Unfinished Rebalancing

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The Geek

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Rebalancing (or Fill-ins) are the staple of the Nail Designers diet. A thorough understanding of good rebalancing techniques help to ensure that you can work fast, efficient, and problem free.

In this novel, I cover the backstory for Rebalancing that enriches your understanding of the Rebalacing tutorial. I put this one together years ago but sadly, have never got around to finishing it. Its kind of my unfinished symphony ;)

Once upon a time...

... there was a boy that learned how to do nails. We will call him "Bob" to protect me, er, I mean him from embarrassment.

Anyhoo, Bob enjoyed filling his clients very much. In fact, as most teks go, it encompassed a large part of his professional time. It was his mainstay income. However, poor Sam, ER I mean Bob got tired of the many problems he found inherent with "Acrylics" (See, Bob called them Acrylics, even though the word Acrylic can be very misleading. Practically any type of nail enhancement material from wraps to gels to liquid and powder are all equally acrylic)

Lifting, cracking, breaking, curling, clients that didn't tip very well, science projects growing between the product and the plate (He even referred to that as 'mold'!! that silly Bob guy!), etc. ad infinitum.

Day after day he would slam his appointments in. Each and every hour on the hour.

Here is the transcript from some of poor Bobs many fills:

Bob: Hey Bertha have a seat...What the hell happened to your nails? Another bar fight? Did you take up Mud wrestling as a hobby in the past two weeks? What the hell is your problem, they look like poop... come to think of it, they look just like the rest of my clients nails... Damn, its a conspiracy, All you guys are out to get me.

Bertha: Sorry Sam, Er, I mean Bob, I was taking a shower the day after you did them and they just started to fall apart. Maybe they are too thick.

Bob: Excuse me? The thicker they are, the stronger they are. Lets just get started so I can finish before your next appointment in two weeks.

Bob takes out his trusty jaws of life and begins to break the product off that is no longer attached to the plate. It is like a scene from “Saving Private Ryan” with shards of product whistling and whizzing by, bouncing off lamps, clients, and other assorted goods.
Screams come hither and thither from various corners of the salon as other tormentors (Nail Designers) pry product off from their victims nail plates (product that was attached to begin with...weird huh?). What Bob and the Spanish Inquisition were not aware of is how nippers really remove product.

[break]Sidebar story: “How a nipper nips nibs of product”

As the jaws of life come at a little ledge of product that was lifting, tremendous pressure is applied to the product.

While the tek is pulling slightly at an angle, and more pressure is applied, millions of polymer chains begin to snap away from each other at a rapid rate. Wherever this snap takes place, you have a crack. These cracks begin racing through the product at lightning fast speeds, each linking up with one another like tiny streams trickling together to form a river until a full circuit of cracks is completed. At that point, a chunk of product breaks off, generally taking a bit of nail plate with it.

An interesting point to note here is that even though there was separation of the product and the nail plate, this ‘prying’ motion ends up using the lifted section as a lever. When you start to pry at it, it puts the natural nail plate under considerable stress. When the chip of product comes away, it doesn’t come away from the nail plate, rather the nail plate comes away from itself! In other words, under the force of nipping, the integrity of the natural nail is ripped apart rather than the product simply pulling away from the product. This is usually evident if you take some of the chips you nipped away… look at the bottom of the chip… HOLY MUTHA O MISSISSIPPI!! THERES STILL NAIL PLATE ATTACHED TO IT!! Look at the natural nail plate… ITS TORN UP UNDERNEATH! This can quickly thin out an otherwise healthy natural nail. A thinner, more damaged nail is much more likely to experience more frequent service breakdown.

Let me just rephrase that O so important point: We may be needing to nip lifted product away… BECAUSE WE ARE NIPPING!

This nipping process also leaves millions of cracks in the product that have not yet completely hooked up in a full circuit. These cracks will continue to grow when more pressure is applied, either through more nipping, drilling, or even general filing. The result is an enhancement that is battered and bruised and dramatically weaker.

Since the product was pried off, it leaves a little ledge behind that is commonly referred to as a "Fill Line" such a cute name for an ugly beast.

