Not enough training in the maintenance of nails?

[mum]

I've just recently qualified after doing a nail services course for a year. I did get to do maintanance but never on the client i orginally did so it was really hard to see where i was going wrong/ what needed improving. I've just set up a small business from home and am finding people needing to come back after about 10 days for maintanance. I feel i am doing everything right but obviously not and don't where to turn for advice and guideance as to what i'm doing wrong. I don't want to give up as it cost me a fortune to do the course and i have brought all NSI products. Is there anywhere in the UK you can go for maintanance training?? Thanks x

Oh dear. So many have the same experience! This (and treating self employed technician as a business) is, so often where people fail or just give up because they believe they can't do nails.

Maybe NSI have good trainers that will do 121? If they do you could take 1 or 2 friends/family with 2 week old nails on so you can do some real maintenance with real help.

 

[Beauty&Brunette]

would i be able to do the One to One through SweetSquared with NSI products? I got a feeling its my finishing techniques i.e not enough blending which is causing the problems.

 

[*Naomi*]

I am a typical newbie that this thread relates to (hi all) and have to agree completely with your first comments, and particularly how when you are first starting out that you don't know what you don't know.
I'm training at the moment and found it difficult enough choosing a company to learn with - one may tell you they can teach you in 4 hours what another will take 5 days to cover - and at this stage you're not in a position to challenge, you believe what you are told.
I have trained with 2 companies so far and have found they have contradicted each other's advice in many ways (filing techniques/the use of cuticile remover etc). As someone desperately keen to learn and a perfectionist at heart it's really difficult to know which is the 'right' way to do things!!
As there are no industry guidelines and techniques seem to vary between brands, it's tempting to post onto salon geek asking for help, but we too recognise that you guys have better things to do with your time than keep reiterating over and over again things to us that we quite frankly should already know.
Is there anywhere in particular you could recommend we search on the web to help ourselves, or look up some of the frequently asked questions?

Thanks for all the help you don't even realise you are offering to many of us, silenting reading these posts in the background and trying to learn from them!

 

[Nailsinlondon1]

Great thread Marian, one that irks me the most. Courses are being offered, train to become a nail technician in 3 days some even less than that, wow 3 days or less to learn everything and no real student support. it sucks big time in my book.

I was lucky, I received great private Fibreglass training back in the old days. 8 days training back in 1992 was hard to find, but I found it. It was hard work and just when I thought I new it all, we moved on to maintenance, a totally new learning curve.

I was lucky I had a tutor that actually also worked in her own salon and knew how important it is to know how to maintain the enhancement.
Maintaining an enhancement is our bread and butter service, this is where we make our regular money. Lets face it, the better we are at this, the better we will be at retaining our clients.

When I moved on to L&P with CND, maintenance was and is still part of the foundation course. I know I received the best education and motivated me to learn more and more and more.

Great education is out there, but you have to do your research. A bit like choosing the right school for your children ,the right College or University. How many prospectus' do you read to see if they provide the right education for your child, have the best reputation and the best teachers? After all you want the best for your child don't you!
Why short sell ourselves, when it comes to our education, you are worth the best, but it needs to be researched. Request course information, read feed back if it is available. Compare courses, compare course contents, what is offered by one and not by another. Make a short list. If you want to be the best there is, compare and be ready to do some hard reading up.

If you are taking a college nail course, ask questions, ask for course details and what is covered and again compare. Compare them all, because the ones that fail by comparison, will eventually have empty class rooms and then should ask themselves why that is.

Any training provider should have "maintenance" included in their training schedule, it should be part of their Nail technician course as it is an important part of being a Nail technician.
If you are told that it isn't not part of their education program then "answer, with the question "WHY NOT"!!!! as mum said.

Maybe training providers, colleges and private training establishments, should submit their training schedule to a Nail Teaching Authority. A some sort of governing body that actually knows what needs and should be taught! Someone that actually vets nail trainers, but who would police that?making sure all training providers sing from the same song sheet. It's hard and lets face it, licensing is still being worked on.
Our industry is still a baby compared to other hair and beauty sectors. Our stand alone NVQ is less than 10 years old and still a toddler. But maybe if wannabe technicians demand great education, someone may just listen and we can get our training out of the toddling along phase, to a hop, skip and jump phase!!!!!
But then again how do wannabe technicians know what's great and what isn't. Circles and more circles like mum said, but I do hope that we do can come full circle very soon.... until then research, GEEK and ask all the questions you can..... because YOU are worth it!!!!!!

 

[Up To Scratch]

would i be able to do the One to One through SweetSquared with NSI products? I got a feeling its my finishing techniques i.e not enough blending which is causing the problems.

SweetSquared are CND distributors, and their educators offer CND education; so no, I'm afraid not. A CND conversion course is actually amazing value, but I hear what you say about having already purchased all your NSI products. Perhaps you could locate a good NSI trainer for 1-2-1 training to troubleshoot your problem areas now, then if you'd still like to train with S2/CND in the future, you could do so when you've used up more of your NSI products? I wish you all the very best with it! xx

 

[Up To Scratch]

...it's tempting to post onto salon geek asking for help, but we too recognise that you guys have better things to do with your time than keep reiterating over and over again things to us that we quite frankly should already know.
Is there anywhere in particular you could recommend we search on the web to help ourselves, or look up some of the frequently asked questions?

Thanks for all the help you don't even realise you are offering to many of us, silenting reading these posts in the background and trying to learn from them!

Hi! The great news is, you can use the Search facility right here on Salon Geek! There are also fabulous tutorials that should help you too. Isn't it fab to have all of this at your fingertips? x

 

[Wooshka]

I totally agree with you Mum but for me personally, I found my course to be pretty good.

We spent 12 weeks all up doing the L & P section and we had to use the same original clients we did our first full sets on, for our maintenance practical lessons and it was timed to use a new client for another full set and rebalance for our practical exams, so all up I did get to do quite a few sets for maintenance.
Probably not as many as I would have liked though, so that I could have more of a mix of problems to sort through but it was better than just 'talking about it' like most students get but there were some areas that could have been covered a bit more in depth.

Even the tutor admitted to me during a prac lesson one day in front of everyone when I made some suggestions on some issues, that I knew my stuff and that they didn't teach that info and she got me to teach some things to the other students (I think it helped I was old school style).

My tutor was really good, a bit too much old school compared to what I see that seems to be being taught in today's world but this suited me, cause I'm old school too due to the fact that I had been doing my own nails for near on 20 yrs before actually getting officially qualified so I could turn my love for nails into a business and help others love them too

Here's the odd thing, I did my course by distance education and it was all done online using live lessons (webcam).
So I had to have my own salon set up ready to go so I could accept my clients to train on. It was actually a requirement that when we had our theory and practical lessons, that we must dress appropriately as if we were going to work (tunic, makeup, hair, etc) and show our salon being clean and tidy, our sanitisation procedures for every new client and tools etc and then the same went for our exams as well.

The only downfall I feel was the products they made us use. They made us only use their products that I found to be a bit substandard even though they were not cheap if needed to be replaced.
On my own time and for many many years before training, I used all NSI products, so I did a one to one with them to just make sure I was doing it all right with their products and I left the sub standard products behind, even the brush I used as it was horrible.

I did my research very well before booking in for my course and I feel ok with what I have been taught but I do believe that there is always more to learn as we move forward and SG and some other sources have been a great learning tool for me too
Oh! common sense.....that is another great tool to have too

My heart goes out to those who do these advertised 3 day courses where they say "learn how to do nails", they are just being ripped off big time and it should be made illegal.
I agree, something needs to be done in every country to change this situation.