For Nail Tech's who worked through the 80's

[CadenceAlex]

I was in my early twenties in the 80's (born 1962).

I remember i was so important to have your hair as BIG & STICKING OUT as possible, helped by lashings of high hair spray, so it was rock hard too!

Bat wing dresses or jumpers.
Dresses with 'peplums' round the waist (big overhang typr frill thing)
Pencil skirts & stillettoes
High necked Lady Di blouses with frills around the neck
Velvet jackets (was that the 70's!!!):lol:
Big plastic earring & necklaces
Shoes & matching handbag for EVERY outfit, in Every colour!

Nails - i used to buy the sets where you stuck a tip on half way up your nail & put on LOADS of glue. Then you literally filed your nautural nail to shreds :Scared: where the seam line was - making sure to keep all the dust that accumulated on the nail & add more glue to the dust on the seam line. Let it dry and file it smooth! I always had very long, very red talons. When they broke, which was quickly ( can't think why!!) my nails were trashed!

My Aunt who lives in Doncaster has been doing acrylic nails for almost 30yrs, i always remember hers to be very stilletto shaped & painted purple/pink!

Great post! Cheers!

 

[*Gina*]

I got married in '85 and I remember having my nails 'done'. Oh was I in pain!!! She quite literally pushed the end under the eponychium (sp!) needless to say that they only lasted 'til the following morning and I had to rip them off, I didn't sleep because I was in so much pain.

RaRa skirts and blue, green or yellow stilletos with the clutch bag, plastic belt and plastic earrings to match Ugh!!!! I thought I was the bees knees though. lol

 

[Cathie!]

I was a bit of a psychobilly goth in those days, so my hair was big and black, my clothes were black and my nails were black and I listened to black music lol....I should post a pic really, it would make you laugh!

 

[CadenceAlex]

I was a bit of a psychobilly goth in those days, so my hair was big and black, my clothes were black and my nails were black and I listened to black music lol....I should post a pic really, it would make you laugh!

Ooooooh post a pic!!!! Go onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!! Please!! I love seeing the old 80's pics... my hubs had a wedge and a moustache... YUK!!! If I had met him then, NO WAY would I have looked twice!! I love him now he's old and grey!!!

 

[jac extreme]

I was a bit of a psychobilly goth in those days, so my hair was big and black, my clothes were black and my nails were black and I listened to black music lol....I should post a pic really, it would make you laugh!

OH GO ON CATHIE, if you will i will, :lol: big hair, big earings, eyeliner, white stilettos. rara skirts, and a waist that went with them!!! when you went to the loos in a nightclub you could choke to death on the hairspray, we didnt need any drugs we were high on martini and lemonade or bacardi and coke!!!!!!:lol:

 

[ariaaland]

For anyone interested....it would appear she was asthmatic and had a reaction to diary products that clogged her lungs....who knows ....but here is a death report. x

http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/redir?urn=http://www.weeksmd.com/articles/dairy/flo_jo_autopsy.php&url=http://www.weeksmd.com/articles/dairy/flo_jo_autopsy.php&requestId=f98dabe2ac67a38b&clickedItemRank=8&source=google&searchType=MS&partner=google&query=FLO%20JO

thank you so much for the info, i loved flo jo and did not know she had died. your article really cleared up some of my questions thank you so much

 

[Cathie!]

OH GO ON CATHIE, if you will i will, :lol: big hair, big earings, eyeliner, white stilettos. rara skirts, and a waist that went with them!!! when you went to the loos in a nightclub you could choke to death on the hairspray, we didnt need any drugs we were high on martini and lemonade or bacardi and coke!!!!!!:lol:

One day I'll go and dig out the old photos....shuld be a laugh!!!There's bound to be some goodies lol

 

[sam1]

I started working in the late eighties and I loved my nails long about an inch and a half! I used to have to stick two tips together then trim it back. They were like talons god knows how I did anything. If they weren't french polish(hadn't start perm french then) they were teal green with lots of gold art had a couple of gold nails too. Diamonties and striping was also big. I've got a photo of my long nails somewhere I'll try and scan it in.
Sam

 

[bling nails]

i loved the eighties....in 1984 i had my first set of nail extentions done for my (15th) b-day. i was a serious nail biter...used to pick my nail beds off with my compass in lessons , i know...i cringe at the thought of pain now!!! (infact my school mates can't believe i ended up as a nail tech)

had full set of sculptured nails done...in pink acrylic and painted white on using enamel. Had to have them long (3 cm of free edge!!) so you can imagine having more white than pink. (not good when trying to go to the loo) the real fake look i remember was in, in the 80's, or very bright colours, pinks, blues, greens, orange and even yellows. nail art wasn't so popular as it is now...i remember 'flicks' and daisy's being offered at a cost of £2.50 on every nail....and that was expensive!! stick on nails were popular too, you could buy them in boots in a range of about 6 colours and different shapes, long, sport, oval and square. when i couldn't afford to buy more i would file an over sized false nail to fit...
Gosh, where has the time gone....thinking back only seems like a few years ago...the 80's where great!