This led Sam, er Bob I mean, to continue nipping, chasing that little bit of lifting until he either got too damn tired of chasing it, and gave up, or he had ripped the rest of the product (not to mention the natural nail plate) off.

See, he didn't think a fill line was all that big of a deal, cause he had tricks up his sleeve for taking care of this.
He would either "Glue" (see, he didn't know that glues were actually made from animal by-product such as Mr. Ed, and were not used in the nail industry.) the fill line down, or maybe try to use his liquid to powder ratio a lil wetter along there so it could seep up into the fill line thence hiding it, or maybe he could use something to help melt down, or soften that area up so the line would be easier to blend away.

Bob was a man of many tricks.

Bob wasn't aware that when he used his Adhesive to stick that area back down, he was trapping oil, contaminants, moisture, and pathogens in that little area. This is the perfect recipe for a science project worthy of a prize in a high school fair... a massive bacterial infection. Not to mention that nail products...including Adhesives, do not stick very well to oil, moisture, or contamination, thus leading to service breakdown in that area. Heck, Bob was weakening his overall enhancement having all of these lines of adhesives running through his cracked up product.
"What about the monomer trick?" You ask yourself. Ya know, getting a lil monomer up under there to fill in the Fill line?
Same principle, "bacterial infection, here I come!" shall be your new mantra prior to each client. Not to mention the fact that the wetter you use your product, the higher the risk of overexposure and excessive shrinkage. The wetter you use the product, the more it will shrink, pulling product away from the nail plate.

What about the "Ill use primer, or tip blenders, or formula 409 to help me whisk away my fill line blending problems!"?

First off, using primer is a down right dangerous and silly way to deal with a fill line, as it can cause discoloration of product, not to mention the high risk of skin exposure which would be extremely unethical.
The same goes for tip blenders, or anything else along those lines (forgive the pun). Anything you use to help you get rid of a fill line through melting it down will break your product down, giving service breakdown a higher chance of happening again.


So what should Bob do? Well, we will get to that in a minute, lets go back to another episode from the dark history of Bob, the nail tek.

-- actually folks... I worte this ages ago and this is as far as I ha :) ve gotten. Sorry to diapoint, Im sure ill get to it again someday
In the meantime... check out the 3 page Rebalance tutorial in the "Tutorial" section :)
 
So when are you going to finish it?
 
So Bob, would you actually recommend a product like Line Out to hide/remove a fill line? :confused: :biggrin: ;)
 
Ill answer for Bob as he is um... a little preoccupied ;)

nope.

You cant effectively cleanse and sanitize the area you are applying the product too. That means its only a temp fix with more serious problems potentially occurring at a later date.

Hope this helps ;)

And Angel... Not sure when Ill ever get around to finishing it. I wrote the bulk of it for my first web site in 1997 ;)
 
The Nail Geek said:
Ill answer for Bob as he is um... a little preoccupied ;)

nope.

You cant effectively cleanse and sanitize the area you are applying the product too. That means its only a temp fix with more serious problems potentially occurring at a later date.

Hope this helps ;)

And Angel... Not sure when Ill ever get around to finishing it. I wrote the bulk of it for my first web site in 1997 ;)

:lol: :lol: I never thought of it that way before, but If you see Bob be sure to tell him Thank Q :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD FINISH IT!!!!!!

xxx

How will I sleep tonight?
 
ha. Its been like that for about 7 years. Gimme some time and Ill re-work it into a step by step tutorial too ;)
 
we'll be waiting x
 
NOOOO Bob you can't leave it like that, dictate it too us we'll finish it for you lol.
Have to say you ahve a way in describing things with the written word that conjures up a mighty fine picture hats off to you sam wish i ahd your way with words.

And yes please finish it for us
x
 
??
what happened to Bob?
 
yeah, what happened to Bob?
LOL
 
I think Bob went and changed his way, got more clients and is now run of his little feet pleasing his clients and leaving us hanging, still nipping and chasing those fill lines... C'mon Bob, for the sake of our clients lol.
 

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