Nail School - Day 14

Tons and tons of exciting stuff happened today! I'll start from the beginning. My friend J wanted me to do some tips and wraps on her, so that was my first task of the day. I was really excited to try tips and wraps on a real human hand as opposed to the creepy fake hand because it's totally different to work with an actual hand. I was nervous about doing things like flooding the eponychium with nail glue or being too rough when I filed. So here is the finished product, followed by photographs of the process:

The finished product! Not perfect, but I think it's pretty good for a first attempt!

Just after putting the tips on.

After I did the shaping of the nails and some blending of the tips. Notice that I did a better job on her bottom hand than her top hand. The goal with this step is to make the line between the fake nail and the real nail completely disappear. 

This shows you what it looks like when you first apply the strips of fabric. For J, I used silk. But I think I prefer fiberglass. You can also use special linen and paper. 

This is with VERY minimal buffing after the wraps were applied. 

Close up of the finished product. I obviously need to work on the area near the eponychium and the side walls. But, what do you think?

R, another girl in the class, did these wraps and tips on herself. Pretty good job huh? I think this length looks amazing on her!

L, yet another girl in the class, did these tips and wraps on herself. They also look great! But notice that you can still see the weave of the fabric?

After I finished J's nails I got to have my second client! I am completely baffled that other students in the class seem to *not* want clients. Whenever the teacher asks, "Who wants a client today?" everyone shrinks in their seats. I sit right up in my chair and wave my arm around shouting, "I do, I do!" I like clients, I feel like taking clients makes me do better. It challenges me, and really, lets be honest, taking clients is my ultimate goal so why wouldn't I start now? Today I did a manicure on a really nice gentleman. He had his first pedicure ever today (done by J), but this wasn't his first manicure. I really liked doing a manicure on him because with girls, especially girls who take care of their appearance, you don't notice a huge difference between before the manicure and after. But with a man who works with his hands, you can really see a HUGE change! I learned that I need to change my massage technique for men... His hands and arms were like gigantic and my tiny little hands hardly did enough to relax his muscles. He seemed like he enjoyed it though.

I thought I was going to hate all this stuff... That nail school was just a means to an end... That I was only going to be able to legally charge for nail art. But I am truly enjoying every single thing we're doing. I'm completely shocked. In a million years, I never would have expected to enjoy any of this, but I am truly happy I gave it a chance and that I am where I am in my life. I may not always love the process of school, but I love what I'm doing!

In addition today I also: Took 2 tests (both 100%), did two sets of tips and wraps on my practice hand, touched up my nails, and still had time for lunch! I'm getting into my groove, and I love it!