Infilling a french tip. To drill or not to drill?

[Tiara]

hiya

ive just watched a tutorial on nailzoo's website on how to infill and restore the white when using a french tip. a drill was used to make a new smile line further down and file down the existing white. the nail looked fab when it was finished and and looked like it was quicker to do it that way.

is using a drill the only way of backfilling a white tipped nail? is it possible to do it with a file or not.

it would be great if people could comment back who do and who dont use a drill for this purpose.

thanks

tara x

 

[dee78]

Hi,

I use a drill for a rebalance, its alot quicker than doing it by hand. I dont use the drill for just an infill.

It is possible to do it by hand, as i have one client who doesn't like the drill, it freaks her out, so i have to do it by hand and I dread this client!! But hey you just need to get on with it.

Hope this helps you.

 

[Tiara]

so if doing it by hand would you use your file to file out a groove further down the nail like its done with the drill.? or is it done in a different way

 

[dee78]

Exactly same way it is hard work you want to get acrylic as thin as possible so you dont have a build up of old acrylic and its very thick.

Dee

 

[Bev Rose]

Hi Tara,

Check Geeg's tutorial on rebalances hun, you'll see it's not as bad as you think, most of my work is rebalancing, and I don't use a drill.

It doesn't take that long, don't forget to use a new file too.

What type of french nails do you do? Are they white plastic tip with clear/pink overlays or natural look tip with sculpted white & pink?

Here's the link for the tutorial...

http://www.salongeek.com/nail-finishing-maintenance/14905-forever-french-rebalance.html

 

[pazzy]

I use nailzoos method (cheers mate!!!) for the rebalance - its so much quicker and you save your arms from aching - also the nails stay nice and thin. Im so glad I do it that way now.

 

[geeg]

I never use a drill and I do a French rebalance in the normal amount of time (1 hour), in fact I would love to challenge a drill user against me and see who does the quicker thinner nails!!

I always make the free edges thin anyway, so thinning to do a French RB is nothing of a job. I never file a groove .. just thin and re-apply the smile ... I don't bother to cover the whole of zone 1 because my product never yellows or changes colour so I dont have to. It is quick easy and efficient. My arms never ache and I see no advantage for me in using a drill, so I never do.

Those who like them ... and use them safely ... fine. Each to his/her own.

 

[Tiara]

thanks for the replys everyone, its really helped me out and made me understand this technique much more. off to read my nailclass now

x

 

[Cathie!]

I often dreamed about an efile when I was new to nails and they got thicker and thicker rebalance after rebalance.....I am so pleased to say that now I don't dream anymore because my initial application and rebalance prep and application are just right....obviously no offence to anyone using an efile jmho!

 

[NoLimitNails]

Hi
Only time I use an efile is when i do rebalance on nails with dust, glitter or those shell things, that is loads of hard work filing down and I often have to change color completely.
Oh I also use it when soaking of entire product, just to thin down a bit...
Karen

 

[louiser]

I only use my drill when I have a client changing colour / glitter, when I have a french client as its thin in the first place and I'm only thinning by helf rather then removing every trace of glitter I never need to get the drill out x x

 

[roLLerGirL]

This is interesting to read! From a clients perspective - I wondered if it was better/faster using a drill & if some Techs still use a file.

This is (I guess) one of the reasons I soaked off my last P&W nails last year as I was a little hesitant about the drill - the "rings of fire" freaked me out. Before that I'd ever only had the natural acrylic all over & had a year of file infills.

Well, I had my first P&W infills yesterday. The drill came out & I tried not to think about it as the Tech turned it on & I put my nailbeds in her hands!

She did accidently burn me once - it was SO PAINFUL - but thankfully only lasted a few seconds & didn't appear to have made any damage to the nail bed.

I won't be going back to that salon though, not due to this but a number of reasons - hygene (or lack of) being one of them.

Salon hunting again...

 

[oey]

This is interesting to read! From a clients perspective - I wondered if it was better/faster using a drill & if some Techs still use a file.

This is (I guess) one of the reasons I soaked off my last P&W nails last year as I was a little hesitant about the drill - the "rings of fire" freaked me out. Before that I'd ever only had the natural acrylic all over & had a year of file infills.

Well, I had my first P&W infills yesterday. The drill came out & I tried not to think about it as the Tech turned it on & I put my nailbeds in her hands!

She did accidently burn me once - it was SO PAINFUL - but thankfully only lasted a few seconds & didn't appear to have made any damage to the nail bed.

I won't be going back to that salon though, not due to this but a number of reasons - hygene (or lack of) being one of them.

Salon hunting again...

It is a shame that you had to experience poor standards - as you dont need to name the salon what were the poor standards you found?

 

[loubylou]

I use a e-file but only to take down the bulk, i dont carve out a new line for the smile, just reapply the white on the smile line and blend into the white that is left further down the free edge hth

 

[sknight]

When I started out i thought i would need one but luckily didnt shell out all that money because I just dont need it as the nails are thin anyway so filing isn't really a problem.

 

[roLLerGirL]

It is a shame that you had to experience poor standards - as you dont need to name the salon what were the poor standards you found?

Hi Oey,

This salon would be what you guys call an NSS salon - although it didn't seem that way when I walked past it many times - it's not a franchise - it actually looks quite classy. The prices were not discounted.

• I noticed brushes being stored & taken (wet) out of containers that have old dirty files, other brushes and other things (pens maybe?)
• The towels you place your hands/arms on were dirty
• product (primer, powder, liquid etc) were in blank/nonmarked containers
• product was shared between clients, as soon as the girl I was with was finished, another girl came to get the liquid & powder
• The drill was shared between clients/workstations without even wiping the drillbit
• I was sitting at a table on one side of their small staff room (barely the size of a wardrobe) - I didn't mind this but it didn't give any of the staff much privacy. The microwave/handbags/sink were all together as there was no room.
• Other clients were getting their nails done sitting at a pedicure station (on the side of the armrest - with the Tech sitting on a little stool next to them with the products on another stool) - obviously a busy night but I didn't like this - reminded me of cattle.
• I could hardly understand the girl who was doing my nails - and vice versa.
• No hand washing facility - the anti bac was in a soak filled
• My nails were filed down shorter than I asked - oh well they will grow back.
• I didn't notice at the time but most nails were crooked - I corrected when I got home.
• Nails were quite thick & lumpy. There is an obvious gap between the extension & white acrylic that screams "they're fake"

They don't look too bad from the top (now they are straight). If I didn't know any better I would think this is normal.

I feel strange writing this critique however from the info I have learnt from Salon Geek not to settle for 2nd rate service.

 

[blossom]

I've never used an e-file. I take 1hr to 1hr10 to do a French rebalance with hand filing.

Clients say they prefer it.