Enhancements Falling Off

[Flitch]

Hi everyone, I need some advice. On Saturday I did a full set of l&p enhancements on a teenage girl (with the consent of her mother, it was a birthday treat). Today I got a message saying three had come off. I agreed to go round and have a look and replace free of charge. When I got there only three were still on. I replaced the rest. This time I prepped each nail and then applied the acrylic before prepping the next. I made doubly sure that I was pressing the acrylic firmly onto the nail plate and now I have my fingers crossed that they will stay put.

Naturally, they wanted to know what had happened. I was at a loss for words. I'm newly qualified and don't have many clients but this has never happened to me before. The girl did have very small nail plates and was a bit of a biter, but I have worked on a biter before without problems.

I use EzFlow, followed the prep to the letter and sculpted the enhancements.

The only thing I can think of is the girl's nail plates were quite oily and I wondered whether puberty might be having an effect on things, as I know that pregnancy can cause complications with enhancements. I don't think she had been picking at them because there didn't appear to be any damage to the nail plates.

Sorry for the lengthy novel, but I wanted to explain the situation completely as I am most frustrated as this is something that I love doing and so want to be good at. Any suggestions most gratefully received.

 

['chelle]

The first thing is to make sure you have followed your prep, tipping and product application properly (which you seem to have covered anyway). Provided you have done all that and are confident that your application was fine, you need to be looking further for the cause of these nails that fall off.

Have a search on this forum for nails that "just fall off" and you will see that this is a popular reason given by clients who are not very careful with their enhancements, and dont want to admit it. What system are you using? it is likely that it is a cross linked keratin bonding product, which means that it literally fuses to the top layers of nail plate, and cannot just fall off. Do you get your client to sign a client record card? On my cards it states that the enhancements are not guaranteed and that all replacements and repairs must be paid for. Nail biters in particular are prone to having maintenance problems which is one of the reasons why a weekly rebalance is recommended for nailbiters.

If that had been my client, I would have been asking questions about what she has been doing with them, as they dont just fall off. This serves two purposes: the first is that it gives the client the message that you are not going to just roll over and do freebie replacements, but more importantly it also gets to the bottom of any problems so that you can advise your client how to modify their activities and help reduce breakages in the future. I would have charged for those replacements, I think you should consider charging for these sort of replacements in future.

Just as an example for you, I had a new client a few weeks ago. While I was working she told me that all the girls in the office where she works get their nails done, they sit in the office biting them off, then they go back to the tech, tell her they fell off, and she replaces them for free. If this work is free, theres no incentive for the client to look after them. Anyway, at my clients rebalance, she had NO nails left, and told me they all fell off. I remembered what she had said to me before, but clearly she didnt remember telling me. I examined her nails and told her I could see the nail plate damage where they had been forcibly removed (ie bitten off) and made her pay the full price for a full set. I havent seen that client again (she didnt turn up for her last appointment). That might sound bad, but its clear that she wants a tech that will do freeby work like all her other friends get, but I want to keep my appointment book free for those who dont want freebies, so I dont mind having perhaps lost that particular client.

I know I've gone on a bit here, but most of the techs on here could talk for days about their experiences with the old "they just fell off" adage. Of course, you need to make sure you are doing everything well, especially your prep, but bear in mind that people will use this excuse when they have not looked after their nails, and its important that you dont just give in and replace these nails for free.

The very best of luck :green:

 

[2littletoys]

i did a friends teenage daughter and hers "feel off" after about a week- found out later she was playing dodgeball in school!

 

[geeg]

Do you think you may have got the length wrong for this girls life style? Also, had the tips broken off or had the whole enhancement come off?? tips break if nails are too long. If the whole enhancement is coming off then I suspect the client. One thing I never do is guarantee my work on a nail biter .. you just can't trust them ... they have their nails in their mouths all the time.

