Nothing completes your appearance like well-maintained nails. You may either hire professionals to shape, buff, and paint your nails to perfection while you sit back and unwind, or you can try to accomplish French tips at home.
After a long, arduous week coping with life’s nail-biting situations, you might assume that a trip to the manicure salon or day spa is a perfect way to pamper your fingers (or toes). You’d be in excellent company if you did. The nail industry is flourishing. More alternatives are available than ever before thanks to the proliferation of nail salons and day spas. Whether you desire gel nails. You may locate the products and services you need, as well as possibly a little bit extra, quite quickly.
However, nail salons are currently receiving some negative criticism for some of their less appealing characteristics, such as unhygienic conditions that might make you sick. Unless you’re feeling very daring, you shouldn’t buy a UV light and a bag full of tools and attempt to perform all the new nail methods yourself. It does imply that before selecting a salon or swiping your credit card across the counter with a beautifully coloured fingernail, you should proceed with prudence and common sense.
1. Avoid Picking a Nail Salon for the Wrong Motives
While visiting the nail shop across the street from your place of employment may sound appealing, convenience is not always a reliable indicator of a skilled manicurist. Location and cost will be important considerations if you get your nails done once a week, but safety should always come first.
The majority of American states have laws in place to ensure the security of day spas, nail salons, and hair salons. However, in these times of budget cuts, inspectors could not be visiting all places on a regular rotation like they once did. Before selecting a salon, check with the BBB in your community and get referrals from people you know. It’s nice to get a recommendation from a neighbor who frequents the salon, but you should also:
Maintain the law. Verify the salon’s and its technicians’ operating permits for your state. It’s common for salons to display their certifications prominently, so pay attention to the decor, particularly near the counter or payment register.
Check the cleanliness. Request a list of the steps the salon takes to keep things clean. A trustworthy salon will be happy to walk you through its processes. Pick a place that sterilizes its tools with UV radiation or an autoclave.
Request a tour. Each individual nail table (station) should be clean, tidy, and fully stocked with single-use supplies like cotton swabs. Although cleanliness may not be your strong suit (and you shouldn’t have to be), transparency is crucial. Take your business to another salon if asking to look around is met with resistance and annoyance.
Grab a whiff. When you come through the door, the salon may be dusty or its ventilation system may not be able to effectively remove nail dust, dead skin cells, acetone odors, and other airborne particulates. If you can smell harsh chemicals or something worse. More than just making your hair and clothes smell terrible can be done by that poisonous air. It may give you health problems. You should not be in a stuffy or unpleasant-smelling salon.
2. Avoid fiddling with your nails beforehand
This may seem obvious, yet many women shave before going for laser hair removal, put on cosmetics before getting facials, or fuss with their nails before going to the nail salon. However, nails can be finicky. A skilled manicurist has a better chance of getting your natural nails to be even by knowing the appropriate nail shape and length for you. Your haphazard attempts to file, buff, or otherwise prepare your nails beforehand won’t significantly speed up the procedure. For the greatest results, let the experts handle the work. Everything has been seen before.
Nail Business is Huge
According to a market research study published by Nails Magazine, Americans would spend over $7.3 billion on services related to nails in 2012.
3. Wait to get a pedicure after shaving your legs.
Before getting a pedicure, shaving your legs may seem appropriate, but it’s not a good idea. The razor leaves tiny nicks in your skin after each shave. Although you might not be able to feel or see them, they exist. Even without drawing blood, a nick might still become infected. These wounds are like unlocked doors that allow bacteria to enter your body.
Although the majority of nail salons are fairly clean, having so many people in one place does have the potential to spread disease. Nail salons have been related to bacterial, viral, and fungal infections. If you do become sick, you can end up with a bothersome case of athlete’s foot. However, you might leave with the wart-causing virus (yuck!) or possibly get infected with Mycobacterium fortuitum, a bacterial illness that can leave you with unpleasant sores and permanent scarring. Being as protected from potential issues as you can while yet choosing a salon that follows safe procedures is vital. Before going to the salon, wait a few days before shaving your legs.
4. Avoid Clipping your cuticles
Although the cuticle around your nail may appear rough and raggedy, slightly stretched, or unsightly, its primary purpose is not aesthetics. Its purpose is to protect your nails from injury. Consider it as each nail’s protecting eyelid. Your nails become more susceptible to bacterial and fungal illness when you cut it away. Don’t make things worse in a salon where there may already be an increased risk of infection. Keep your cuticles in place and gently deny the nail technician’s suggestion to trim them.
Instead, soak your nails in warm, soapy water for 10 to 15 minutes, and then gently massage the cuticles back with a cloth before going to the salon. A cuticle can also be utilized.
5. Remember to bring some tools and supplies.
It’s challenging for nail salons to maintain utmost cleanliness at all times. Tools are a good illustration. Tools can still harbor bacteria even after being cleaned with a potent disinfectant or sanitized with ultraviolet light, especially if they are porous or have nooks and crannies. Although most salons are adept at replacing supplies and cleaning equipment as required by legislation, there are occasionally exceptions.
A nail buffer or pumice stone with telltale dust on it is unmistakably used recently — on someone else. If the recent client had a slight fungal infection, let’s say one that was undetectable to the technician, well, you get the picture. Consider taking your own tools to the salon so you won’t have to worry about who could have used them most recently. Here are some potential additions to your collection of nail tools. Although some of these products are likely consumables in your salon, you never know:
- Nail cutters and emery boards
- Nail brushes and buffers
- Abrasive stones
- Separating toes with foam
When you return home, clean your tools with hydrogen peroxide and put them away for future use.