problem nails, lifting, damaged

[Northern Nails]

I have this lovely lady who comes to see me. The problem i'm having with her is that she has terribly weak nails. She's anaemic and has other health issues which seem to determine her nail strength. She initially used to wear sculpted gel but changed to sculpted L&P to try and solve the problems we were having. She would always come back with breakages and the most horrendous lifting you could imagine.

She has hooked nails so find sculpting the best format for her, i use rentention+ and have added a primer to this but still she comes back with this horrendous lifting and broken nails.

I do have one issue with her and tht is the length, she likes the length on her nails. SO cutting them down isn't really an issue although she does know the strain it is putting on her already weak nails and this could be a contributing factor.

the question i'm asking is, most of her nails are now NNO. Which i think is exagerating the fact that her nails are weak. So what about if i cut her own nails short and Sculpt do you think this could add a little more strength to the enhancement.

My way of thinking is the extended sculpted free edge is going to be stronger than her own nail the same length but with a NNO?

Any ideas, i'm feeling pretty crap the fact that i can't seem to stop this.

 

[nailsbydesign]

Personally if her nails were ONLY thin, then it wouldnt make much difference having the free edge cut down as there is more product there now than you would have with a normal thickness of nail. BUT.....if she has hooked nails then as they grow they might be putting a strain on the enhancement and it might cause curling at the free edge maybe that is why there is so much lifting.
What primer did you use??....I have been taught that the only thing you should add to help give extra adherance is Nail Fresh sandwiched between 2 applications of scrubfresh. I thought that adding an actual primer could affect the effectiveness of retention+ as it covalently bonds to the natural nail so surely putting a primer on first between the retention+ and the natural nail could affect how this bonding works....maybe I have this wrong and no doubt someone will correct me if I have. That is all I can say about it really....Is she particularly hard on her nails with what she does re work and leisure???

 

[Bev Rose]

Hi Debbie,

I have a client with aneamia (sp?) too.
I have similar problems with her nails. They too are very weak, almost soft.
I use Creative L&P. She has had tip & overlay & sculpts with me. She does have a tendancy to remove her nails herself (by soaking) and instead of a rebalance i end up doing a new set so i've never got her to nno stage yet.
I have applied Nail Fresh, primer & both together, which seems to work best. I also keep her nails shortish & she uses solar oil as she should. Since i have been using Nailfresh & primer together i have still had lifting but not as bad.
Perhaps you could try them both on her at the same time? I was told you could do this with problem lifters on my foundation.

I will be watching this thread with interest.

xxx

 

[Stefanied]

In my CND Master's class we were told NOT to use primer with Retention+ because it inhibits the bond between the acrylic and the keratin of the nail. Maybe just try nail fresh and scrub fresh with Retention on one hand and Radical with scrub fresh and primer on the other hand to see which lasts longer. Just an idea.

 

[Northern Nails]

I'm going to see her today so i'll try nail fresh on one hand and nail fresh and primer on the other to see if there is any diference.

I think i will cut her nails down and sculpt a new free edge to also see if this helps. I'll let yal know in a couple of weeks how she gets on.

Thaks for the advice,x

 

[geeg]

For an overlay to be as strong as it can be, it needs to be on a strong foundation. The greater the difference in strength, between the natural nail and the product, the greater the 'tension' is between the two surfaces.

To explain further; 2 surfaces of unequal strength that are also bonded together 'fight' against each other. One wants to move when pressure is applied, and the other one doesn't ... so they 'fight' against each other and the weaker surface is the one that will buckle and detach from the stronger one.

If your client's nails are really weak, then make your overlay correspondingly weaker to reduce the tension between the two surfaces and you will have less if any lifting. You could put a wrap on these nails and most likely have no lifting problems at all because wraps are more like the natural nail than any other overlay and when you have two surfaces that are equal, there is no tension.

 

[Northern Nails]

Thanks for the advice Geeg but i haven't done fabric since college. Maybe that could be the next class i could do. I can understand your theory and thought by cutting the natural free edge back this could help reduce it. what do you think?

 

[geeg]

I think it will help against impact ... you will just need to renew every 3rd or 4th rebalance. No need to soak off ... just clip back the free edge, file in a new smile line and re sculpt.

 

[Northern Nails]

Yeh, i'm gonna give that a go and see how she gets on.

Wasn't sure which way to go after taking my L&P masters, might look at doing fabric# instead of Brisa for the moment.

Thanks everyone for all your help, i'll let ya know how she gets on.

 

[Northern Nails]

An update, after 3 weeks (it's normally 2 but we've been away) she still had dreadfull lifting. I cut the natural nail back and sculpted a free edge. used nail fresh and primer and it didn't make any difference at all. This time i've taken down the length as they grow at an incredible rate you wouldn't believe it hoping this will help and keeping her at 2 weekly appointments. Will let y'all know in a couple of weeks.

 

[nailsbydesign]

An update, after 3 weeks (it's normally 2 but we've been away) she still had dreadfull lifting. I cut the natural nail back and sculpted a free edge. used nail fresh and primer and it didn't make any difference at all. This time i've taken down the length as they grow at an incredible rate you wouldn't believe it hoping this will help and keeping her at 2 weekly appointments. Will let y'all know in a couple of weeks.

Why not try nailfresh sandwiched between 2 layers of scrubfresh without primer as I was told that is you use primer it can have an effect on the adherance if you are using retention+....worth a try.

 

[Northern Nails]

An update, wasn't really looking forward to it at all as the last couple of rebalances were terrible. anyhow, after two weeks they had hardly budged. I was well pleased as the rebalance was pretty straight forward with no lifting and only one breakage which she trapped so couldn't be helped.

so came to the conclusion that it was the 3rd weeks that was causing such a messas her nails grow at an incredible rate. This extra week exagerated her hooked nails, i suppose putting the enhancement under pressure.

Thanks to all with their suggestions...:hug:

Ohg nearly forgot, they are now shorter than usuall too

 

[HeatherDavis]

Why not try nailfresh sandwiched between 2 layers of scrubfresh without primer as I was told that is you use primer it can have an effect on the adherance if you are using retention+....worth a try.

If you are using acid-free primer, this is not true- For my REALLY bad lift-prone clients, and even some I was paranoid about, I used ScrubFresh, Acid Free Primer on 2 fingers, applied L&P, and so on.

No lifting, great adhesion Acid Free primer helps the "hooks" in the covalent bonding process... Just an FYI...

You can also put it on top of existing product, it's non-corrosive

 

[Northern Nails]

I'll keep this in mind. Although i think with this lady it was the third week she was stretching too. No fault of her own, it's the way it fell with holidyas and things.

So hopefully i seem to have cracked it. Althoguh i think keeping them at a shorter length has also helped

 

[HeatherDavis]

I had one of those- Nails curled horribly, liked them LOOOONG, when they grew out I had so much seperation it was HIDEOUS.

I switched her to gel a while later- the Brisa did BEAUTIFULLY on her- the lack of weight to them was really good for her...

Glad to see you mayhave solved your problem- what a weight off your shoulders! I obsess about the problem clients- I even dream about them sometimes- ITS AWFUL!!

 

[Northern Nails]

Me too, i really take it on board when problems like this occur. I am my worst critic and automatically start blaming myself adn start looking at my skills....:|

But fingers crossed things will carry on as well with her...