I’ve always had a strange relationship with nails.
Being naturally cack-handed as a child back in the Old Country when I bashed one in with a hammer I would invariably miss and whack my thumb instead. Being more inventive than practical I wondered in my child-like way why no one seemed to have come up with a device to keep a nail steady to avoid this issue. I endeavoured to do so.
Years later it was nails of a different kind that had me yelping. Someone had parked a motorcycle outside the gates of my home – at the time a rented townhouse in Bangkok, Thailand.
Rather than try to find the owner and being a bit miffed as I wanted to get my car out in a hurry I moved the bike myself.
I caught the side stand on the large toenail on my right foot and whipped it straight off. The enormous pain – not to mention the blood – had me hopping about in agony using fruity language that the wife had never heard me utter before.
Years of problems followed with that nail as every time it grew back it grew in. In=growing toenails are a nightmare and the experts at hospitals in Thailand seemed unable to do anything except take it out in a yearly surgery that got more and more expensive and frustrating.
Doctors told me I had to wear certain types of shoes that didn’t pinch and have my nails cut professionally, while nail shops took one look and said I needed the hospital.
A vicious circle!
Fast forward many years to a new life in Australia and my problems are over.
I appreciated a while back that most Australian nail specialists have attended or done some nail tech course or other. In fact, the art of caring for nails as well as just beautifying them is a major science.
There is a lot more to nails than meets the eye. I was shown how to end my problems not by a licensed chiropodist (podiatrist) but by the Thai/Aussie lady in the local shop who, like me, had emigrated to Australia and set up her own business – doing nails.
She had trained, she explained.
She said that there are courses in acrylic nails, master gel extensions and in-depth lash treatment. It all sounded a bit like rocket science to me but she said there were online courses to establish people in the industry in no time.
There are courses for beginners and experts alike offering top-notch training from experienced professional nail specialists. People can learn how to create stunning acrylic nail designs in courses that will add to even an experienced nail specialist’s portfolio.
Then a funny thing happened. My eight year old daughter came in and showed me the “nails” she had created using sticky tape and paper clips.
Maybe there’s a career for her in nails one day!