They Really Can't Tell

I think this is the problem. Seriously.

Long have professionals passionately debated the reasons why people continue to go to cheap, lousy salons and pay for cheap, lousy nails.

I've always wondered: Don't they know those are ugly nails? Can't they tell the difference between really nice nails and cheap, lousy ones?

Well I've come to the conclusion that they can't. There's just no other plausible excuse.

And now the whole polish revolution has taken over the blogosphere and Pinterest and Tumblr are overrun with photos of "hey, I painted my nails" photos. Some of which are beautiful and very professional looking whether they were done by a pro or not, and many that are, ummm, I would say something polite about how brave they are to attempt to paint their own nails and then show it off to the world, but I'm too busy gagging.

So that's got to be the reason, right? People really can't tell the difference between quality and crap.

For some people it comes down to price. Look at how popular designer knock-off stuff is. People love fake Coach purses and fake Chanel shoes — they know they're fake. They know it's not going to last as long and they know it's not near the quality of the real thing. They also know the real thing costs $1,200 and the fake one cost $35. They don't care if the zipper breaks after three months. They don't care if it won't last more than one season.

People are like that with nails too. They don't care if the tips are a little crooked or if the polish runs into the cuticle a bit or if the shape doesn't quite match on all of them. They know they like crappy nails better than their natural nails, along with the fact that they didn't have to wait for an appointment and paid a fraction of the cost.

People have a way of shrugging it off and saying, "Yeah, well, the whole set was only $20 so I don't really care."

With attitudes like that being so prevalent, it's a wonder that there are any professionals left who have managed to stay upbeat and enthusiastic about honing their skills and turning out quality work.