 

[Flitch]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm not convinced that its something that she's done, although I'm equally not convinced that its poor workmanship on my part. In reply to Geeg, I purposefully kept the length very short and explained that as she wasn't used to long nails this was the best option. She was happy with this and didn't want them very long. And it was the whole enhancement that came off not just the tip (although I didn't use tips, I sculpted).

Don't think its a school sport as the schools here have just broken for spring holidays.

I'm just waiting now to see if I get another call tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes. But if anyone else has some input I'd be very grateful.

 

['chelle]

Hey hun

If you sculpted and kept them short, yet its the whole enhancement coming off, I would be suspicious. I know you said you dont think she has done anything, but clients can seem very convincing with their excuses! I would say that as long as you have done your prep thoroughly, pressed and guided your product rather than brushing and poking it about, then you have got it right and there must be something client-wise causing this. This could be some sort of activity she is engaging in, a product she is using (without wearing gloves), she could be picking them, or a medical condition and/or medication could be causing changes to the nailplate (I find that clients taking thyroxin for thyroid problems always suffer from excessive lifting). If you suspect it might be excessively oily nailplates, try using nailfresh (or whatever the equivalent is with the brand you use) as a prep booster, this may work.

 

[geeg]

It's quite easy to tell if a ail has been ripped of or prised off or just come off.

If the nails are clean and unmarked they just came off!! If they have nail plate missing and are scared or rough, they were helped off. How to tell .. rub over the nail surface with Scrub Fresh. Let dry and the whole story will be there in front of your eyes.

 

[Flitch]

First of all may I say thank you to everyone who's advised me on this situation already. Have seen my teenage girl again today and all her enhancements except one were off. As you suggested Geeg, I swiped over each nail with scrubfresh and all the nails except one were totally unmarked and smooth.

As I said before, I didn't really think she was biting them off, and the evidence seems to support this. I can therefore only assume it's something I'm either doing wrong or not doing. I definitely followed my training to the letter regarding prep and application so can't work out what my mistakes are. Although I know this girl isn't going to be a regular client, I would still like to try and work out whats happening so that I can ensure that it doesn't happen on anyone else. I haven't had it happen before on either myself or any other client (although I don't have many at the moment).

Any more ideas and suggestions most gratefully received.

 

[oey]

I think the only way now to really find out is to do a one 2 one session with your trainer so she can see your application process.

 

[Flitch]

Thanks for the advice Oey, am seeing her on the 15th so will definitely run the whole thing by her then and get her to check my appplication process as suggested.

 

[lydiagood]

As I 've read everybody's responses I keep thinking that you were likely on target with the first thought you had. How old is your client? You've stated teenager and you also mentioned that her nails were quite soft. Since we know that our product adheres to proximal layer and the hard keratin that we find in this nail layer, I've often wondered if an undeveloped or newly developing (you know...'developing' :wink2 girl lacks the appropriately hardened keratin to have an appropriate bond with the product. Are you using primer or primerless liquid?

 

[Flitch]

Thanks for your reply. I used a primer. I use EzFlows q monomer and a polymer systen which requires a primer.

I'm not sure it was the softness of her nails as I've recently carried out an experiment on my daughter who is 10. I enhanced one nail on her dominant hand with a very short p&w and told her to use it as normal and not pay any attention to it. It lasted for weeks and finally chipped at the free edge but did not lift.

This leads to me to think that it was probably the fact that the girl in question was experiencing hormonal changes due to puberty and this affected her nails just as pregnancy, hrt and the menopause can.

I ran this theory past my educator who also felt that this was probably the case, although there was probably some assistance from the girl once the lifting starting!

 

[nailzoo]

In my experience with young girl ... teenagers.

Most of them have pretty hideous cuticles, quite overgrown and have never had any advice to the contrary, nor even thought of their cuticles before coming to you.

If the cuticles and all the rest of the garbage attached to the nailplate is not removed properly, they will come off.

As stated by other peeps, the length of the nails is very important also.