If you’re looking for a little insight into why some clients get lifting, and others don’t, here’s something to consider. (Note: There are many causes of lifting Acrylic & Gel nails, the following is just one example that may help)

I get asked a lot by nail techs about problem clients that no matter what you do, their acrylic or gel nail enhancements still lift off! This can be very frustrating for the client that really wants to keep nails on and even more frustrating for the nail technician that puts in all the effort, time and investment in good quality products, including all the adhesion boosters that their money can buy.

I would many years ago have a problem with a couple of my clients  because they would clean their entire house with domestos, bleach, jif, etc, no gloves, just before getting their nails done. Their nails would be saturated with whatever their hands had been in, I could even smell the bleach on their skin! They thought that by cleaning the whole house before coming in to the salon to get their nails done, they would not wreck their nicely done nails when they got home.

Acrylics and gels have trouble sticking to a damp surface.

Eg: You know when you go swimming or sit in the tub for a long time, your natural nails go clear and they take a few hours to dry out and go back to normal.

When I first started doing nails 20 years ago, I had a lot of problems with another one of my clients acrylics falling off, she worked in a greasy chicken & chips shop every day, her nails were saturated in chicken grease, which I found out later is a solvent to nail glue!, her nails would fall off in 2-3 days, it was very frustrating, and I hope they didn’t end up in the chicken stuffing! (And really… in food service she shouldn’t have had them done anyway)

So for the clients out there reading this:

Wear gloves whenever you can to protect you nails from moisture absorbing into your natural nails, especially just before getting them done.

And for the nail techs out there reading this:

If you have great results all round except for one or two, its the clients’ nails, not you.
If you have problems with all clients it’s you.

Written by Christine Maher.

Executive Director, CNE (Senior educator of beginner nail technicians for 12 years and Nail tech for 20 years)

Tags: acrylic nails, nail enhancements, nails, Natural nails vs Enhancements

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 10th, 2008 at 8:36 pm and is filed under Troubleshooting Nail Problems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.