nail salon, enfemme, with friend

[Gina]

All,

Maybe the most fun was a visit to a nail salon to get my nails and toenails "done" while in Portland visiting Victoria. This was a magical weekend...wow I loved my beautiful pink nails and general feeling of acceptance.

[Carol Ann]

enjoy

[PhylissH]

So glad you enjoyed your outing. I love getting my nails done.

[MichelleZ]

I've been thinking of wearing some nylon knee highs to a salon so I can take them off, get my pedi and nail polish done, slip my nylons back on and go shoe shopping. Whatcha think of that?

[Leeza]

you will not want to put the knee highs back on for several hours as the polish needs time to dry and cure or the knee highs will mess it up.

[Davita]

Leeza's right. You don't want anything to touch those nails until they are dry and even then if you can delay it a bit longer until they are hard.

After we pick our wonderful color and get all that attention, we certainly don't want a smudged, dented polish. That reminds me, I need to get my nails done. *sigh* It's been forever.

[Mersades]

I had manicure on February 13th, on my way to a makeover. (See my other post about my stop at Payless the same day) The owner of the salon did the manicure. When she finished the manicure part she asked if I wanted clear polish. She was a bit taken aback when I told her I wanted a color. Then she said " Oh, you want color for the holiday!" At that point I said yes.

After the makeover I stopped back at the salon en femme. We had a good laugh and she asked me if I wanted a pedicure. I told her I would before my next makeover.

[MichelleZ]

You're so right with regular nail polish, especially if it's two thick coats - been there and done that at home, never been to a salon...yet..

I've had good results with Revlon's Quick Dry nail polish. Haven't timed it, but I'd guess it's dry enough for nylons in 30 - 40 minutes.

My old GF had a little fan powered dryer she would stick her toes into after I painted them for quicker results. Now she tells me about the gel polish and UV lights being the cat's meow at the salons. Think I'll call her for the inside info.

Anyone tried the gel polish?

[Janet Bern]

How accepting are most nail salons to men that want to have their nails done. Do you need appointments in most of them?
Janet

[Mersades]

I have done it in three places and never had a real problem. The closest thing to a problem was when they thought I was just getting a male pedicure and I asked for a color on my toes. After the initial double-take everything was fine.

[Davita]

Michelle, All my GFs swear by the gel except that come time to take it off, it's awfully difficult. Gel lasts twice as long but I think it's more that twice the cost. It's also longer to get done because of the "process". I think lasting twice as long means half as many tips to salon person so it evens out the cost?

I might try the home gel one day, but I have too much other polish to play with before I go to gel. BTW, ages ago, I bought the same UV light gizmos the salons use and a bottle of UV clear. That stuff ate one of the brushes I was using. Scary...

As for going to the salons and asking for a color? They really don't care. What was it? A double take then everything was fine? Yep, but the second time in there won't be a double take. I remember one time my office spouse and I went to her salon after w**k. Got my color, enjoyed the conversation and left with the little throw away slippers on my feet while we went next door for dinner. I don't recall anyone there noticing and I had my hands done too. The whole reason for going was my days out en fem started the day after the mani and pedi.

[Ralitsa]

I love the gel polish, but it is pretty expensive. Normally it's about $40-50 for a mani with gel. The place I go recommends the gel only for fingernails, and I try to find a matching color for my toes. The gel will last about 20-30 days on your fingers, but really the nails start to grow out and at about 10-15 days it's kind of obvious. So it depends how picky you are about the appearance. I've never tried the gel on my toes, because the regular polish holds up fine for that.
I've been to several places and nobody has ever batted an eye, but I'm always wearing a skirt or dress anyway. I wouldn't wear nylons soon after getting a pedi. I've tried letting the polish dry for a half hour and still had it smudge when I put my shoes on. So go with sandals and bare feet.

[MichelleZ]

FYI - My old GF mentioned Dr. Oz had discussed gel nail polish on his tv show. He showed pics of nails that required scraping of the stubborn areas which removed the top nail surface making it prone to infection. He convinced her never to use gel polish with pictures of infected nails and total nail loss. His website may have information about this problem.

I'm going to follow Dr Oz' warning and not even try Gel nail polish. Going to stick with Sally Hanson and Revlon quick dry polish.

[Ralitsa]

Hmmm, I've not had any trouble at all with it. It is more difficult to remove and if they don't know what they're doing I can see it causing problems. And I have been to one or two places where they sort of struggled with it. I think as long as you find a salon that does it well you should have no problem.