- Christina Quinn (Diztinctive Beauty)
Have you ever felt like beating your head against a wall, because it seems like all your clients are having problems? Yep, been there did that, I even wanted to quit because of it.
It has taken so many years to figure this out! Yet, it seems SO FRIGGING SIMPLE. Dryness. The number one cause of problems with lifters and the pickers that are a nail tech’s worst nightmare is wintertime. In the winter is it dry and cold, no one likes it, but it's part of life.
I want to break something down real quick, the difference between problem lifters and lifting due to dryness.
Problem lifters
Can’t keep nails on, 9 times out of 10 nails “pop” off. With that said, yes there are people who are ridiculously hard on their nails, and need them super short or need a good talking too. Problem lifters usually characterize with unusually oily skin, scalp and hyperhidrosis on their nails. Have you ever prepped a hand, started working, on the other hand, to come back to the first hand and it looks like you’ve done nothing? Yep, that’s gonna be a problem lifter, and she’s probably going to lift right by the cuticle.
Dryness Lifters
Lifting from dryness ALWAYS lifts at the free edge. The natural nail curls away from the enhancement, and usually happens with clients with very flexible nails. Then 9/10 times the person ends up picking the edge until the nail mysteriously “pops” off, and we can’t figure out why. When in reality, we are the professionals and need to be educating our clients about all things nails. If you aren’t, then you need to start.
First, natural nails are porous, if you don’t know what that means, it means that the nail plate absorbs water. When our nail plate absorbs water, it expands, and flexible nails are especially susceptible to this. Then, as it drys out the nail plate shrinks and contracts. Now do this 100+ times and “Houston, we have a problem!” Then factor in someone who has to wash their hands before each and client, and “Houston, she’s about to blow!” Its really not that dramatic, but it CAN be, BECAUSE NO ONE WANTS TO LOSE A NAIL EVER!
Your enhancement is staying just fine, but if you carefully inspect the free edge, you can tell exactly where the issue lies.