If You Bite Your Nails, You Should Read About My 7-Day Experiment
If I had to list three things I spend the most money on, they're easily food, gas and beauty products or beautifying.
Food is a given, because, well, food. And gas is inevitable living in Los Angeles (I have a 16-mile total drive to and from work each day alone)—and then, the beauty.
You see, when I refer to all the beauty-related buys, this encompasses hair care, makeup and yes, nails.
(via Shutterstock)
To my coworkers, getting gels on their dainty hands is a treat—one that they are able to savor for weeks! To me, getting gels used to be a bi-weekly routine, that is, until I realized I was wasting my money and should just resort to painting them myself every two days.
I go through phases with this, but I will be honest and tell you that lately, I am totally in a bite-pick situation with my nails and cuticles. Totally not ladylike, I know. So basically after two or three days of gels, I'm already onto my next batch!
As I mentioned above, I finally put a stop to this (much to the thankful and sensical advisory of my colleagues), but recently I thought it would be interesting to test my self-control and see if getting an extra fancy gel application would force me into leaving my nails alone.
I went ahead and made an appointment at the incredibly chic Mars the Salon in West Hollywood, California, and prepared to let my experiment begin.
Exactly a week ago, I ventured into the salon and opted for a gel mani by the talented Ayumi Namaizawa. The service was approximately $100 (yes, you read that correctly), but is that amount any more than I was shelling out almost every week, pretty much? Plus, this particular salon—a renown company in Japan—specializes in damage-free gel application (so, regardless of the outcome, at least your nail beds aren't destroyed when the gels come off).
When I entered the salon, I was taken into my very own private room (cool, right?!) set up with a TV, a very relaxing chair, comfy pillows and a compartment for my handbag. Ayumi got to work after I selected my blueish-grey nail hue, and after an hour of very intricate strokes and reapplications, I was ready to see how long I could make this last.
Going into this experiment on a Thursday, I just so happened to have an out-of-town birthday celebration to attend that weekend, so that was definitely useful in forcing me not to mess with my nails.
The good news: I left the nails, themselves, alone! The bad news: During the car ride, I pulled a little bit here and there at the surrounding skin. That said, I was still going strong overall.
My biggest issue these days isn't necessarily with the actual nails, but more with cuticles. Ladies, feel me when I say cuticles are the worst! Even once you get rid of them, they're back two days later. Okay, so, yeah, by yesterday, I couldn't stop myself from tugging away at my cuticles.
That said, here I am on Day 7, and the gels, themselves, are on and strong! And that was the whole point, right? These bad boys haven't lifted a smidge, and because they look so tightly on, I don't have any temptation to peel away. Plus, when you spend that kind of money, just let the time and effort the technician spends on you get its maximum exposure, right?
Bottom line: Keeping your nails in check is pretty important, and if saving a few extra allowance dollars from time to time can help you maintain looking your best, do it. But truly value what goes into helping you look this way, and you'll hopefully force yourself to treat the final product a bit better.
If the above post isn't any indication of how important our nails are to us, HERE's how getting a manicure makes us feel more confident!