What attracted or inspired you into becoming a nail geek

[happyfeet]

As the title says what drew you in to becoming a nail tech/stylist?

Did you love doing your own nails at home? Did you find the nail industry an exciting fashionable place to be? Did you love the way an enhanced nail looked or wondered how beautiful enhancements were created? Did a certain product entice you in? Did you want a skill or did your hobby turn into a passion? Or did your creative side need an outlet?

I ask that last one, not because im creative but because i remember the nail tech from nail art exhibition nailphilia last year (which i sadly didnt get the chance to go to) said something along on the lines of it was like creating masterpieces on tiny canvasses. The nails being the canvas is a phrase thats stuck in my head ever since i heard it.

So nail geeks, what bug bit you? I think for most once the nail industry grabs a hold of you its very hard to let it go!

 

[HWilliams]

Complete accident...

While on maternity leave from my office job, I decided I wanted to retrain in something else.

Found a salon offering nail training and took it from there.

I enjoy nails/beauty but looking back now, deffo more money in the office world.

 

[lucyboo]

Before training I always did care work & I was fed up of not seeing my family at weekends & hated not being able to give my daughter a kiss before bed,
At the time I worked in a residential college for young adults who had servere challenging behaviour so when I fell pregnant I was put on maternity suspension as there was no way I was safe in the work environment!! I explored my work options for after I'd had my baby & went & enrolled at college to do a VTCT course. I had to go back to care work part time while also doing nails & a year ago I was in the position to leave my job & put 100% into nails!!
It's the best descusiin I've ever made & I love my job. I work through school hours & a few evenings a week, all from home now too so I always get to give my kids a kiss & a hug before bed x

 

[thinkpink2008]

My big sister already did it and i loved it so followed in her footsteps. I started at 16 so 10 years in november. I love my job and i love nail art and luckily 80% of my clients have it. Did flamingos on toes yesterday

Sent from my GT-I9100 using SalonGeek

 

[Lovelygirl85]

I had been wanting to do training for ages but kept putting it off....then I had a really bad day at work and thought....I'm doing it! So glad I did!!!

 

[New Nailz]

My Beauty Therapy Course 15 years ago. After my 2 year course, I found I prefered doing manicures & pedicures more then waxing, make-up, facials, massage, eyelash & eyebrow work, etc of beauty!

My son was 5 years old at the time, and I couldn't afford another course. I then went on to have 2 more children and it seemed to get harder and harder to do what I wanted! So when my youngest started school last september, I thought... right, time to make my dream come true.

So I did a one to one course on Gel nails, as I already had my manicure and pedicure qualification from Beauty Therapy! I trained with "The Edge" Gel. Not my fav Gel, but it gave me the basics of what I needed to convert to CND. I love my work, and I can't ever see myself growing tired of it. Infact, I am looking into a log cabin for my garden to build my own little salon

 

[glamorizelincs]

I am a single mum and whilst my dad was in hospital with cancer I wanted to do something to make him proud he unfortunately passed away a few days before I started which almost prevented me from starting the course but I did the course and I'm so glad I did and now I'm doing other courses with the hope to be a mobile beauty therapist.

 

[nicole333]

I thought I'd left it all behind and that I was just learning about girly things way back when I did my college course.

Then a couple of years ago it came out of nowhere, a real need to learn about nails again. As silly as it may sound, I don't feel I had a choice and decided to listen to this inner need and go with it to see where it took me.

 

[justnails84]

Complete accident...

While on maternity leave from my office job, I decided I wanted to retrain in something else.

Found a salon offering nail training and took it from there.

I enjoy nails/beauty but looking back now, deffo more money in the office world.

Snap this is what I did!
Was also a hobby before!

 

[souz]

Complete accident...

While on maternity leave from my office job, I decided I wanted to retrain in something else.

Found a salon offering nail training and took it from there.

I enjoy nails/beauty but looking back now, deffo more money in the office world.

i have to disagree with this statement!! i have worked in offices on and off for years as well as in beauty, my last job was as a PA to 6 DIrectors, a fairly good job, travelled around the country etc and paid well BUT i think if you get the nails right there is definitely more money here........

