I get my nails done like many other women of today.  I bite my own nails so feverishly that they never have a chance to grow.  So I just get acrylic nails.  I don’t always have them on, I’d say I have nails on about 1/2-3/4 of the year.  My nails don’t make me who I am but I do enjoy pampering myself from time to time and looking nice.

Year and years ago I lived in Eatonville out by Mt. Rainier.  The best place I found to get my nails done and get a great spa pedicure was Hi-Tek Nails in Spanaway, WA.  I now live in UP and it is not convenient to drive to Spanaway to get my nails done.  I thought I’d just go to somewhere local.

First, I tried Tip Top Nails at 6720 Regents Blvd.  At first I thought they had a fair price and did a nice job.  They even stayed open late for me one time when I had a broken nail and needed a repair.  I was pulling up to the salon as the manicurist was shutting the door.  He saw me and asked me what I needed.  I showed him my broken nail and he said, “Come on in, we like to make our customers happy, I will fix for you.”  I was pleased.  He fixed the nail and I was good to go.  After a while though I noticed there was some substance they were putting on the nails and it was making them smelly for a long time after they were done.  I don’t mean acrylic smelly it was something else chemical that I can not put my finger on.

I decided that I would go to Gorgeous Nails on the corner of Cirque and Bridgeport.  I went in and sat down, I told the lady that I wanted my eyebrows waxed and a full set put on as well as a spa pedicure.  They treated me well and I left happy.  Well, a couple of days later I noticed that many of the nails were lifting near the cuticle.  I do not have my nails long at all, I like them very short so the length was in no way causing the lifting.  I was not happy.  I went back when 3 of the nails fell off.  I didn’t complain I just paid to have them fixed.  That was about $18.00.  Initially, when I went the first time it was nearly $100.00 for the 3 services I had done that day.  I left the salon this time feeling, OK.  I thought that it was a fluke and that things would go better this time.

Well, they didn’t about 4-5 days later I noticed the other nails lifting.  There wasn’t much grow out so it wasn’t that.  I decided to try a different local salon.  I went to Red Nails next door to Subway on 40th and Bridgeport.  When I walked in I noticed a distinct urine-like odor.  It was really hot in there, they had no A/C and it was about 80 degrees outside.  The woman there suggested that instead of fixing my 4 fallen off nails, I’d be better off to soak those off in acetone and just start over with a fresh set.  I was willing to try this.  She went to work soaking my nails, after about 15 minutes of soaking they were ready to be revamped.

She took out some white tips.  I HATE white tips.  Due to the fact that I always keep my nails real short, white tips really make the nails look fake on me.  They usually go about halfway down my nail and it just looks terrible.  I told her I didn’t like white tips and that I just wanted the french manicure painted on.  She didn’t like that idea at all, she asked me why I didn’t like the white tips and I told her.  She shook her head and just looked at me behind her medical mask.  I realized that I wasn’t going to get far with her and that she was trying to take the easy way out so she didn’t have to paint the french manicure on manually. So I just said, “OK, I’ll try it.”

She worked hard on the nails and I have to say they are some of the better looking white tipped nails I’ve had.  I just don’t like the way they are dulled out instead of the freshly painted french manicure, stark white look you get when it is done manually.  The nails haven’t started lifting YET.  They really look like they will hold up nicely.  I will not go back to Red Nails though, the smell of that place was awful and I don’t like to argue with someone about what I want when I am paying for a service.  I feel if I am paying good money for this, it had damn well better be the way I like it!

So, with all of these bad experiences in the UP area with my nails, I am now just going to take the drive to Spanaway to go to Hi-Tek nails.  They give you a coke or a bottle of water, they used to give you a massage while your nails dried and they do things the way you want it and they don’t fight you on it.  If they are talking about me in their native tongue, I really don’t care.  I always leave there knowing I won’t have to go back in 4 days.  If I did I know they will know who I am and give me a break monetarily if they had done some shoddy workmanship.  Although, I’ve never had to go back there to get things fixed, in fact, the nails I get done over there frequently last me a month or short thereof.

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