Hi all

I have just recently started doing nails, got qualified in January and have started working from home just a few weeks ago, before that I never really got my nails done or went to a salon.

Now that I've started working from home, the clients I have had were really please with the time and effort I'd put into doing there nails, saying that at some salons they don't take the time to cleanse their hands, some don't even remove the clients cuticle, to say the least I was shocked, so I decided to go to a salon for a infill.

When I got to the salon, I was put in a chair and the lady started to remove my cuticle straight away, no cleansing of my hands and no cuticle remover was used even though the bottle was there on the table. She then proceeded to buff down the acrylic and removed some lifting with a nipper, I was quite taken aback as you could still see some lifting left behind. Before she applied the acrylic I ask her to apply soft white on the tip and was told that they only apply clear powder over the nail as it was too time consuming the do a french on a infill and that they would varnish a french polish on top of the acrylic. I felt cheated as I was told on my course that when doing an infill you apply both the white and pink powder. Once she had applied the clear powder you could clearly see the line where the old acrylic was and the new acrylic was applied on the finger where she had used the nipper.

Anyway I let her get on with it as I was on a fact finding mission and my nails did look good when she was finished. Even though I cannot wear my nails without varnish as you can see that ugly join.

What I want to know is;

Is this normal practice in salons, surely if you go in to get a infill and you have pink & white, you expect to get pink & white put back on and not varnished on. Is it just me being naive?

Please let me know, like I said I had never been to a salon before this and what I experienced was nothing like my training.

I think this depends on what of salon you go into hun. this sounds like you ahve entered into the NSS zone. they will cheat and cut corners although not all of them do. It also may be the norm in that salon these are the sort of questions you need to ask before having your nails done in a salon that you dont normally go to.

Ring around a few more and see what their policy is
HTH.

Hiya!

Im guessing a lot of geeks will reply to this.
It may have been an NSS because i dont think that was normal practice!
I would not be happy with my work if i could still see lifting after an infill. x

oops, Lucia beat me to it!!!!!

I am not sure about NSS, but what I am sure off is this is a Technician that is cutting corners for speed or simply slipped into some bad habits...... a Technician that has not updated her skills in a long time and needs to have some serious skill tweaking........ Maybe she just hasn't got the skill level to do a french L&P service.....hence her quote that is is time consuming lol.........
Technicians like these need to come out of their comfort zone and update their education.......Education in our industry is never ending , just when you think you know all there is to know, hey presto something new and exiting is happening.....

Sorry but this is not necassarily NSS!
I know of a Creative salon that uses white tips then does this very proceedure with the painting at infills.
Not the Creative way ... talk about letting the brand/side down!

Hi... I agree with what everyone has said so far. Just another thought to add. . .maybe the technician didn't have time to re-apply the white as this is more of a rebalance isn't it and can usually take a bit longer? I know of some place who do an infill when clients should be getting a rebalance and it's not right.

Although in saying that...I was once running out of time on one of my regular clients and asked if she would mind if I would just do an infil and I disguised the grown out smile line by applying some nailart. She loved it. It did the job but don't do it as a rule...

That aside though, I would have been worried too at someone carrying out a service as you described. ... no sanitation, cuticle work with no products used...

Linda's Stupid Question Of The Day??????????

What is an NSS salon, i've never heard of this before and suddenly come across two posts at once that mention them!!!!!

NSS =non-standard salon.
My understanding of it is ... generally poor/no hygiene standards.
Sometimes accompanied by the use of MMA (though not always) drills on nat nails etc.
In short proceedures/practices, frowned upon by the industry.
Hth.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Thanks for that, i was thinking it was some new major branch of nail bars i'd never heard of

Getting blonder by the day!!!!

No your not I just didn't have the guts to admit that I hadn't a clue either.

took me ages i had to ask in the end as well lol
x

thanks for that ruth i didnt dream of it being a someone who hadnt updated their skills maybe because i havent been doing nails long myself i forget how long the nail industry ahs been going in this country.

Would it really be that much quicker painting on a french design than doing a proper rebalance?

There are bazillions of salons where what you describe is the normal procedure .... in fact I would venture a guess that there are more salons like the one you describe than who do things as they 'should be done'.

To the person who initiated this thread I would say ... stick to your training and offer a good professional service and don't skip the important things such as good sanitation and use of the proper products and tools for doing the job thoroughly and gently.

I'm curious as to how you can say that your nails looked good when they obviously looked horrible without polish to cover the fill marks!! I also see many times on this site technicians that say, Oh I really like 'so n so' system but it isn't really strong and it does yellow etc ... so I think ... How in hell can they like it??? Just an observation!

I think you were refering to my post? I'll answer anyway!!!

My client's nails were in pretty good shape and needed hardly any re-defining of apex etc but I had originally set out to do a full rebalance. It was after I had started (we chat alot and she makes great coffee too!!!) and I realised how I was running out of time!.......I decided that I personnally would be quicker applying product to zone 3 and smooth out, buff and a quick flick of silver glitter across the nail to create a new smile line, topcoat and hey presto! It served the purpose at the time but obviously I had to do a proper rebalance at the next appointment. I don't do this as a rule, I simply was running out of time and I'm still new and trying to improve my times...(must learn to talk to the hand!!!!not the face and not wave my file about as I chat I guess!!!! lol.) Anyway, I felt as if I cheated though .....(And I've used the occasional white tip too and I still feel as if I'm cheating!!!! sometimes I wonder if it's a "creative" thing?)

I don't know what other responses you will get from your question but it'd be interesting to know peoples views on it. I guess some techs do this and some don't so it must be a time saver.