Why soak off nails after every few sets?

[Mieke]

I was wondering about something...

I heared from some customers that they want to have their nails removed and have new set done now and then so they are "fresh" again. I asked them why since there won,t be any visible difference, but they say they want to have fresh material on their nails every once in a while.

I heared some nailtechnician tell their customers that they have to get a new set every 5th time or so and soak the previous one off.

My questions is WHY if there are no problems?

 

[NoLimitNails]

Hi.
In the salon where I work, we do soak of when time to rebalance, just because it takes a lot of time and effort to file off product.

While one client soak of, we do gel toes, or repairs or something like that.

We do this because we nearly don't do any ordinary french anymore, the clients have dust, or stones or flakes or glitter so in order to chance the whole thing by filing you would have to file all of, and it takes quite some time...

Thats why we do it anyway. So not because of fresh material which wouldn't be needed if it was french or neutral, and applied correctly.

HTH
Karen

 

[clara doon]

Hi,
I have one client who requests this, she has a new set very 2 months as she hates to see her natural nail under the enhancements, her own nails are quite discoloured, she is a hairdresser, cleaner and a smoker ! she also likes to swap from French to glitter tips and then back again.

also when I used to have my nails done by another tech, she only ever used white tips, so to keep the French look you had to have a soak off and new set every 6 weeks or so.

 

[tracey louise]

i do end up soaking my own off after a while as i find that the acrylic can look slightly discoloured.i dont think that once ive had them on for a certain number off weeks that i'll soak them off,i'll just do it when they need it or when i want to change my design to glitter or something.

 

[Bev Rose]

On average my clients have a soak & new set approx every 6 - 8 months! And that's only if they have any problems such as pocket lifting on the odd nail, which seems to happen to some of my clients with long NNO's, but only after a very long period of time. I guess they just get too long!

I have new sets every couple of months or so. Just so I can change my look or try new products etc.

 

[becca boo]

I never soak off nails unless it broke and needs to be redone. Every fill you are adding on new product and filing some of the old off anyway. I will take my whole free edge off and sculpt another to change colors but with an efile that doesnt take much time. Even if I have something on my nail bed and want to change it I never file that much off to change it.

Soaking often wouldnt that raise the risks of over exposure greatly?

 

[Classy Claws]

I soak mine off every time, I cannot stand to see my natural nail growing out.. and most of my clients are actually starting to request it also as they like the under side to match the top, especially if they have glitters, or anything that makes their natural nail underneath glaringly obvious... It takes 10-15 mins for me to soak off a full set, I charge one price for full set & R/B so it really makes no difference and said client leaves happy with "fresh" nails.

 

[crazysaz]

i soak of every 3 months or so, i find the acrylic just gets tatty and discoloured and no matter how hard i try i always have a demarcation line in at least 1 nail! i'd love it if my clients could keep them fresh and new but it doesnt seem to happen! any tips from those who dont soak?

 

[ValencianNails]

If you're getting discolouration then I would change brands, you shouldn't ever have to soak off due to discolouration, at least not with a high end brand!
You can go on rebalancing forever and if clients want to change their free edge colour to glitter or something different then file zone 1 off and reapply.

 

[nail-chick]

i never soak off unless it's broken or just "bad".
i guess i would if the customer really wanted it, for a fee!
how much do you charge to do this?

kathleen
My Nails Rock!

 

[1999judy]

No... there shouldn't be a need to soak off like this.
A rebalance should make an old set look like new.
If it doesn't then either, the tech is not doing their job or the product isn't that great.
Sorry but thats jmho
Soaking off a lot doesn't do any favours to the tech in the long run either tbh

 

[becca boo]

I soak mine off every time, I cannot stand to see my natural nail growing out.. and most of my clients are actually starting to request it also as they like the under side to match the top, especially if they have glitters, or anything that makes their natural nail underneath glaringly obvious... It takes 10-15 mins for me to soak off a full set, I charge one price for full set & R/B so it really makes no difference and said client leaves happy with "fresh" nails.

By doing your back fill application and taking off all of zone 1 and rescuplting the f/e it is new product and the color is the same from underside to top.

Here are just some info about acetone
Acetone

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The chemical compound acetone (also known as propanone, dimethyl ketone, 2-propanone, propan-2-one and β-ketopropane) is the simplest representative of the ketones. Acetone is a colorless, mobile, flammable liquid with a freezing point of −95.4 °C and boiling point of 56.53 °C. It has a relative density of 0.819 (at 0 °C). It is readily soluble in water, ethanol, ether, etc., and itself serves as an important solvent.
The most familiar household use of acetone is as the active ingredient in nail polish remover. Acetone is also used to make plastic, fibers, drugs, and other chemicals.
Before the invention of the cumene process acetone was produced by the dry distillation of acetates, for example calcium acetate.
In addition to being manufactured as a chemical, acetone is also found naturally in the environment, including in small amounts in the human body.

