Manicure ... with or without soaking?

[The Geek]

Great thread and good poll.

Soaking sucks.

Its an old hand me down from the baby days of the industry that serves very little purpose other than potential damage to the nail.
OK, maybe thats a bit strong - however the purpose of a water soak was to soften the cuticles (back when everyone thought the cuticle was that little flap of skin actually called the eponychium - also back when everyone cut it!).
Anyhooo... when soaked for long periods of time (especially in a detergent), the nail plate gets stripped of oil and absorbs copious amounts of water which swell the plate and contributes to splitting and peeling (not to mention loss of nail enamel over a period of days).

Water soaking is a thing of the past that clients need to become more educated about. Sure, soaking is most likely fine when done for a few minutes - but what purpose is it serving?

Hope this helps get a row started

 

[Northern Nails]

Row?...on this site?....

NEVER!! :wink2:

 

[izzidoll]

Great thread and good poll.

Soaking sucks.

Its an old hand me down from the baby days of the industry that serves very little purpose other than potential damage to the nail.
OK, maybe thats a bit strong - however the purpose of a water soak was to soften the cuticles (back when everyone thought the cuticle was that little flap of skin actually called the eponychium - also back when everyone cut it!).
Anyhooo... when soaked for long periods of time (especially in a detergent), the nail plate gets stripped of oil and absorbs copious amounts of water which swell the plate and contributes to splitting and peeling (not to mention loss of nail enamel over a period of days).

Water soaking is a thing of the past that clients need to become more educated about. Sure, soaking is most likely fine when done for a few minutes - but what purpose is it serving?

Hope this helps get a row started

Cheers Sam!.......I am glad this thread has given everyone food for thought, and hasn't actually broken out into a row between the soaks and the non soaks......
This is possibly because so many facts have been posted and good reasons given for what we do....even the soakers who acknowledge it is just because they were told to do it way back when!.....when dinosaurs roamed the earth....
But at least some are trying to cut the soaking time down and use some of the fabulous products out there that soften the cuticle so much better............as Geeg always says we want to work Smarter not harder!!.......:wink2:

 

[Urban Geek]

Isabel,

I can now say that, soaking for me is a thing of the past. It makes so much sense. Heated mitts/warm towels are far more luxurious too.

How would all these comments about soaking affect pedicures? Would the same not apply to toenails?

 

[River]

How would all these comments about soaking affect pedicures? Would the same not apply to toenails?

Good point ! I was thinking about this the other day and was going to pose the question, but got carried away with other things and forgot.

Any thoughts on this would be welcome ....


River

 

[izzidoll]

Hi,
Just saw this......and my first instinct was, you can have your clients wash their hands before a manicure...but do you expect her to go wash her feet ?............they ain't double jointed....but sorry this is a serious poll and deserves a serious answer.....

I can only speak for Creative Spa as that is the only range I have used....and the soaking products within it...Foaming Sea Soak is to cleanse and soften the foot, and there is my personal favourite the Sea Rocks Soak, which has an anti-inflammatory in it, and it cleanses and deodorises the foot
A pedicure really is more a whole foot treatment than a nail treatment....
We do not want to grow our toenails the way we do our fingernails!!....they are kept short!....

Also our hands are out in the open all day and in and out of water which can cause dry brittle nails......which is the main reason I do not soak hands in a manicure....

In contrast our toes are in shoes all day...therefore the main risks are fungal infections not dry, brittle nails......The hands are the desert, and the feet are the Rainforest.....

In short the benefits of washing/soaking feet for the deodorising and softening/hydrating effect from your products outweigh the very slight possibility of drying out the toenails.....HTH

 

[Urban Geek]

Terrific advice once again Isabel - THANKS!

 

[bimbogeri]

A row, Sam, whatever do you mean?

Hmm, personally I soak because of the whole perception thing... clients expect a soak, but I spose it's not a very good reason! I only soak for about a minute, just long enough to file the nails on the other hand (y'know.. file one hand, into the water, file the other hand, switch 'em over..) so I guess I'm not causing any damage, but as I've got to the trouble of getting them a nice bowl, pebbles, fizzy balls etc it's what they expect.

Maybe I will switch to a heated mitts option now - I'm interested to know how other people work this into their routine. As mine usually goes file, soak, cuticle work, massage nails with oil, hand/arm massage, squeak nail, polish.

