You can tell a lot from a person's nails. When a life starts to unravel, they're among the first to go.

...doesn't apply to me joking joking, i think. when i hit rock bottom my nails might be shit but they wouldn't have been the first to go, and if they're not there that's how you know shit turned for the worst.

every month i get a fresh set of apres gel x extensions, complete with a design curated by myself and executed by talented nail techs who can make any nail dream possible. i obsess over my next design, meticulously generating a color scheme and scrolling through nail accounts on instagram to frankenstein a custom set of my very own. i don't think i have many vices so i am able to justify my monthly nail expense (don't ask how much).

before i dive into a self-indulgent tour of my various sets, i want to make a reading suggestion to anyone who regularly receives salon services of any kind! in college i read "The Managed Hand: The Managed Hand: Race, Gender, and the Body in Beauty Service Work" by Miliann Kang and it offered a much needed perspective regarding beauty work and labor wherein technicians, who are often women of color, are centered. kang's research picks apart surface level, commercial feminism wherein the salon is a safe haven for all girls where we gab and unequivocally support each other. instead, the salon is where our differences, privileges, social standing, and power become highly salient, and where the line between serviced and server is at one of its most prominent in our modern culture. an awareness of these power dynamics is really important for building solidarity across difference!

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my nails, explained

• my first gel x set: in 2021 i found a salon that specialized in nail art in my hometown. this was my first time asking for a design and my nail tech asked me lots of clarifying questions about my design! i was really excited to find a salon that used builder gel to create a 3d/bubble effect!! my tech also does amazing clean nail art so i felt like no challenge was too big for her.

• about 4 weeks later i came back and got this jelly nails set. i think the jelly style is very beautiful however you can see your natural nail underneath and that bothered me a bit because my nails were weak and not looking great.

• third set with the same nail tech. by this point she knew my style, which was basically bright colors, every nail is different, 3d. at this point my natural nail had been growing since my first set so my nails were pretty healthy . this salon also emphasized nail health and safe processes !

• last set with my girl before i moved to a new state this set was inspired by red velvet's 'queendom' comeback no cap. was completely in love with the color schemes they used in photoshoots for this era and had to have it on my nails!! most of my sets with this nail tech had an 3d oval or 3d heart because i was obsessed with how it felt.

• back to my dip nail era¹. during this period i was getting dip every 3 weeks and the service at the random salons i visited was.... mix between good and okay. a lot of the techs were layering the gel polish with dip powder and i thought that was a little strange...i also had an incident where a man panhandling on the subway grabbed my pinky to force a ... pinky promise? idk? and he literally crushed the dip manicure and my nail in between his fingers. the actual nail underneath was broken and bleeding a little bit and it hurt after that i just needed to get the dip manicure taken off completely and had no manicure for a week because those things just needed to breathe and heal smh.

i was looking for salons that did apres gel x (it's a bit of a specialty process, i've learned) but was either running into salons with extremely high base prices which doesn't bode well when you're also trying to get add ons on add ons OR was finding techs that only did celebrity/editorial nails!!!! grrr. THEN in january 2022 i found my current salon! they were really new (had only been open for 1 month) and i booked my first appointment saur after seeing the kind of work they do. lots of bling, up for anything, and very caught up with current nail trends and innovations <3 i'll do how i leveled up my nails with them because this is getting long and i'm tired of writing lulz². thanks for reading if you've gotten this far

-mary

1. dip is really bad for your nails, like just as bad as acrylic. it wears down the nail's layers and if not removed properly will only cause further damage. unfortunately a lot of salons don't remove them with care. i was getting these though because they last a really long time and the hard ass shell is good at creating an illusion that my nails are healthy lol. i was stuck in a dip cycle for a very long time but i am really going to stop getting it!!↩

2. i also have to insert all the images and find emojis to accompany text. this is one of my favorite parts about blogging BUT i hate having to open up that imgur tab and upload one by one...↩