Mall nail salons and why you need to steer clear!

Hi everyone! It's been a while but something has really got up my nose that I need to share and help you with. 

As per the title of the blog post - Mall nail salons. Now, because of not wanting to get my pants sued off, I'm not going to name them - you'll probably know who I'm talking about anyway (NZ girls). 

It's come to my attention in the last 10 years out of my 15 year nail tech career, that more and more of these cheap and nasty salons are popping up in one brand of mall here in New Zealand. As I said before, I can't name them, but you know what I'm going on about. In that time, I've seen and turned away more and more clients who have been to these salons that I can count. I've helped poor girls get these atrocious nails off and help to fit them with perfect nails than turn girls away, but it's really disturbing me. The ones I turn away are the ones that go get cheap nails ($40 a set!) and come to me for a re-balance instead of paying my fee of $60-$85. I know when they're doing that, they tell me on the phone! Can't believe it!

Anyway, so these poor girls that come to get them taken off. Our conversations on the phone generally go like this:

[Me answering the phone]

Them: Help! I've been to *************** and they've really hurt my nails and I need to take them off because they're so sore!

or:

Them: I went to ****************** for a backfill, but they started to pick my nails off and I told them to stop and I left. They made me pay first and wouldn't give me my money back! 

Scary huh? Picking nails off? WTF? 

If you haven't been to one of these salons, I'm going to tell you exactly what happens. 

You rock in, you don't need an appointment. 

You pay your money to whomever gets up from their current client to serve you.

You take a seat and get ushered over to a 'tech' when they're ready for you.

You sit down, they don't usually say hello to you and you hold your hands out to them.

(The next bit is from salon stalking and my clients telling me what's happened)

NO santitizing. None. 

DIRTY FILES OMG. Do they even know how many nasty bacteria can be transferred from a dirty file? Obviously not or they don't care. EW.

They get their box of white tips out without asking what you actually want and proceed to fit you for your nails.

THEN (dun dun dun!) out comes the drill. It's not an 'electric file', it's a bloody drill. Do you know what a Dremel is? It's a drill that's used for crafting with metal/wood/glass and ITS THE SAME THING in a different box.

No pre-tailoring. They just glue them on.

Then you get a 'tech' change. 

The next person sits down, puts a mask on and grabs whatever brush is hanging from his or her light. It's a size 8 brush which only needs one ball of acrylic to make the nail. Now, there's nothing wrong with the size of the brush at all - for all I know you use one (if you're a tech). That's totally cool. 

They don't prime (a bit more about this later) and they get you to hold a hand up in front of a little fan to help the stuff dry. Now, the polymer and monomer I use sets in 30 seconds and you can file it after 1 minute. There's no need to have a fan to help it dry unless you're using really shitty cheap product.

Next you get another 'tech' change. 

The new one sits down, mask and all and gets that nasty drill out.

She proceeds to 'file' your new nail with a rough sanding band. No smoothing, no buffing, just a rough one. 

After this is done, you get a UV gel top coat and you get sent to the back of the salon where they have a big UV lamp set up. You sit there for 5 minutes and then you leave. They don't even say goodbye.

This process has probably taken about 30 minutes all up.

Now, you might think this sounds alright? Let me enlighten you about what you've just experienced.

1) The Drill. 

As I briefly stated, the drill is NOT an electric nail file. Electric nail files are those cheap and cheerful little things you buy at the $2 store that are supposed to shape your nails. The Drill is in face a craft tool. If you happen to use one of these in your salon, then I'm going to assume that you do it under 'best practice' conditions. 

You a) DON'T use the drill on the natural nail and you b) DON'T use the drill on fresh applications of acrylic. You c) ONLY use the drill when re-balancing a french application which needs the white doing. That's all the drill is supposed to be used for. 

Using the drill on a natural nail plate will upset the matrix (where the nail grows from under the cuticle), causing ridges to grow. It will also take off WAAAAAYYYYY too many layers of the nail plate, leaving the client with uneven nail plates. 

What's the correct way to do all this before you apply tips? You get a super soft buffer and you lightly brush the nail plate with it - so as not to take ANY layers off - only to remove the shine. Yep, that's all. No filing, just a soft soft buffer. Funny eh?

Lastly on the topic of the drill, NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER use it on a fresh application of acrylic. Did you know it takes 24hrs for the molecules to settle after they polymer and monomer have been applied? Yep. A good tech will only need to file the side walls of the nail and give the new nail a quick soft file and buff and send her client on her way. That's all. Disturbing the molecules while they bond is really bad. It causes lifting and all sorts of other crap. Noticed your nails get really hot while they do it? It's because the drill is making the molecules bounce around more than they should and they heat up too quickly causing  your natural nail to scream. I bet it would if you could hear it ;) 

2) No Primer.

Hmm.. Some techs use primerless product though! Yes, you're right. I use a primerless product, but you know what? I ALWAYS prime. It really helps that acrylic to stick good and strong. Mall salon 'tech' doesn't prime because, wait for it, it will allow her to PICK YOUR EXTENSIONS OFF better when you come back for a 're-balance'. Any place that wants to do that, you want to be running away screaming from. I just don't understand how people still go there! ARGH.

What does picking the nails off do to your nail plate? Do I even need to answer that? It RUINS your natural nail. The amount of girls I've seen that have had some or all of their natural nail pulled off in this process really upsets me. It can take up to 8 months for your nail to grow from matrix to free edge. EIGHT months. If the matrix is damaged bad enough, your nail won't grow. Simple as that. Do you really want to risk it??

I could sit here and go on and on about this and show you all sorts of horrible pictures and bag the company and all that, but I'm not like that and as I said earlier, I really don't want to have my pants sued off me. I just want to make you aware that you get what you pay for (in mall salons). Please don't go there. Please tell all your friends and family not to go there. 

I actually can't believe that they haven't been closed down because of using WORST practice. It's really quite frightening. 

If you have questions, please post a comment :) I'm here to help! 

xox