails to see if they’re dry or not, but this tap is often misleading. I’ll bump into something, or whatever, and will find a nice, ugly dent in my nail. Grr! How long does it take for nails to be “really dry”?

18

I go with five hours. But then again, I like sitting on the couch drinking wine and reading for five hours, too. Seriously, I won’t get them done at all if I know I don’t have five hours.

19

Nail polish does take a good long while to really truly dry, and darker colours take longer to set than lighter ones. Conventional wisdom is that light colours (light pinks, beiges, etc.) will take 2-4 hours to truly dry, medium colours (most pinks and other medium hues) take 4-8 hours, and darker colours can take up to 12 hours to dry thoroughly, every coat. This is why I’ll usually do my nails in the evening, let them set up so they won’t dent at every little thing, and dry thoroughly overnight.

20

Ah. So then black was, apparently, the wrong color to choose to restart my nail painting hobby.