While others spend up to $100 in the nail salon on manicures, students find a more budget-friendly approach to self-expression through nail art. By turning their passion for nail art into a potential future career.
Junior Gianna Beard has found a new way of showing her art through nails. Her interest in nails rose in seventh grade.
“I decided to start doing nails because I think that salons charge way too much,” Beard said.
Beard loves to be creative through nail art and tries various designs. Often coming up with new ideas daily, as she has clients coming in and out. TikTok and other social media platforms are a great source of inspiration. These ideas get Beard’s creativity flowing to come up with new and better ideas.
“My favorite thing about doing nails is watching people’s faces light up when they love their nails,” Beard said.
To ensure that she is providing the best service to her clients, she works daily to improve her services and techniques. While working on this, she is staying caught up with the trends for nails. She gets inspiration from TikTok and Instagram, as well as from her grandma sending her options. She works her best to complete the nails, to meet her clients’ standards.
“I never really know how they will turn out, which makes me nervous,” Beard said.
At times, she has clients come in not knowing what they went, but she works around these situations and is prepared.
“I love doing freestyle sets, but I’ll only do a freestyle if I’ve done your nails before to know kinda what you like. When people come in, and they don’t know what they want or they can’t decide between a few sets, I’ll ask them what they like about each set, and then we will create our own set out of what they like,” Beard said.
Being a nail technician comes with a lot of skills, not only with art, but how to deal with clients and go about certain situations. For example, if someone has a nail infection, it is important to follow safety measures.
“Personally, I either won’t put a nail on the infected one, or I will refuse the service. Being clean is important when you do nails.” Beard said.
She values her customers and not only wants to give them quality nails, but also to build a relationship with them.
“Sitting in silence while basically holding someone’s hand is one of the most awkward situations to be in, so you have to have good communication skills to be a nail tech. Simple conversation is a must,” Beard said.
She also strives to be a loyal technician. To her, this means not cancelling on clients unless you seriously need to or if a client wants a certain design. Canceling on them is unprofessional; always attempt and start over if they do not like it.
“In a couple of years, I see myself hopefully through nail school with a license and my own studio to do nails in,” Beard said.
