help with this client

[sian1979]

Hi all.... am hoping that some of you may be able to help with this client. I have attached 3 pictures of one of my clients nails. They are quite red and damaged as she rips them off whenever she wants a new set.....i have tried getting her to let me soak them off but it ever happens. She at least admits it now as before she said that she soaked them off when it was quite obvious from the damage that this wasn't the case.
Anyway she came in for a new set today so thought i would take some pictures to show you all her natural nails. The thing is she gets really bad lifting. She comes to me every 2 weeks with out fail....i do a really thorough prep on them using cnd cuticle eraser..... i originally used to do a dry prep but because of the issues went on to try this incase i was missing anything (and for another reason will say below)..... but this has made no difference what so ever. The has them sculpted very short now where as she used to wear them quite long..... this made a minimal difference.
The only thing i thought it could be is that the lunar part of her nails are quite large... but also very very soft which is why i switched to a wet prep as i felt like when i was pushing back the eponychium i felt like it was going to go through the nail with the pusher. It probably would not have done but even so thought it would be more comfortable.
With this part of the nail being so soft and quite flexable would this movement with the rigid liquid and powder on top cause it to lift??? if this is the case do you think it would be worth a try with gels??
I am determined to try and resolve what is causing the lifting...i know she does quite manual work... but i really don't thInk that this is causing the lifting....so any advice or ideas would be appreciated thank you.

 

[Envy]

applying nails is like building a house.

"'The weaker the foundation - the less likely it will stay up"

I personally think that her 'removing' her nails and therefore thinning the nail plate is making any resolve on the lifting impossible...

This is also the same reason they will be soft ..

Until you are working with a solid base there is no real point in trying to diagnose the lifting cause...

honestly I would advise that you will potentially suffer from service breakdown as long as you are removing them yourself.. Hard but sometimes the truth isn't comfortable..

 

[Bev Rose]

applying nails is like building a house.

"'The weaker the foundation - the less likely it will stay up"

I personally think that her 'removing' her nails and therefore thinning the nail plate is making any resolve on the lifting impossible...

This is also the same reason they will be soft ..

Until you are working with a solid base there is no real point in trying to diagnose the lifting cause...

honestly I would advise that you will potentially suffer from service breakdown as long as you are removing them yourself.. Hard but sometimes the truth isn't comfortable..

I agree with Envy on this.

I have a similar client who bites off her nails when she wants a new set/nail replacement. Thankfully, she does not do this too often.

I use CND products and have used L&P on her. Then one day when she came in with them all bitten off - her nails were in a bad state as she'd taken a few layers off too. So, I thought - lets try her with Brisa - bad move, because of the damage to her nails and the weak poor condition they were in, the Brisa lifted very quickly & was not a good choice for her. (I know gel is better for brittle, ridged nails, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway!)
So now she's been back on L&P for 18months. She has got much better, we do get her to a NNO state & she wears them reasonably long in an almond shape with not too many probs now. She had a 1 colour overlay with a gel polish.

I have tried the scrubfresh/nailfresh/scrubfresh trick & then applied one nail at a time, tried primer etc. But she still used to get minimal lifting.
But when she realised her biting causes the problems, she been much, much better.
These days, she's not too much of a problem lifter, but she still does get some on a couple of nails that grow at odd angles.

As for your delicate lunular area, I would carry on with L&P, and apply it quite thinly in this area, and try to sculpt and smooth as much with the brush as poss, avoiding the need for too much filing in that area.

You will have to inform her that if she persists in removing them with her teeth, she will never get a decent hold with any product. Maybe get her to pop in on a weekly basis for a few weeks to assess and infill/repair areas of lift whilst she gets some growth going. That way, she will not maybe feel the need to bite them off as she knows she's coning to you & if there's lift it will be sorted quicker?

Good luck with it Sian & don't feel like it's YOUR skills, because it's definatley not :hug:

 

[sian1979]

thank your for you replies, i do understand that her nails being thin and weak could be a possible cause for the lifting.... she had been going to a nss before coming to me and her nails were in a much worse state then but they are better than they were believe it or not. When i say she rips them off when she has a new set i dont mean she does this that often....just when she gets fed up of what she has got. I have told her that i think she s soaking them off wrong and that i want to do it. hopefully she will realise.....she has had nails on for about 20 or so years she has told me. I just wanted to see what other people thought from looking at the pictures and whether they had come across clients that had suited gel over liquid and powder and vice versa and what people thought of the shape of her nails and if anyone else had come across the soft lunar.

 

[Envy]

hi sian

certainly different services suit different clients and as a professional you should work with the client to find the correct one

BUT, damaged nail plates = next to impossible for ALL products
the soft lunula area is symptomatic of traumatised nails, they are probably growing as fast as possible to try and recover the damage, hence not strong and healthy plate

The nail plate is there to protect the small bones in the tip of the finger - when this protection gets damaged the nail will grow faster to try and repair the protective 'shield'
(just like nail biters, theirs grows very fast which often causes the over growth of cuticle at the same time..) but in the mean time these are weak foundations for any additional coating... she isn't just going to realise, she really needs to have the anatomy and result/ consequences of her actions politely explained to her