I've only just found this site and have found it really helpful and informative, and would like to tell my story as a customer and ask for some advice. Until recently I was a fortnightly customer at a Vietnamese nail salon in Swanley in Kent. I had been having infills there every 2 weeks for about 3 months on a set of nails they put on that I believed to be gel overlays.
My horror story began a month ago whilst having infills - I always found certain technicians at the salon a bit too harsh and had often come away with sore tender nails for a few days after, but this time was much worse. I feel stupid now for never saying anything when something hurt, or realising that this isn't the way nails are meant to be done! But it's always packed in there, with people sitting queuing for 30 minutes at a time for an appointment, and always leaving looking very happy. On this occasion the technician caught the drill on my cuticle and sides around my nails quite a few times, and I did pull away, but I really did think that I was just being a wimp - that it must be the norm as nobody else in there ever seemed disatisfied!
Anyway a few hours after leaving the salon my fingers started to swell up and go red, they hurt like hell, burning, itching and throbbing. I hardly slept that night because of the pain, and the next morning was even worse, my fingers had swollen to twice their size. I went to my doctor who told me I had a severe nail bed infection, undoubtedly caused by poor hygienne in the salon. I had to confess that I hadn't really paid attention to the hygiene practice there, stupid I now know, and I couldn't remember ever seeing any of the equipment being cleaned. In fact the tools were always very dusty, which I assume was the residue of the person's nails done before me!
The doctor told me if I hadn't gone to him straight away I could've got seriously ill with blood poisoning, and he put me on very strong antibiotics, 2 a day for 2 weeks. I also had to take pain killers and antihistamenes and was told there was no way I could have the overlays removed until the infection had cleared up completely. He also said that it was very likely that I could lose my own nails and they could quite literally fall off! The next few days were awful, my nails started seeping sticky yellow fluid from under my own nail, I was in so much pain I couldn't do anything with my hands for nearly a week. Then as the infection started to dry up, layers of my skin around my nails started to peel off, leaving red raw skin underneath. It took about 2 weeks before the peeling stopped and the skin started to heal.
Now 4 weeks on I've finally been able to have the overlays taken off. This time I did my research and went to a good reputable salon, I learnt there that I didn't have what I believed to be gel overlays, but in fact they had used a chemical used in the dental industry called MMA, that bad salons can buy very cheaply. Apparently it is banned in America but not over here in the UK! When the overlays were soaked off the state of my own nails underneath was horrific. I have deep dents and grooves where they used the electric file too hard, little spots of dried blood under the nail from the trauma, and most of my nails have large patches of white lifting away from the nail bed, and the skin around my nails is looking stretched and wrinkled. It's also very irritated again after the soaking off, but I was desperate to just get rid of the overlays in the end.
So first of all I'd like some advice on how to help my nails return to a healthy state!! Is there anything I can do to stop the lifting from the nail bed? I read somewhere that once a nail starts lifting in one place it will continue all over until the whole nail comes away and falls off - is that true?! I've always had weak nails that split, hence why I started having overlays in the first place, so is there anything I can use to make them stronger that really does work? Also, should I avoid ever having overlays done again in the future?
Finally, having researched into these bad nail salons, I want to know why there is no publicity or guidelines out there for us in the UK about these places? If I had known about MMA / electric files / sterilisation then I would NEVER have used this salon in the first place - there just seems to be no publicity about them for the general public, so outside of the industry how are us customers supposed to know what is a good salon and what is a bad one? If MMA is banned in the USA then why not over here? Nail salons should be regulated so that these bad ones don't exist in the first place - there doesn't seem to be any code of practice in the nail industry that protects the public from dodgy salons.
I phoned my local council to tell environmental health what had happened to me, but the lady was very off-hand with me and she seemed to think I was making a fuss over nothing! She also practically accused me of being racist because I mentioned that I hadn't bothered to go back and tell the salon as they didn't speak much English.