 

[twinkletoes910]

I remember the flourescent colors and little gold hoop nail piercings were really in. i didn't dare ask my grandma to take me to have my nails done, but she would buy me the lee stick on nails (with the little double sided tape). i always got the pink or purple colored ones in the "sport" length... and i would take a stud earring and pierce the side of one of my little plastic nails... they were SO tacky, but my friends loved them! that was in.... 86-87 but by 89 i was in my brooding black stage... that lasted WELL into the 90s.

and i had one of those nail polish pens, a dark shimmery mauve... i think they were made by wet 'n wild. and they STUNK!

 

[*Glynis*]

I used to have very long natural nails in the 80s (before pregnancy seemed to zap all the strength out of them). I used to love, love, love Mary Quant's Bloody Mary red. I wore it all the time.

I had my first set of extensions sometime in the early 80s upstairs of a shop in Oxford Street in the West End. Huge great thick nails, and the smell in the shop clung to your hair until you washed it!

I also went through a major "irredescent pink stage", this included clothes, eye shadows, lipsticks, blushers, mascara, nail varnishes, shoes, bags etc. If you could see my skin colouring you would know that I must have looked frigging awful. But hey, it was the 80s, everyone else looked as bad as me

 

[scratchmyback]

How about these....

Really pointy-toed flat shoes in pastel colours like pink & mint green
to match my long pencil skirts and sweaters in a pink / mint green combo.

Also some other memorable (hmmm) colour combinations....blue/black and purple/green. Remember that ??? Yuck

Calvin Kleins
big belts over big shirts, the bigger the better
off-the-shoulder sweatshirts, a la "Flashdance"
acid washed jeans
shoulder pads as big as a house
stirrup pants

I didn't do nails back then...I didn't have any nails back then as I chewed them so it's funny I ended up doing nails after all those years.

Great thread !!

Laura

 

[Cathie!]

OH GO ON CATHIE, if you will i will, :lol: big hair, big earings, eyeliner, white stilettos. rara skirts, and a waist that went with them!!! when you went to the loos in a nightclub you could choke to death on the hairspray, we didnt need any drugs we were high on martini and lemonade or bacardi and coke!!!!!!:lol:

80's I'm a livin in the 80's

Come on Jac your turn now!

Pic is a bit dodgy as I had to take a photo of a photo!

 

[Sassy Hassy]

OMG you were an 80s girl Cathie!!! I always wanted to look like Carole Decker or the girls from Bananarama - never did though!

 

[jac extreme]

ok. first one is in 1984 second one in 1981, I know your all jelous of my white stilletos. My hair is short as i had alopicia then, cant find any with really big hair.

 

[pazzy]

well I had a Fame suit!!! But I loved the make-up and nails stuff. Toyah had a range out and mam bought me the nail polishes with the glitter in (cool to go with me glittery plastic bangles in red blue & amber) the makeup was proper purples and pinks real new romantic stuff

 

[geeg]

1. What were the fashions for enhancements then? The clothes were outrageous... were the nails? Was nail art about?

I started in the nail business and opened my first salon back in the 80's. Where I lived, near Leeds in the North of the UK, nail enhancements were almost unheard of. A handful of girls were offering this service. I was one of the first to do so, but not THE first. The public who were daring enough to want any art of any kind, usually bought nail jewelery in Gold or silver.

2. The 80's was a depression, if I'm not mistaken - were there alot of 4. customers requiring nails, meaning Joe Public... or was it mainly people who had money to spare?

It was indeed the depression. There were tonnes of women who wanted their nails done, and certainly form all walks of life form rich to poor. Having your nail done was considered a small indulgence that gave maximum pleasure and therefore well worth it. I charged 35.00 for a full set then!! And was fully booked and opening my 2nd salon in 6 months.

3. What has REALLY changed in the Nail Industry since this decade?

To me what has changed is the amount of innovation in SOME product lines. No longer is it necessary to be so unkind to the nail plate in order for products to last when using some products. It is one of the reasons I can never understand why so many still use outdated pants products when it isn't necessary.

4. 80's fashion has made a big come back... what was different about nails offered then, to now?

Would you believe that most of my customers didn't want anyone to know they were having their nails done? We worked behind closed voile curtains so no one could see who was in the shop!! MY customers wanted their nails to look natural so their friends couldn't tell! I have based my whole career on doing nails that look natural. These days so many of the nails look blatantly UGLY & FAKE and some want it that way ... fortunately not most.

5. I should imagine the products have improved... which companies were training nail techs then?

The 2 biggest companies then are still the 2 biggest companies now ... the Creative Nail Design and, OPI .

6. Was Creative around then?

Creative is the oldest and still the best established Nail company in the world. Established in 1979 by Dr. Stewart Nordstrom who came up with something really different then (the first ever cross linked L&P) and they still have the most innovative products today.

 

[alfie]

Does anyone remember the lipsticks that chaged colour with the heat on your lips?

It looked green but went pink on your lips! I remember my mum wearing it and me always asking to have some on!!

 

[pazzy]

yes they were ultraglow...the ester stands were always in department stores all squashed and messed up...it was the also the original bronzing powder (as well as arabian glow by avon)

 

[alfie]

check out this old page, at the bottom it tells you what the lipsticks of the furture might be like, its pretty spot on!

http://clearlyexplained.com/culture/fashion/lipstick.html