 

[Bryony]

I was taught to soak nails to soften the cuticle and always did so until I did my Creative training and was introduced to cuticle remover - with that stuff you don't NEED to soak.

Now I would only soak if I was doing say, a hot oil manicure, or the client had very tough cuticle, otherwise I don't bother.

I always explain to my clients it's because
1) my cuticle remover is so good I don't need to soak them (and they can see this for themselves with the 'residue' that comes away from the nail plate)
2) soaking causes nails to retain moisture and changes their shape, by the time you come to polishing, the nails are not fully dry and so still may not be their 'natural' shape. As they dry out properly over time, the polish is more prone to cracking and will not last as long as if applied to dry nails.

Whenever I've had a manicure in the past I've always suffered the following few days with my nails splitting and peeling (which they never do normally), I'm sure it was because they always used to soak them and then file them whilst they were wet.....

 

[Ms.Matrix]

I chose I always soak...
It's not called a water manicure for nothing :lol:

..but, I never soak befor applying a set of nails because we were taught in school that nails are porous and putting a tip on something that has just absorbed water is an excellent way for nail fungus to grow...warm, damp and dark...little germs and microbes love that.

 

[Jen Smith]

Just to say I haven't soaked since this thread was originally posted ... just thought I would post this quickly to bump the thread back up so any of the new geeks can have a read and see what the most up-to-date thinking is.

Hope the regular geeks don't mind it being bumped up on this occation?

:hug:

 

[Dom]

Hi everyone,

i have only recently graduated from my course and we were taught to soak for a manicure and pedicure. I got the Creative Video on Spa manicure and pedicure and in there also it tells u to soak. I have noticed alot of people dont though and i thought it was weird until I read this post.

So what type of mittens can I get for the manicure and also do the same rules apply for the pedicure process.

Your input would be extremely valuable

 

[pinkmummy]

I ticked never soak, I used to untill I did my Jessica training about 5 yrs ago.
Now when I'm doing a Jessica or Creative Spa Manicure (I offer both) I only use citrusoak or the Jessica equivalent (in a glass bowl) to do a quick scub of the nail plate with a nail brush.
If you use the correct products to hydrate the nail plate (solar oil or phenomen oil etc) it's so much more beneficial than the old soaking way I was taught in college.

 

[princessniknox]

Just bumping this thread up again (brilliant thread Izzy)

I originally did a search for pedicure PRICES to see what everyone else charges - and came across this one on the use of water during a manicure.

I was trained to use the soak method - but won`t be doing that anymore!!

It has raised a question though ....

re: soaking during a pedicure?? - sometimes the only way to reduce the length of toenails (especially with a new client who`s nails have been a bit neglected) is to clip them after a good soak - but then what about applying polish to the toenails afterwards???? Wouldn`t this have an affect on the life of the polish???

 

[caroleloftus]

I was taught to soak but since training with Creative, I never have done. Water is one of the things that can weaken the nail, so why soak your clients nails in it?! Plus it does effect the enamel.

 

[Nafia]

most product lines are moving to the waterless manicure it doesn't really mean no water but no soaking

 

[nail2heart]

i was also taught to always soak with manicures,after years researching and keeeping up with new tecniques,and tips from geeks,i have learnt you only soak depends on your clients nails.


Florentina Alexander
[email protected]
Nails At Last

 

[leah82]

I was taught to soak!!! But after reading this I think I'll just do it depeding on the clients nails!!! Although some clients as said by others expect it!

 

[Sarah Nails]

Well given that nails are porous and so will absorb water and expand when in water... and given that we teach our clients never to file their nails after they've had a bath... and given that we teach them to always wear rubber gloves when they do anything remotely domestic including water... why on earth would we soak nails in water during a manicure...?! Can't see it myself... I never soak in water at any time at my nail station...!
lol Sarah ;-)
:!:

 

[niksaki]

Ok...you soak nail plate (which is dry and sometimes VERY VERY dry), it soaks up the moisture(water)...what happens naturally is that the nail plate expands with all the moisture...you apply base, enamel, etc....few hours go by...nail plate dries up again and loses the swelling, therefore shrinks back to original size....what happens to enamel?????????????? Chips/flakes/wears/whatever you want to call it...nothing to do with the product or application.... we personally never soak but make up for it with lots of moisturising, massage and conditioning.

My boss who just did her grandmasters (sp?) learnt all of this last weekend, so now we do spa mani's. no soaking etc.