I think it depends on the quality of the product you use. I use both acrylic and gel and its nice to offer people a choice. I find older ladies who have had acrylic for years often want to "stick with it" and that's fine. I find its often younger women who want to try gel but I think a lot of gels are falsely marketed as being better for the nails because they let them breathe - what rubbish! But I think gel can be really good too, but not for that reason! (I use BrisaLite Sculpting for extensions) and it truly is the best gel I have used, other gels sometimes have peeled or lifted or just not lasted very well, so it pays to do your homework. Then again you have the NSS salons who offer gel, charge more for it,and then get the liquid and powder out, but thats another story . . .
Neither product will damage the nails, it is the nail tech who can do that with over zealous filing procedures, or poorly educated clients who pull off their nails rather than come for a soak off or who go ridiculously long times between infills (3 weeks is really the max unless someone has a very slow growth).
With regard to infection, prevention of lifting is the key here as a lifted pocket under any product, gel or acrylic, can then get infected for example when the client washes her hands, water creeps into the lifted part, and then hey presto the next week you have Pseudomonas (greenies) ...a bacterial infection which is so easily prevented by a) not having lifted product in the first place, so good quality gels or acrylics, plus careful and correct application, and b) educating your client to return to you if she sees some lifting so you can repair and prevent an infection happening.
Whether it is a damaging service long-term can depend on all these factors, but again, with proper care and application, the answer really should be no.
Top end products are strong and durable but of course, at a certain point of impact, acrylics and gels are designed to break or come away from the nail (for example, shutting your nail/fingertip in a car door or window) rather than hang on and drag your nail off your nail bed. This is good thing lol! On the whole, its fairly easy to determine whether clients should return every 2, 2.5 or 3 weeks (and it does vary, depending on their growth, their use of their hands, and the length they wear them - and of course, the care they take of them, for instance they should be oiling daily with a good quality cuticle oil such as Solar Oil or, my new favourite, Dadi Oil:Love: and they should be wearing gloves to protect their nails from damage from cleaning products/bleach etc, and also not sitting in hot tubs or saunas for hours). Returning within the given timeframe and proper aftercare should minimise breakages.
The nail extension game is not cut and dried by any means, and I can do the same thing on 10 clients and if they all return in 3 weeks their nails will all be in a different state depending on all these factors. So don't expect it to be a one-size fits all thing (like I did initially lol)! Having said that it is tremendously satisfying and very gratifying and I wouldn't want to do anything else
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Hope this helps a bit! x
