Manicure etiquette?

March 6, 2018 3:47 PM

My friends are planning to take me to my first-ever manicure for my birthday, but it's my first time and I have some questions...

I'm guessing we're probably each going to want to get the "Natural Nail Repair", since we won't want any painting or anything (it'll be the first time for all three of us). I'm worried because this particular service is $5 for thirty minutes, which does not seem like enough money to reimburse the person doing the work (I mean, $10/hour is below minimum wage here). As another data point, their pedicures are $35 for 45 minutes, which seems like a more reasonable price (but we don't want pedicures).

Will we be wasting the place's time if we don't get any additional services besides the "Natural Nail Repair"? Should we just tip very well? Should we maybe just not go get manicures?

posted by middlethird to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (15 answers total)

Best answer: I’ve had manicures with no polish but it was just the same service as a manicure which included a scrub, soak, cuticle care, nail shaping, massage and moisturizer that the normal service included. We just skipped the polish, and I had a little more massage and a warm wrap in a towel before moisturizer. My guess is the natural nail repair might be a different service.
posted by Swisstine at 3:59 PM on March 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Are you looking at a service menu to get this term/pricing/timing info? The nail place I go to most often is dirt cheap, and even they don't have any standalone service on their menu for 5 bucks. If you could share it here that'd be super.

Every place has their different terminology for things, but my very very strong guess is that something called "natural nail repair" listed for $5 is an additional service you'd add onto a mani (or a one finger fix up for a walk in, perhaps) if you really fucked up a nail. Like the rest of your nails are fine but you whanged your thumb on the file cabinet at work and cracked it. Then you'd need a little TLC to repair that nail (filing, glue, repainting, etc). It's extremely unlikely that you're going to get your both your whole hands attended to for thirty whole minutes for $5.

What you want is generally called a classic manicure or basic manicure without polish (or if they have an overly gendered men's menu, a men's manicure). This is where they'll clean up your nails, push back cuticles, moisturize your nail beds, and that sort of thing. Just ask for no polish if you don't want polish. (Nail polish is SUPER FUN though, so unless you're very very opposed to nail color this is a great opportunity to play with it.) At a place where pedis are 35 bucks and 45 mins, I'd guess that a basic mani would run you $15 and take 20-30 mins.

You should absolutely tip, though, 15% minimum, and tip really well if you enjoy your service. In cash, if at all possible, directly to your nail tech. I only get super basic pedicures but the place I go to charges $20 and I tip between $5 and $7 on that service.
posted by phunniemee at 4:04 PM on March 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

Best answer: If your nail place is like the ones I've been to, you pay for a full manicure. They don't charge less if you don't have them apply any color or clear coat. They'll have you soak your nails in a dish of water. They will trim and file your nails, apply a cuticle softener and then push back/trim the cuticles. After that, possibly few minutes of hand/arm massage, followed by a hot towel.

I always have no-color mani-pedis, and the only "natural repair" I've heard of is warm paraffin to soften foot skin and a paper repair, sometimes called teabag wrap.( YouTube) The only way they'd charge $5 for half an hour is if they applied something and then let it soak or rest for 30 minutes.
posted by wryly at 4:05 PM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: "Natural nail repair" isn't a manicure; it's a 3 minute procedure to fix a split on a broken (natural) nail (as opposed to an acrylic or gel nail.) You will still book and pay for a full regular manicure even if you don't want polish. Hint: you probably want at least clear, maybe a nice subtle glitter overcoat?
posted by DarlingBri at 4:23 PM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Oh my gosh, I'm so embarrassed. The service we want is "Basic Clean Manicure", for $15. And it was, like, right there.

Anyway, thank you all for urging me to look again. (And also for letting me know how much to tip and for getting me pumped for the manicure! As for the glitter, I'll think about it...)
posted by middlethird at 4:45 PM on March 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

I just had my first manicure a month ago. Everyone has great advice here so I will just add that the only thing that surprised me was when the ...nail tech? asked me what kind of nail shape I wanted before she started filing. I did not know this was a thing and so I just asked for a natural shape. This turned out to be rounded, which was ok with me.
posted by janepanic at 6:46 PM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

I tip $5 to $7 for pedicures depending on how good I think she was. I've never had a manicure, but if you've never had a pedicure, I recommend it. They feel amazing. I just do the basic one of they offer, which is anywhere from $25 to $35 in my experience. They give you a foot massage that feels awesome.
posted by AppleTurnover at 7:19 PM on March 6, 2018

That’s a great point, janepanic. They do usually ask about shape preferences. Here’s a link to a needlessly long article with a useful infographic towards the end.
posted by bluloo at 8:17 PM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

If, like me, polish on your nails makes you antsy, you could ask them to buff your nails, if it's not already part of the no-polish manicure.
posted by tavegyl at 9:17 PM on March 6, 2018