 

[souz]

i was 13 when i started getting my nails done and loved it, there was a course offered in the salon where i got them done but my parents thought it was a phase so wouldnt pay it.......it took me nearly 10 years later to come back to nails and now another 14 years later and im loving what i do as well as setting my own working hours, being able to be here for my kids and earning a wage!!xxx

 

[lila22]

Some great stories
I guess After my nvq it made me realise I loved making people feel nicer about themselves with a pedi or facial, I had tried a few nail systems but never felt it until I finely found out about bio sculpture, nails seems to be the treatment I love doing so Went down this route although I do waxing and tinting nails is the main treatment I offer as just love doing it and can work my own hours which is important to me x

 

[geekling]

I started off having my acrylics done, bought some dodge products of eBay and did mine and my mums nails, (much harder than i thought) so i bought an essential nails acrylic course!
I was studying child care at the time (with hopes to go into the child protection unit in the met police) I then decided it was what I wanted to do! I found it so so hard to tell my family I was leaving my course to study beauty therapy! They didn't understand why! I enjoy nails more than the beauty side so am going to re-train with CND, whilst doing my level 3 BT - I'm trying to build up a clientele at the moment for shellac & spray tanning! Whilst holding down my boring office job! I love it all, Iv never been artistic but I love being able to create something pretty!! Xxx

 

[lila22]

I started off having my acrylics done, bought some dodge products of eBay and did mine and my mums nails, (much harder than i thought) so i bought an essential nails acrylic course!
I was studying child care at the time (with hopes to go into the child protection unit in the met police) I then decided it was what I wanted to do! I found it so so hard to tell my family I was leaving my course to study beauty therapy! They didn't understand why! I enjoy nails more than the beauty side so am going to re-train with CND, whilst doing my level 3 BT - I'm trying to build up a clientele at the moment for shellac & spray tanning! Whilst holding down my boring office job! I love it all, Iv never been artistic but I love being able to create something pretty!! Xxx

What a lovely story, that's the same course I done but something came up in the middle of training and it got pushed to one side x

 

[happyfeet]

Really great replies... thanks geekies! Didnt except anyone to reply, i couldnt sleep last night so tapped out the thread, but im pleased to see your responses!

Well i guess i better give my 'story' now....

I was never one for looking after my nails, only really polished them if i was going out or on holiday and even then i did a pretty poor job! Id had a couple of sets of l&p for weddings but went to a local chop shop (eeeep) and bit them off to remove them (eeeeeeep). I used to apply the full coverage ones from boots when i worked up town but it got a bit embarrassing collecting my nail from across the other side of the tube when they pinged off, well that, and the lovely greenie i developed by keep sticking them back on time and time again!! So yes a real naive, uneducated nail virgin.

I can't really remember why i hit on nails as my thing, other than the fact i wanted a skill outside of work. I'm not naturally creative, in as much as i have the ideas as such but cant always put them in to action (and that wasnt anything to do with nails). My family, both sides, are pretty nifty with their hands, from pianists, to artists, to clothes makers in their spare time i wanted to have something i could hands on do.

I actually first went down the home learn course when i finally decided nails could be my thing as i was working. Huge mistake for me, i was rubbish! But i did find geek whilst i was in the thick of lobbing my nail trainer out the window. Much money spent later, no further on, i gave up the course, the irony of it all was 6 months in to my course i was made redundant and could, with the money id spent, train with a real live person. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The thing was id been bitten by the geek bug, i still wanted in after reading all your threads, but enhancements scared (and still do to some extent) the bejesus out of me. Its a skill maybe one day ill fully possess! So i wandered back to geek one day thinking spray tanning may be my thing, but i kept sneaking a peek back to the nail forum.

Long story short-ish I trained in spray tanning and discovered lots of threads about this 'thing' called shellac i booked my mani, pedi and shellac courses, sold my beloved car to fund it all and the rest is history as they say

This month will be my one year anniversary, ive got regulars, im mobile, rent a cabin for kids nail and glitter tattoo parties and ive just finished my home nail studio. I love what i do, drive my husband nuts with every time he asks what i want for xmas, bdays and treats and i say something nail related.

