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| - Short version: Not-too-clean nail-butchers.
I had a mani pedi. The pedi person cut a nail too short and pulled it off, tearing the quick so that I screamed out loud--then instead of using disinfectant, had me plunge my wounded foot into the water! I think I have picked up a fungus in that corner. The polish wore well but there was no elegance to the shaping. She didn't take off all the old polish in the corners before she repainted.
The mani person systematically gouged the surface and edges of my fingernails with a very coarse board (suitable for shortening thick toenails), creating deep weak areas, so that almost all of them broke off near the base within a week. Then as the gouges grow out, the nails continue to break off in wierd inverse scoops (i.e. with points at the edges). I have really strong nails and rarely have a break no matter how I abuse them, but these people have discovered how to WRECK HEALTHY NAILS. Probably sells them a lot of nail extensions. I ended up buying nail equipment, doing a lot of self-care, and short, piano player nails from my beautiful NY-toned medium length ones.
And oh yeah, the cuticle nippers were dull and she was pulling up on the cuticle with each nip, separating the nail and nailbed (which introduces infection) and causing numerous hangnails to develop by the time their cheap glue had dried. It hurt. And I got nail base infections by the third day I had to treat for days with Neosporin and even band-aids.
I've had mani pedi in NYC and they use disinfectant between each stage of the process. These guys don't use any disinfectant that I could tell, and they make you buy a bag of supplies but they didn't use those supplies, they used others which appeared to be in common use. The board of health should close them down. I wonder if the bagged items, supposedly used only on you, are actually leftovers from some other stage of the process. Because mine did seem used.
As for their "technique", they did a French polish by (1) gouging the nail surface horribly, (2) applying a thick glue which won't come off after 6 weeks and several remover attempts, (3) painting the white ON TOP of the tip (it should be under the nail). It looked cheap, the tips were chipped within a day, and the pink came off shortly after. AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL.
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