I love having nail extensions and now they were standing in front of a little over a year. My natural nails were always terrible and works as a hairdresser never helped because they were wet and exposed to chemicals constantly.
I love having long pointed (stiletto) nails, but have a few things along the way that I thought I’d learned to share.
1. Consider the shape
Stiletto nails are known to lift up and come off more easily than square or round their counterparts. Start by having them not take too long to get used to them and then you can go longer if desired. For the retro look, without the sharpness of stiletto nails, try almond shape.
2. Stay on top of maintenance
Make sure you get regular backfills. I go every two weeks, if I’m a week late, I lift the risk and to come off the potential and all the nail.
3. Prevent deleted extensions
When I did first started getting acrylic, I thought that I needed to remove them and apply a new set to get 3 or 4 backfills. This led to my nails get much weaker underneath and because my natural nails never really caught up, I had a lot that would break or take off.
When I get to remove the few times they, the women would just slide under and pull it out (it really hurt!) And once my natural nail tore a little exposed nail bed underneath- not nice! Every time you rip off a nail, it will come off a layer of your natural nail with it which means they are getting thinner and thinner.
In the last 3-4 months I only get backfills and do not break at all had with the exception of the last week, but that was because I was a week too late to do them. My natural nails have grown underneath, giving the acrylic a better anchorage and meant that I could be a longer length.
4. Protect them where possible
Wear gloves as much as possible if you are going to get your hands submerged in water for long periods. Even if you can remember to dry quickly under your nails after washing your hands, will help stop this by lifting the water from the acrylic nail.
5. Polish and design
If you are like me and are quite hard on their nails, with your hands in the water etc, opt for gel color instead of regular polish over the top. I found regular polish would start boring to look at and wear on the tips and sides after the first week, so I switched to getting gel colors instead (ie Shellac or G’Lish). This means remains super shining for the full two weeks and minimal wear on the ends ..
concealing go for a Dita Von Teese style half moon manicure to the regrowth of the nail. If you need any kind of design, such as the crescent or my new favorite heart shape to make a reference image! Do not rely on your manicure to know exactly what you mean. That way there is no miscommunication and disappointment.
And finally, choose wisely where you are going and when you find a good stylist, ask him / her every time, so you can build a relationship and they can get to know your preferences. There may be some very poor hygiene standards in a number of the cheaper nail salons, but so far I’ve had no problems apart from the one mentioned earlier incident. While there can do a number of high-end nail salons extensions with minimal / no damage, most of the time they’re going to really damage your natural nails. That does not bother me because I do not take them at any time to plan quickly, but it is something to keep in mind when you think of the net them an opportunity-prepared for damaged, weak nails after getting removed from the extensions!