Health effects
Acetone is an irritant and inhalation may lead to hepatotoxic effects (causing liver damage). The vapors should be avoided. In no circumstance should it be consumed directly or indirectly. Always use goggles when handling acetone; it can cause permanent eye damage (corneal clouding).
Small amounts of acetone are metabolically produced in the body, mainly from fat. In humans, fasting significantly increases its endogenous production (see ketosis). Acetone can be elevated in diabetes. Contamination of water, food (e.g. milk), or the air (acetone is volatile) can lead to chronic exposure to acetone. A number of acute poisoning cases have been described. Relatively speaking, acetone is not a very toxic compound; it can, however, damage the mucosa of the mouth and can irritate and damage skin. Accidental intake of large amounts of acetone may lead to unconsciousness and death.
The effects of long-term exposure to acetone are known mostly from animal studies. Kidney, liver, and nerve damage, increased birth defects, and lowered reproduction ability of males (only) occurred in animals exposed long-term. It is not known if these same effects would be exhibited in humans. Pregnant women should avoid contact with acetone and acetone fumes in order to avoid the possibility of birth defects, including brain damage.
Interestingly, acetone has been shown to have anticonvulsant effects in animal models of epilepsy, in the absence of toxicity, when administered in millimolar concentrations.[7] It has been hypothesized that the high fat low carbohydrate ketogenic diet used clinically to control drug-resistant epilepsy in children works by elevating acetone in the brain.[7]

 

[ValencianNails]

http://www.salongeek.com/health-safety-unaturale/6245-my-big-fat-greek-leukonychia.html?garpg=2

 

[Mieke]

Thx for all of your responses.
I understand that if you have discoloration that you do this to fix it fast but i never have any of these problems * only one girl that is a hairdresser and stains them all the time *

The only other reason that i heard which i heard of a customer aswell was that the natural nail starts to show underneath, but if you just keep on letting it grow out you don,t see a difference anymore do you? I think it,s quite expensive for the customer aswell to have a new set everytime and i am afraid once they are into this routine that they would hook of since it will become to expensive.

 

[lilacm]

I have a client that has discoloured natural nails she hates, she has one set of infills at 2 weeks and then insists on having her gels soaked off after another 2 weeks, her nails cut back and a new set applied.

Madness in my opinion but if the client is happy than so am I! A lot of my clients have coloured gel so will soak off every few months so that they can start again with a lighter colour.

 

[Bagpuss]

If you're getting discolouration then I would change brands, you shouldn't ever have to soak off due to discolouration, at least not with a high end brand!
You can go on rebalancing forever and if clients want to change their free edge colour to glitter or something different then file zone 1 off and reapply.

I agree...I use a buff off gel so soaking off isn't an option for me anyway...but i have never removed all the gel to re-apply it again ever...all my clients are rebalances...the only 2 times i have had to remove all the gel has been cos they couldn't afford to come anymore...and even they came back...:lol:

 

[aliceellen1974]

i used to soak off after 2 rebalances as the product i was using became discoloured - since i have swaped to creative i have no lifting or discolouration so just rebalance all of the time (unless totally broken or missing nail) i am amazed how they can look after a rebalance - just like a new set! :Grope:

xxxx

 

[CurlyQs]

There are some companies that encourage soaking off each time.

It is obviously quite drying for the natural nail.

I wonder... more soaking off takes more soak off solution and extra product by applying a fresh set... maybe that is the reason some companies promote this practice....

 

[foryouiwill]

I agree with ValencianNails if you have discoloration, you should change brand. It's not worth it. As for me, I always rebalance so when the customer leave my shop, the set looks as if it's brand new. Most of my clients never soak of their nails....of course except for a few odd ones. They insists on soaking off and getting new set even if nothing's wrong with the old ones. I've tried to explain but...hey it's all come down to the client, right?:green:

 

[beautybyselina]

but what about bacteria and infections??? if they get under the acrylic nail they can breed and spread and cause damage!
i soak off nails and wouldnt do refills after the 3rd time as you never know whats breeding in there. if the client really wanted the refills doing for the 4th time i would just soak them off and do a full set for the price of the refill as i think its better to be heigenic.
what do you guys think do you think that that is best or is it ok to keep getting refills done continuously?

cheerz selina x