This is the treatment plan of one of my new clients. She feels her nails need weekly maintenance as she's a hair dresser and really hard on them. At this point her smile line is up so close to the cuticle that clipping off the free edge would be more work. And she wants to keep her natural nail growth underneath. (Until I can convince her otherwise..)

What would be the easiest way to do this? She likes multiple colors and drastic changes. Today we went from a dark green, brown and gold free edge to a pink and white glittery free edge.

I pretty much felt like I had to file as much old product as possible to prevent the old product from showing through. Client was thrilled with the result and booked for next week. I felt like it was too much work, for the price she is used to paying. Honestly don't know if any price would make up for my sore shoulder right now

Would love some advice on how to make my client and I happy!

I have many clients that change up their color acrylic every visit...it is exhausting due to the filing of the colored acrylic,i do use a drill to remove the acrylic though. Time is money. I charge $39 for a backfill acrylic change...if several colors are wanted, then it's $5 for each color. Hope that helps a little.

Even with the drill, it took me forever.

time is money, honey! im waaayyy too slack on properly pricing my clients as well - and although its nice to help our clients out, we suffer in the end.
How much are you charging your client for her weekly visit? If shes changing her colors every week, and you're filling her grow out as well - its time to charge for your time and work!
for a 2 week fill i charge $31.OO, soooo.. for a 1 week fill i'd probably charge $29.OO. $5.OO for the first color, and $3.OO for the 2nd.

in short, id roughly be charging your client $37.OO.
Remember, SHE is wanting a fill every week - and you're booking a full spot for her.
HTH!!

I guess I was a little unclear. I do think the salon would benefit from better prices, but the client tipped me 100%, so I'm happy with that. And don't get me wrong, I'm THRILLED to have a weekly client.

What I'm looking for is a more methodical approach to doing her nails. Basically I think I filled too much product to begin with and applied too much after, causing way too much work for me. I always try to maintain my nails using the concepts in the Forever Frech Rebalance Tutorial by Gigi, but these concepts only work if the client wants the same look each time.

The clients nails seem to be built with the color on the free edge.

I'm thinking the next color change appt, to soak off the nails and start over. Maybe build a thin clear nail to the length she wants, do the free edge effect, then cap in clear.

Would this make the future color changes easier?

To answer your question, the price for a "back fill" is $22, and she tipped me $25. Obviously she can see the prices are too low.

im also interested in seeing if anyone has any great tips for this,as sometimes i feel that its more work to do an infill than a new set.

I wonder if your client might be better off with a soak off gel if she wants such a drastic change every week? It'd save you loads of work! We use Biosculpture at work and it soaks off in 10 minutes. I personally wouldn't like to soak off every week, but I wouldn't like so much filing every week either, don't know which is more traumatic to the natural nail.

Ok, so if I understand this correctly, you are sculpting her nails, can't just clip off the old color because she likes the smile line down too far, and feel you are expending way too much effort filing the old color thin enough to put a new color over it? If this is the situation, I think doing a new set, and starting it with a layer of clear acrylic would be a great idea. That will give you a clean base to go down to for a new color without old color showing through. Also, you could make the clear layer the thicker of the layers, and do the color really thin on top, so there would be less filing when changing. Time is absolutely money, but if I had a weekly client, tipping me 100% each time, I would try to keep her even if it took a bit more time than my average client. But that is just my thought. Hope this helped some.

Yes I agree. I do lots of these now and have a mother and daughter who come along together and have drastic changes every time. I did a clear first layer and file down with electric file to the clear, it is so much easier this way. Pay particular attention to the thickness of the colour so you don't build the nails too high, then you wont have much filing to do the next time. You will find this so much easier!

There are other quicker options too if she is coming in weekly.

I think if I had a weekly client like this I would use coloured gels over the L&P or even different polish colours or glitters ... They should last a good week for sure.

I think technicians are making a rod for their own backs these days by offering these permanent services when the client does not want or require permanence.

I used to get some fantastic colour effects using polish in the old days when coloured powders and gels were not an option and they lasted for up to 3 weeks. We would send the client home with a bottle of a good protective top coat and suggest they applied a thin coat every 4-5 days. They would generally return with their nails looking great after 2-3 weeks never mind a week (which would be much easier). Why not give it a try and see how she goes???

Thanks everyone! Today is the fill-in. Next week we'll change the color.

Definately think colored gels would be great. It's been a while since I took my Axxium class, but I think I could manage using the colors on top of the LP. Trouble is we only have one color (I'm not really a waitress, red) I'll look around the salon, maybe I can find more.

I think I'll offer to hand paint a free edge today to see how she does with it. She's hard on her nails. But worst case scenario, she'll have to take the polish off. It's worth a shot.

I'll keep you guys posted! And will take a pic for critique today Kinda nervous about that!! I know you'll tell me the truth.