Nail came off .... please help ... is it me?

[Rose143]

Hi Peeps,

This is gonna be a long one!! I really thought I handled this the best way I possibly could and I am really worried now and need your help urgently... should have done this is the first place. Thanks in advance for reading.

Anyway, one of my clients went to a chop shop, she rang me up one day and asked if I could do her infills as she didn't like the fact the the salon she was going to used drills. I was horrified to find that the nails had all the symptoms of containing MMA. I battled to file them down in zone 3 (they were rock hard) and I also found that her R/H middle finger nail had begun to lift away from the nail bed. I said to her that I wasn't comfortable infilling her nails as I suspected they contained MMA. I told her that the nails were far too long to do housekeeping (her job) with but she said she had never broken one before and they were fine. I suggested we soak them off on my next visit and put a full set of Creative L&P Extensions on instead. In the meantime I suggested she use her SolarOil religiously especially under the nail that had lifted away ..... I don't think she did that!

My next visit was a very long one, I spent an hour and a half maybe more soaking these damn things off!!! They came off like rubber, they were a mission to get off, a job I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy!!!! I filed them as much as I could in between but it didn't help it just reset and went rock hard again. Anyway .... we eventually got there and I did a really nice set for her. She wanted them very long and I warned her that they would not be rock hard like the others but she was adamant she was used to the length. I built zone 2 up nicely keeping a sharp eye on the nail that had lifted away (in the corner) again stressing to her to use SolarOil under the nail to help it heal ..... she didn't listen yet again!! I really scared her as well by telling her that it is possible to loose the whole nail but she promised me she would look after it very well.

I got a call about a week and a half after my visit and she told me that the tip had cracked across the middle of this problem nail , I thought she meant just the L&P but when I got there I found that her natural nail had also been split across the middle and lifted off the nail bed hanging by two pieces of skin on either side. I of course wanted to slap the woman when she said .... "Rose, I forgot to use my SolarOil .... ooops" I calmly said I would come out and repair it for her and told her to not do anything until I get there. I had no idea what to do, it was very sore and basically flapping about. I told her I couldn't soak it off because it was an open cut. So instead I used a form to gently lift the nail back into place and applied my L&P as normal taking extra care in the stress area. She was so happy the pain had gone and I told her that we will soak that off and redo it when the nail underneath grows out. I was really pleased when I left as you couldn't see that it had cracked. She still wouldn't let me take down the length so I told her to be extra cautious.

Today before her appointment I get a call from her saying that the nail had cracked again in the same place and she had covered it with a plaster but it wasn't sore. So when I got there I gently cut the sides where the skin was and checked if there were any open cuts and thankfully there wasn't. So I put my foot down and asked her honestly has she been using the SolarOil as I isntructed for this particular nail and she said NO!!! I TOLD HER I will be taking the length down and that I will soak off the left over L&P on the problem nail but I will not be putting anything on there until I have consulted my fellow geeks. I rebalanced the other 9 and told her that if she had just looked after that one nail as I suggested this probably could have been avoided. I told her that this lifting of her nail was a result of her previous set she had done and she apologised profusley and gave me her word that she would follow my advice from now on. I told her I will be phoning her or texting her to check!!!

Peeps, I was so scared today :cry:, I have never in my life seen the nail plate lift away like that, I really tried to stay confident and professional in front of my client but I admitted to her I had no idea what to do and that I would find out tonight. She thanked me for my patience with her and for being so honest.

My questions now .... was this problem my fault? Is there something else I could have done to avoid this? Should I not have put L&P over the already cracked nail? What would you huys have done? Please help, I tried really hard to give good sound advice, where did I go wrong? Was my advice about SolarOil good enough?

Please help!
xxxxxxxxxxx

 

[Rose143]

Anybody???? :sad:

xxxx

 

[Just Jo]

Rose hunny I had a client come and she had dropped her laptop and tried to catch it and crack 2 fingers on each hand right through to the nail bed! ouch! I too was unsure as it was my first time ... so I cleaned them and glued the splits together and reapplied the l&p. She does use her soalroil though but the next time she came they were still together and I just infilled as normal. Her nails have just about grown up now and thanfully we have had no further problems from them.
As in your usual professionalism Rose I think that you did everything right and you were right in trying to get her to have them shorter and advised her accordingly. In her job they are obviously too long and she is putting too much pressure on them. Did she sign a client card hun?
Dont know what else to say babe and I hope we got it right I am sure that someone else will say Didnt want you to think noone care :hug:
Take care
Loadsof hugs
Jo xxxx :hug: :hug:

 

[Rose143]

Rose hunny I had a client come and she had dropped her laptop and tried to catch it and crack 2 fingers on each hand right through to the nail bed! ouch! I too was unsure as it was my first time ... so I cleaned them and glued the splits together and reapplied the l&p. She does use her soalroil though but the next time she came they were still together and I just infilled as normal. Her nails have just about grown up now and thanfully we have had no further problems from them.
As in your usual professionalism Rose I think that you did everything right and you were right in trying to get her to have them shorter and advised her accordingly. In her job they are obviously too long and she is putting too much pressure on them. Did she sign a client card hun?
Dont know what else to say babe and I hope we got it right I am sure that someone else will say Didnt want you to think noone care :hug:
Take care
Loadsof hugs
Jo xxxx :hug: :hug:

Thank you my little friend for taking the time to read my very long post and for replying. I am glad I at least have one opinion as I do feel I did everything I possibly could.

Yes she did sign a client card that stated I gave her aftercare advice. In the aftercare advice it also states to use SolarOil twice daily, which she admitted she hadn't done.

I'm just really glad she still booked three follow up appointments after this whole scenario! She normally books for infills and a pedicure every two weeks, didn't want to loose this one!

xxxx

 

[Just Jo]

I wish you all the best Rose and I am sure everything will be fine ... praps she will even listen to you nesxt time and have them shorter

Let us know how it goes :hug:
Jo xx

 

[Bagpuss]

yup I agree Rose, you did everthing you could...she was a fool to ignore your advice, she should have had them shorter. You are not to blame at all...she broke it in the first place cos it was too long, then had more problems cos she didn't listen to you.

I have bashed my nail really bad when polishing of all things..the nail tip bashed into the wall and it cracked along the nail bed....i stuck my finger in Scrubfresh, screamed, pushed back together and applied more gel. It was fine and grew out in a few weeks.


well done Rose for staying cool and sorting it in the same way that any other professional nail tech would have. xxxx

 

[nuttyaboutnails]

oh rose you poor thing! dont you just hate those clients that dont take your advice! hope ive got this right cuz it was a long thread!

first of all you should go with your instinct and should of kept them shorter. i think as a good nail tech you have to take the natural nail into concideration. i think the tip cracked mainly because of this.
with the cracked tip situation i would have opened the crack slightly and scrubfreshed to ensure you dont trap any nasties.(warn them it stings alittle!) then ran some glue along it, overlay with l+p and took down the length till it grows enough to replace.
i personally dont think putting solar oil on the part where the nail has come away from the bed would make a difference. because the extensions she had on before were so hard she probably knocked them and this caused the nail plate to lift. although solar oil is great for keeping them a more flexible in the first place!
hope this has helped a little:hug:

 

[liza smith]

hiya rose
this is always a difficult one.
however the bottom line is that, if there is nail plate damage as you described, then it must be left as you have now left it.
in the past, b4 i knew better, i did stick a crack together with adhesive, unfortunately, there must have been contamination in there, as the whole finger swelled up terribly.
i think jo was refering to sticking 2 bits of natural nail together, which is slightly different.
if it is an open wound, then definately DONT stick it together with adhesive or L&P, as what happened to me may happen to u.

you are left with 2 choices.
1. insist she has the length reduced, at least untill the damaged one grows out.
2. allow her to keep the length one last time, on the condition she uses solar oil to keep them flexible.

either way, dont do anything to the nail untill the wound heals( could be as little as 3-6 days).

your advice on solar oil was correct. solar oil will penetrate the product, enabling the enhancement to stay strong & flexible.
however, there is a limit to its powers! she may have to accept that her nails are just too long!
liza

 

[Rose143]

Thank you to everybody who replied, I did not use adhesive to glue the two parts together I did think that this would make the problem worse or trap dirt under there so because I didn't know I wasn't gonna try. I did however use my scrubfresh and she did scream .... a little ... oh well I did tell her that it had to be done.

Thanks again for your replies at least I can sleep tonight without a worry. So sorry it was a long post , thanks again for replying, I'm very grateful!!

Big hugs to you all :hug:

xxxx