Both my nans passed earlier this year and whilst id much rather they were here, my grandparents very kindly left me two very generous sums of money... So now my nan and grandad p and nan and grandad l are now very much a part of my business even if they didnt get to see it. So i guess their creativity won through in the end

Keep your replies coming geekies, newbies and experienced alike.

Love n hugs x x x

 

[ChelseaNails]

I hated writing essays and loved doing everyone's nails, it was only after 3 years of classics at uni I realised I'd made a big mistake haha x

 

[Lauren04]

Well I'd already loved beauty but I thought of it as a hobby so I went to college for two years doing travel and tourism after that I became ill and practically bed bound so to pass the time I bought a cheap kit read up on nail tips and watched YouTube videos before I knew it I was hooked! So I booked myself on a course and have enjoyed every minute! The whole industry amazes me and I just want to learn more and more! Also when I was ill just having my nails done made me feel that bit better so I hope by doing other peoples nails it will have the same effect! because our job is to make people feel pretty and I just love it.

 

[stacie88]

I left school not having a clue what I wanted to do! I had always wanted to do hairdressing, and I remember a family member telling me this was a 'bimbo's job' and everyone said i should do something along the lines of midwifery because i'd got good grades, so I enrolled to do my a-levels. Needless to say I hated it! So the following year I did health and social care. Nearly finished the 2 years with distinctions and I dropped out just before finishing because I hated that too.

That year I thought stuff what everyone thinks, and applied for hairdressing. Well I'd left it too late, and I didn't get a place so I panicked. The only places left were on a beauty therapy course, so I enrolled into that! Found I was good at nails and nail art etc but didn't think of doing it as a job, as I had my heart set on hairdressing.

Finished the course and finally did hairdressing! Finished that course, and more and more people kept asking me to do their nails and it just sort of went from there! I've worked in busy pubs/restaurants for 7 years and it made me really unhappy, the hours were so unsociable and it was really stressful!

After doing mobile beauty and nails part time and slowly building my client base up, I finally was able to leave the pub in may this year I now rent a little beauty room, and I've never been happier. I never thought I'd be able to say that I well and truly love my job xxxx

 

[evangelinegrace]

My mum had never been "able" to grow her nails out. She went to get Gel enhancements (at what I now realise was a NSS) and they were hideous... and l&p!

There are 3 nail salons in the small city that I live in - 2 are NSS and the enhancements that the other salon turn out are far from elegant. The city is generally very affluent and expensive, so I was surprised that the nails salons were of such low quality. I spotted a gap in the market, found this site and became completely obsessed.

 

[Stephanie]

Here is my story, Born & raised in NY City USA & ever since I was a kid & we had some event such as a wedding, or other engagements my mom took me with her to get hair & nails done. I loved watching how they put on extensions, nail wraps & my love of all nail art of some sort of design+small crystal.
As I grew up I loved playing with colors & tried designing my own nails like I once stated using the nearest bought press on nails/wrap kits & assorted stickers or colored rhinestones for nails that were also easy to buy came with nail glue/small file & top coat/sealer.
After I moved abroad, It was that time, I was getting married, seeing how fast the lady made so much off me when doing a basic tip/basic french/white with just a silver streak in the center I said to myself that I wanted to learn how to do that too. Seemed so simple..done so quick & so pretty!
Took me 6months to get into it being unsure til I finally called & got in. 350 hours later I learned how to do mani's, pedi's & nail enhancements!
My passion was for nails & have tried to leave but something always sucks me right back into the business!
So I went back, got my gels diploma & as I said I decided to also continue on to educator's diploma in Artificial Nail Construction.
Had to move back again to NY, left the business again...and still craved nails while owning a computer company.
4 years later, Now divorced, Moved Abroad again, Still craving the business, so I looked up finding a different school here but they wont accept me, say I know too much & have nothing to offer me. How it would be a waste of my money because most techs here are just changing to gels & so that is what courses they are offering.
I had no choice but to research online on how to master my old technique using new ones!
Got new products & have educated myself using every video possibly found on how to's!
What can I say, my passion is nails, nail art & watching how someone with horrible nail beds wind up having a full set using the sculpting technique & forms!
Hope you enjoyed my story & love for nails! :Love: