need urgent advice...seeing client tomorrow

[Lisa2810]

Hi everyone,

I'm desperately needing some answers. I passed my foundation course with creative last july, however due to family comitments haven't really launched myself into the nail industry. Just kept myself to family and friends who are regulars...anyway here's my problem....

Like i said i've been doing family and friends since july and never came across a problem that i haven't been able to solve and fix.... with the exception of one .

My mum has been wearing enhancements since july and i'm just having problem after problem with her. .. well not her but her nails... Her nails lift really badly (which none of my other clients do). Also on one nail every other month she gets a browning at a little bit of her natural nail. Every time this happens i remove the enhancement completely and prep the nail as taught, paying particular attention to sanitising (scrubbing with scrubfresh.) It seems to work for a little while and staining eventually dissapears. However just as it seems to be getting better it comes back. I'm at my witz end with it and don't know what else to do...but i was along seeing her today and she has 3 nails with brown staining, two are pretty bad . You can imagine i was mortified, and have promised to go along tomorrow and remove the full set and re apply. Where am i going wrong and what can i do to fix the problem?

Just another thing... like i said she gets really bad lifting and therefor she tends to get a lot of dog hairs caught under her nails(she has 4 dogs), but i just can't seem to stop them from lifting. I don't have this problem with ANY other client so i really don't understand.

Please help! and sorry for it being so long winded.

Lisa xxx :hug:

 

[Urban Geek]

Since you don't have the same problem with other clients, is it perhaps something your mum is or isn't doing? Is her hands in water a lot? Does she weare rubber gloves? Does she look after her nails? ...

Us nail technicians tend to blame ourselves for problems our clients experience, particularly when we are just starting out an doften it is the client who is the cause of the problems.

 

[Lisa2810]

My mums hands are not in a lot of water. she has a dishwasher so doesn't do dishes so the only water she's in for any length of time is a bath. lol. I really don't know what to do. If i can't fix the problem i'll have to remove the enhancements completely. :cry:.

 

[kitkat68]

Could it be some medication that she is taking?

 

[Cathie!]

HRT? Although others will say HRT doesn't affect nail enhancements... I believe it will on some clients but not necessarily all clients taking HRT.

 

[Lisa2810]

my mum doesn't take any medication, other than the normal painkillers from time to time. ????

 

[Lisa2810]

Thanks everyone for your reply's. PLease keep throwing suggestions around...maybe one will hit the nail on the head.

Sorry i don't know what HRT is?

Lisa x

 

[lotus blossom]

are they too long for her?
is she not looking after them properly?
is she picking?
are you doing a thorough power prep?

hth xx

 

[Cathie!]

my mum doesn't take any medication, other than the normal painkillers from time to time. ????

That's a strange one then if all your other clients have no problems.....maybe you could try another system on her and see if that fixes the problem?

Geeg has often said that there are the very rare clients who just can't wear enhancements, reason unknown...maybe she's one of them......I had myself a client I struggled with for months, l/p first, no joy, pocket lifting after a few days, hard gel, the same....I use Calgel on her now and she is fiine.

Good luck though.

 

[lotus blossom]

is it gel or l and p you are using?
whatever, maybe change her over,
sometimes i have had this on a couple of clients and it has worked, why i dont know , but it worked thats all i needed to know!!

 

[Lisa2810]

we keep her nails nice and short (finger tip length). She doesn't pick, bite or anything i can think of to cause such damage to the enhancements.

I am not trained in any other system so would not be able to do this.

The reason i'm thinking it was me is becuase before i qualified ans stated doing her nails she ocassionally got them done by a local tech and had no problems other than her nails being thin and brittle once the enhancements were removed (which i put down to over filing of the nautral nail)

I prep her nails exactly the same as my other cleints. Infact i tend to pay particular attention to prep on my mum because of the problems she has.

thanks again

Lisa xx

 

[Lisa2810]

i use L&P

 

[Susie H]

HRT hormone replacement therapy some ladies who are post menopause take it, it puts back the hormones that are lost when we no longer go through the reproductive cycle.
Some ladies can develop excessive oil in the hair, nails and skin.
Right, lets assume mum isn't on HRT
Does she do a lot of gardening? How about washing and grooming the dogs?
Is mum house proud? lots of cleaning products cause break down of service, the worst offender is cilit bang:irked:
So back to the prep
Cuticle remover, give it time to soak, couple of minutes
make sure you remove every single last scrap of it after removing all the dead tissue.
I like to use citrus soak, a few drops in water in a spray bottle.
Remove shine
Scrub fresh, its in the name, don't just give the nail a quick swipe over give each nail a really good scrub spend a good 5 seconds on each nail
Now I know you don't usually use a primer with retention + but for mum I think it might be a good idea so use the acid free primer then,
Carry on with the application
The brown staining is, I should think from pocket lifting and really sounds like the sort of staining you get when water gets trapped in the little lifted pocket.
In fact all mums problems sound water related, which is why others have asked about washing up.
So if I were you I would follow the excessive prep:lol: and really hammer it home to mum about using her solar oil and wearing gloves for every single job she does in the house or garden.
Hope this helps:hug:

 

[clara doon]

have you tried nailfresh lisa?

great product to use if clients are having problems with lifting, it does sound like she is getting a bacterial infection, maybe talk us though your prep, and how is her aftercare (solar oil, gloves etc?) we all have a couple of clients like this and remember these are the one we can learn from ....

 

[Lisa2810]

ok ....lol.... mum does do a lot of dog grooming as she shows her dogs. She's forever getting dog hairs under her enhacnements which i then have to remove and start over ..but if she didn't have lifting then i'm sure the hairs wouldn't get under the nail?. lol... she doesn't do a lot of housework involving cleaning products (she has a cleaner) or gardening(dads job) ....although she is very guilty of not using her solar oil (despite me giving her it for free).

My prep....

Cutical remover (leave for 3 mins)
Romove cuticals
Remove cutical remover with water.
Remove shine
scrubfresh....and i SCRUB (especially with my mum)

We done a little experiment and i used acid free primer on one hand and not the other to see if it made any difference...none! :cry::cry::cry:.

And she's not on any HRT.

Lisa

 

[adelekeegan1]

What dogs does she have ?
There are a lot of oils in some dogs coats, could it be this ?
Does she put anything on the dogs coats ? Could she groom with gloves on, to see if this helps ?

 

['chelle]

ok, 2 thoughts occurred to me here.

If your mum is grooming dogs, perhaps she is using a shampoo or grooming lotion that might be causing this? Ask her specifically which products she uses and what the main ingredients are. Ask her to wear gloves whilst using these products if possible and see if this helps.

Also, since this is your mum and not a regular client, would your mum be prepared to be your model for a skill building day? You could take her along with this specific problem and your educator might be able to identify the problem and show you a way to prevent/rectify it.

I also did my foundation course last year, and I dont know about you but I'm finding it a bit like passing my driving test, ie, you know how its all supposed to work, you learn enough to pass your test, but you dont really start learning how its done in practice until you get on the road and do it for yourself!! I've done some skill building and I think its an invaluable part of your development as a nail tech, I highly recommend it.

Best wishes

 

[Lisa2810]

She has cocker spaniels. There coats don't seem to be overly oily however its not impossible. She does use a lot of conditioners and coat shines on them which might be causing problems(although she doesn't groom to this extent every week). She used to wear gloves however has recently started using things called fingerlets...which is basically like a glove but only goes on certain fingers that she uses to strip there coats.

I'm not 100% convinced that its this causing the problems but its certainly a possibility so i will ask her to go back to using gloves for a few weeks to see if it makes any difference.

Thanks again everyone

Lisa xx:hug:xx

 

[Lisa2810]

hi chelle,

thanks for your reply. I'd love to do a skill building course however i can't afford it and i'm not really doing enough nails (due to family commitments) to justify the money.

Once i have more time and i'm able to build my client base i will definately look into skill building and more courses as the foundation course is called foundation for a reason, and i don't just wanna be good at enhancements i wanna be great at them ( i know i know, walk b4 u can run lol). I totally agree that its not really till your out on your own that you start learning, not only how to apply nails but how use the knowledge from your education to be able to use your common sense on problem solving. (if that makes sense). lol.

Will definately speak to my mum about grooming the dogs and using gloves. And the more i think of it , it does seem to be when there's a lot of shows on that things get worse. ( i know i'm contradicting my last post but i've had time to think) :lol:

lisa :hug:

 

[Georgy]

Hiya Lisa,

You don't happen to know what L&P system your mum was receiving at her previous technician? Conversion courses are useful but not always essential. If you are good with your liquid and powder it wouldn't take too long to learn another system if need be (and there is plenty of good resources on this board). I just think you might be onto something because it sounds like you have done your research with your mum and there is nothing that you should be doing differently. Many of us have had clients whereby their nails just don't agree with particular systems - its strange but not overly rare. If gloves don't make a difference with your mum's nails you might want to look into a sample set of different L&P.

Goodluck!

Georgy