So that's my long (sorry!) story, I'd appreciate any advice and comments, and also what do people think about campaigning for some publicity about these places to preotect people in the future? I'd be interested to hear your points of view...
My horror story began a month ago whilst having infills - I always found certain technicians at the salon a bit too harsh and had often come away with sore tender nails for a few days after, but this time was much worse. I feel stupid now for never saying anything when something hurt, or realising that this isn't the way nails are meant to be done! But it's always packed in there, with people sitting queuing for 30 minutes at a time for an appointment, and always leaving looking very happy. On this occasion the technician caught the drill on my cuticle and sides around my nails quite a few times, and I did pull away, but I really did think that I was just being a wimp - that it must be the norm as nobody else in there ever seemed disatisfied!
Anyway a few hours after leaving the salon my fingers started to swell up and go red, they hurt like hell, burning, itching and throbbing. I hardly slept that night because of the pain, and the next morning was even worse, my fingers had swollen to twice their size. I went to my doctor who told me I had a severe nail bed infection, undoubtedly caused by poor hygienne in the salon. I had to confess that I hadn't really paid attention to the hygiene practice there, stupid I now know, and I couldn't remember ever seeing any of the equipment being cleaned. In fact the tools were always very dusty, which I assume was the residue of the person's nails done before me!
The doctor told me if I hadn't gone to him straight away I could've got seriously ill with blood poisoning, and he put me on very strong antibiotics, 2 a day for 2 weeks. I also had to take pain killers and antihistamenes and was told there was no way I could have the overlays removed until the infection had cleared up completely. He also said that it was very likely that I could lose my own nails and they could quite literally fall off! The next few days were awful, my nails started seeping sticky yellow fluid from under my own nail, I was in so much pain I couldn't do anything with my hands for nearly a week. Then as the infection started to dry up, layers of my skin around my nails started to peel off, leaving red raw skin underneath. It took about 2 weeks before the peeling stopped and the skin started to heal.
Now 4 weeks on I've finally been able to have the overlays taken off. This time I did my research and went to a good reputable salon, I learnt there that I didn't have what I believed to be gel overlays, but in fact they had used a chemical used in the dental industry called MMA, that bad salons can buy very cheaply. Apparently it is banned in America but not over here in the UK! When the overlays were soaked off the state of my own nails underneath was horrific. I have deep dents and grooves where they used the electric file too hard, little spots of dried blood under the nail from the trauma, and most of my nails have large patches of white lifting away from the nail bed, and the skin around my nails is looking stretched and wrinkled. It's also very irritated again after the soaking off, but I was desperate to just get rid of the overlays in the end.
So first of all I'd like some advice on how to help my nails return to a healthy state!! Is there anything I can do to stop the lifting from the nail bed? I read somewhere that once a nail starts lifting in one place it will continue all over until the whole nail comes away and falls off - is that true?! I've always had weak nails that split, hence why I started having overlays in the first place, so is there anything I can use to make them stronger that really does work? Also, should I avoid ever having overlays done again in the future?
Finally, having researched into these bad nail salons, I want to know why there is no publicity or guidelines out there for us in the UK about these places? If I had known about MMA / electric files / sterilisation then I would NEVER have used this salon in the first place - there just seems to be no publicity about them for the general public, so outside of the industry how are us customers supposed to know what is a good salon and what is a bad one? If MMA is banned in the USA then why not over here? Nail salons should be regulated so that these bad ones don't exist in the first place - there doesn't seem to be any code of practice in the nail industry that protects the public from dodgy salons.
I phoned my local council to tell environmental health what had happened to me, but the lady was very off-hand with me and she seemed to think I was making a fuss over nothing! She also practically accused me of being racist because I mentioned that I hadn't bothered to go back and tell the salon as they didn't speak much English.
So that's my long (sorry!) story, I'd appreciate any advice and comments, and also what do people think about campaigning for some publicity about these places to preotect people in the future? I'd be interested to hear your points of view...
