My daughter has a dance coming up. She plays violin so keeps her nails very short but she would like longer, girly nails for the dance.I promised to take her to a salon to have them done. My questions are;
There are so many different types of artificial nails - acrylic, tips, fillers. Could some one please explain to me the differences? What would you recommend and what should I watch out for? I don't like the nails with the fat undersides. I would prefer her to have something look more natural and not damage her natural nails. I think she is leaning towards the French tip look.
Thank you for your help.
I would not say it was a YEAR of ruined nails, but more than a month, though... It isn't the worst decision in the world, I'd give it a shot- for one you already said you'd PROMISE to take her. Poster #2 and #3 must have overlooked that sentence, we mommas gotta know to follow through:)
I had my nails done once for prom. It WILL "ruin" your natural nails. You have to have them grow out and they eventually break off and leave a gross residue. I work with my hands a lot (I'm an artist), and I'm not one -still- to get all fancied up, and I knew right then I would not get my nails done ever again. 14 years later... YEP! still have not gotten my nails done!! Just not my kind of thing. It is an inconvenience to say the least.
I don't wanna ruin it for your daughter or anything, though. There just has to be an understanding that you can't just go back to normal nails in a week (in fact, they should still be intact). It takes about a full month to "recover". Once they break off, she can play violin, but the nails would not be so nice until she has grown them out completely.
French tips are pretty looking and tasteful. You can get them any length you want (within reason), and you can get it with a squared or rounded tip. They aren't crazy-thick. What I got were acrylic... they file down your entire nail (the tops as well as tips), and put adhesive on it then apply the nail.
Oh Gosh ! If the long nails are really for one night and she plans to go back to violin...DO NOT GET HER NAILS DONE WITH ANY KIND OF ACRYLICS TIPS , GELS ANYTHING!They will ruin, RUIN her nails for a year if not longer. I speak from lots of experience
Just have them painted with a french manicure they will look nice...
I have acrylics, and you do not want a child to have them for one night. They do ruin the natural nail. For the one night, either get some of the press on nails or just get a nice natural manicure. Nothing wrong with well-groomed short nails for a special occasion.
Separately, acrylic is the powder overlay that they put on the nail. Tips are glued onto a natural short nail to make it longer, and then they put the acrylic powder on top of the tips to make it smooth. When the nails grow, you get them "filled" to cover the new growth. A "new set" is generally tips and acrylic overlay. A "fill" is maintenance.
The reason acrylics (or silk wraps, etc.) ruin nails is that they take a dremmel bit and grind your natural nail down to half it's natural thickness, to rough them up and provide a base for they acryllic gel.
Once you have THEM take them off (your fingers soak in solution for about 10 minutes, then they come off easy, anything else rips the nail off the bed, which is super painful and damages the nail), your nail grows in and the ground down section is very weak AND ugly, and ridges can form because the protein buckles.
I love acrylics... (betcha thought otherwise!)... When I have them I keep them SHORT (can play instrument short), and thin (you have to ask for that, they'll grind the acryllic down to JUST thicker than natural nail thickness, and French.
That said...
To keep your promise:
- Shellac + tips if she wants them long.. But just shellac would work as well.
What it is: VERY thick resin based nail polish that has to set under a light. Perfect looking nails with no dremmel bit grinding.
There are some new press-on nails I saw advertised on tv. Maybe consider going that route? I got my nails done ONCE for my wedding and they were fat and it RUINED my nails. I agree with previous posts, it took nearly a year to grow decent nails again. A manicure with a french tip would look natural and I bet she'd be happy with it. Maybe have her go get just one done beforehand and see what she thinks? I hope she has fun at her dance, though!
Simply go with Kiss press on nails - or get her a fun polish look like the crackle or magnetic polish designs. No child should have fake nails on - they just ruin the natural nail.
I have very long natural nails, one breaks I don't fret they grow back, a result of that is that they are rarely the same length. I decided one time that must stop, one broke and I got acrylic put on that nail. I didn't have it on that long, my nails grow freakishly fast, but it was weak until all the part that had the fake one on it grew out. Problem is they do all this stuff to the nail so that the fake one will adhere to the natural one and they apply glue. When the nails are removed it takes a strong remover which further strips the nails. They do gels now, not exactly sure what that is, but they stay pretty longer than regular acrylics. All the violin players I've known keep theirs to short for tips, they would need a full set of acrylics. However, this what the people say, I don't know how much of that is truth vs. talking ppl into "upgrades". Don't let them cut her cuticles. If you go to the right place they can do wonders with short, natural nails, designs and all, they just don't make as much money, so they say they can't. Good Luck!
