Manicures And Pedicures Are More Affordable Today, But Lack Quality

I went to Cosmetology school in Corpus Christ, Texas back in 1985. This allowed me to deal with all facets of hair, in addition to facials, manicures and pedicures. At that time, the average cost of a manicure was about $25.00 and would have lasted close to an hour - today you can get a manicure for $12.00 easily and be finished in twenty minutes. A set of sculpted nails would have cost $75.00 and taken at least a couple of hours - today those fills will cost you $35.00 or so and take about 45 minutes. That is not to say that you can not go to a higher-end salon and pay more money, but even when I did that I still found problems.

One of the problems with the manicure and pedicure today is that the people doing them skip steps. Rarely do I have someone do a manicure or a pedicure for me that they do not miss some step. For instance, very rarely do they clean under my nails - sometimes they don't even file my nails. Sometimes they go through the motion as if they are performing the task, but it is simply a way for them to fool themselves into believing they are doing it correctly. Another step often missed is taking the time to push the cuticles back before trimming them. Finally, another shortcut they take is skipping the base coat or clear coat - painting nails should involve a base coat, two coats of the color, and a clear coat on top.

When it comes to sculptured nails, a manicure used to be done before the sculptured nails were applied. There is actually a reason this is supposed to be done: this was to make sure the cuticles were pushed all the way back. The number one reason that sculptured nails lift and come off is because the cuticles have oils in them and they push the sculptured nails loose. I happen to be one of those people whose cuticles will grow halfway up the nail bed within two weeks - if I do not pay extra to have the manicure first, my nails would pop off in a day or so.