I Wish I Would Have Researched...

A couple of months ago I transitioned from adolescence to adulthood. My plan for the day was to get my nails done, get eyelash extensions, and eventually have dinner at Carraba's Italian Grill. I didn't specifically ask for a birthday gift so my parents decided that I do something special. My first stop was at a nearby hair salon that also had nail services. My first mistake was not booking an appointment because to my surprise the salon was booked for the day. There were other salons nearby, so it wasn't that big of a problem. Since this was my first time getting my nails done I didn't know what to expect. This time I decided to walk into an actual nail salon, and if the prices were reasonable I would stay.

I was initially surprised, the area was small and crowded. A sour and overwhelming chemical smell lingered in the air. The set up was a little awkward. There were two long tables set across from each other. All employees were put in the middle, and customers placed on the outer sides of the tables. Two employees greeted me, a woman and a man. The woman told me I would have to wait a little, but she said I could pick a nail polish in the meantime. I walked over to the back of the room and observed my selection of polishes. The nail salon had a variety of colors and brands. I settled on two glitter polishes, one being a very light purple, and the other being a dark violet. I then walked back to the front of the room and sat down.

 During my wait I decided to look up nail art so I could get an idea of what I wanted. I settled on an light to dark ombré design. Soon after, the man who greeted me spoke again. He wanted me to sit down by him so he could start on my manicure. I was treated with a nail soak, nail filing, cuticle removal, and a hand massage. I personally felt that the man didn't let me soak my nails long enough in the bowl of warm water. The filing didn't do much to my nail shape since I already had them rounded.

When it came to the cuticle removal, the man wasn't able to do much but made an attempt to look like he was actually doing something. The hand massage made me very uncomfortable. I had a 40 year old man massage lotion into my hands and at one point he stopped while his fingers were interlocked with mine. He looked at me and asked me some casual questions. I didn't realize how tense the experience had made me, and he told me to relax. I was then told to wash my hands and thoroughly dry them.

When I sat back down I showed him a picture of how I wanted my nails, and explained that I wanted a gradual change from light to dark. He looked at me a little skeptically, but decided to go on with the manicure. My nails are fairly small so he didn't have much to work with. The employee attempted to give me the nail look I desired but he quickly passed me onto a female employee. I was in complete shock... He had only painted two of my nails. I couldn't quite understand why the male employee had passed me onto someone else. He even had taken on a new customer which I found to be very unprofessional. He should have passed the new customer onto the female employee and finish what he started. Once the woman had finished giving me a manicure, she had sent me to a drying machine.

I left once my nails had finished drying but I couldn't get myself to like my manicure. I tried telling myself it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't anything like I wanted, and the change was not gradual at all. I ended up only keeping my manicure for about a day until I decided to remove it. Although the price of the manicure wasn't bad (about $15) I didn't think the design was worth it. I should have researched nail salons beforehand, and if I did, I might have actually been pleased with my results.