I have gone to the dark side

First the braces, now the fingernails.

This morning while making the bed I tore one of my fingernails. I have tried gelatin, nail strengthener, liquid wraps, etc, etc. My nails - unlike my bones, which are in the top 10% of my age group - are like paper. Occasionally I have had all ten sort of long, only to chip, peel or tear one, followed by the others.

So I went to my usual nail place and asked for gel nails. A high school friend said the gels are better and healthier than the acrylic ones for reasons I don't remember now, but even though "We specialize in gel nails..." was painted on the window, they don't do them now.

Being ready to have stronger nails, I decided to get "solar nails". It was a fascinating process. They trimmed my pathetically short nails to the same length, used a machine to smooth out the ridges then glued long, long, LONG plastic nails. These looked like the ones you see on some cashiers who have them painted with designs. I couldn't scratch my nose with these on my fingers, much less use the phone or the computer!

The manicurist (who fortunately spoke some English) then clipped them to about 1/8 of an inch longer than my own nails. The join between the plastic and my nail was then smoothed with the drill. She then dipped a wet brush into some white powder and piled it up on the end of the nail. She used an extra plastic nail to make the crescent shape of the white tip. After this hardened, she dipped the brush into some pink powder and piled it up on the rest of the nail. When this hardened, she used the drill to smooth the edges and the surface.

After more smoothing and polishing, I have strong nails which look mostly natural (not natural to me, but still sort of natural). Another good thing is that they always look clean!

They said I'd have to return in two weeks for a fill. I don't know if I have entered the perpetual zone - like shaving your legs - or whether I will decide that this process is actually dissolving my real nails. But it's interesting for now.

Braces, fingernails.... is lipo next?