To add to the last few pieces of advice: I love getting my toes polished, but don't get nail polish on my hands very often because I will immediately wreck it. I do really like to get them buffed so they look shiny and nice without having to deal with even clear polish, and I recommend that if you're not interested in polish. Just be aware that many salons charge $2-5 extra for buff (sometimes they'll refer to it as "shiny buff"). The first time I was charged for this I felt weird and thought it was scammy, but I've since realized it's because it requires an extra piece of equipment (a block of foam with multiple textured surfaces attached) not otherwise used for nail services.
posted by rhiannonstone at 10:42 PM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

I agree with the people telling you to ask for buff. I don't like polish - I hate that I chip it so it looks ratty almost right away. When they buff it, your nails are super shiny, and really healthy looking.
posted by Neeuq Nus at 3:40 AM on March 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'm not sure how relevant this is, but reading the question made me wonder how much of what you're asking is basically the worry about "aaargh... what should I expect, and what am I supposed to do in this situation?"

I only started getting my nails done a few months ago and (as a late-transitioning trans woman) I was super worried that I'd somehow do the wrong thing or something! So I've been paying waaaay too much attention to what everyone else is doing out of paranoia. Just a few things I noticed as a really naive person...

(1) Everyone asks for what they want in a different way, and the staff often have to clarify terminology with customers. Don't be afraid to ask "dumb" questions when you go in for the first time, it's more common than you think.

(2) They will ask you about nail shape preferences. My approach was to just look terrified, and the nice lady helped me out. If you go for a polish (which you totally should!), they might ask about shellac or SNS (every place I have been to does). Shellac is pretty awesome actually (in my utterly inexpert opinion!) and is pretty much the reason I don't bother doing my own nails anymore.

(3) There's way more possibilities for nail polish than I knew about... and if you're going in for the first time you have the best excuse in the world for trying something unusual. By dumb stupid luck the first thing I picked was mood polish, which changes colour based on the temperature, and I was surprised that none of my cis women friends had seen it before. So naturally I pretended that I'd picked it out deliberately...

I can't comment on tipping, unfortunately. It doesn't really exist as a thing in Australia. Anyway, really the thing I wanted to say is that I was pretty scared when I went in for the first time (and was so thankful I had a friend with me), but was pleasantly surprised at how relaxed the whole thing was. To the extent I have any advice: Go! Have fun! It's not anywhere near as worrying as you might think.
posted by saltbush and olive at 4:00 AM on March 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

they might ask about shellac or SNS

Excellent point.

In the US we call these gel and dip manicures. Gel polish cures hard with a lamp and lasts about 2x as long as regular polish. It also costs a bit more. Dip manis are a powder curing system and it's newer so they'll be a bit more expensive than gel polish, but dip nails are nearly bomb proof. Both gel and dip manicure products require effort to get off (you'll probably see an item on the menu called "soak off") and if you try to do it yourself without knowing what you're getting into you can really ruin your natural nail surface. If you think there's a chance you'll tire of having polish in a day or two and try to pick it off, a gel or dip mani is not for you.

Regular old polish is included in the price of the regular manicure and is easy to remove but also chips easy. Regular polish colors will be out in bottles on display on the main floor of the nail salon and you can just go grab the one you want to use that day. You won't see bottles out for gel and dip colors; those will be somewhere painted on to swatches and coded with numbers and you'd tell your tech the color number to choose it.
posted by phunniemee at 4:36 AM on March 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Because you're a first timer I'll warn you that a typical manicure includes cutting your cuticles. Nothing to be alarmed about, but I personally don't like this and ask them not to cut my cuticles.
posted by emd3737 at 4:37 AM on March 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

Yes, you should not do shellac or gel on this first go around, even thought they will ask you about it, just say normal polish. And seconding emd3737's point above, if you don't want your cuticles cut, just tell them that. Depending on the nail tech, you might get some push back from them or pressuring to cut because they like to cut, as it makes a nicer-looking nail bed. "Cutting" in this case means they push the cuticles back (making them stick up a little) and then use a little tool to clip them from your nail bed. Again, depending on the tech, this can be a little painful or result in reddened nail beds, so some people do not like this.

I would recommend at least a clear polish, or a very light pink, which will just give your nails a healthy looking glow. I think you will like this effect as it feels like your regular nails but like the best possible version of your regular nails. If you hate it, it will come off with drug store nail polish remover in seconds, so really no harm done.

Definitely bring cash to tip and plan on 20%. Often the tech will remember to have you pay right before you get polish on. That might seem odd, but means you don't have to go digging around for a card or cash with newly painted nails. They don't always do this, though, so if you're going to get polish, maybe have your payment method ready to go at the top of your purse to avoid deep digging.
posted by LKWorking at 8:16 AM on March 7, 2018 [2 favorites]