Nails 101: A Student Blog

Meet Orma Swearinger!

by Orma Swearinger | July 28, 2016 | Bookmark +

Greetings to all of you in the wonderful world of nails! My name is Orma Swearinger, and in a few days, I will be starting my first day in the Nail Technology program at the Institute of Beauty Artistry in Greenville, SC. Prior to my enrollment in IBA, I have been working and utilizing my B.S. Chemistry degree for a great specialty chemical company for the last seventeen years.  I chose this particular nail school because it offers flexibility for those of us who work full-time jobs.  The program requires 300 hours to complete.  Classes are Monday through Thursday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and evening classes are Monday through Thursday from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM.  I will be attending evening classes four days a week while working first shift. This will be a huge undertaking, but I am more than capable of handling it. 

I have always been fascinated by long nails. My mother has always had beautiful, long, and healthy nails. Since I was a little girl, I wanted to have beautiful nails like my mom, but I was an avid nail biter until I was twelve years old.  One day I asked my mom how she kept her nails so long and strong. She told me in order for me to get those kind of nails, I would need to first stop biting them! I took her advice. Since I stopped biting them, my nails are normally pretty healthy. But wo years ago, I went to a new nail salon to have a manicure and pedicure.  A week after visiting this salon, my nails started breaking very easily.

 My nails remained brittle for a little over two months.  I am not sure what the nail technician did or did not do that day, but I was not happy about that experience.  I decided to take a break from getting a manicure, but continued going to different salons for my pedicures. Later on in the same year, I was in Houston, Tex., and decided to go get a pedicure at one of the salons that had a very high rating.  Everything looked great in the salon. The customer service was great as well. The nail tech and I had a great conversation, but at some point things went south. 

She was clipping the nail on my big toe and the next thing I knew, she started tearing/ripping a hang nail instead of clipping it. I asked her what was she doing and why did she do that.  She tried to make me think that it was okay and wouldn’t be a problem, but my toenail started bleeding very badly. She did what she had to do to stop the bleeding and then continued with the rest of the pedicure. When she was done, I had a beautiful pedicure, but I was concerned about the injury to my toenail. To make a long story short and fast forward two years later, the toenail is a mess and needed the attention of a podiatrist.

Those three stories are my “why” for wanting to become a nail technician. I have made excuses for years as to why I couldn’t start school, but I ran out of excuses.  I knew I needed to get it done now or never.  I want to be the best student that has ever come through IBA. Once I obtain my license, I plan to continue working my full-time job and do nails part-time for a while. I have great desire to be the best nail technician in my area. I want to help my clients have healthy, beautiful fingernails and toenails. I am looking forward to giving my future clients a world class service in a super clean salon of my own one day. I would love to use my background in chemistry to do great things in the nail industry and it will all begin in a few short days.  I am so excited about this new journey! 

~ Orma

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.

a Bobit media brand

Create your free Bobit Connect account to bookmark content.

The secure and easy all-access connection to your content.
Bookmarked content can then be accessed anytime on all of your logged in devices!

Create Account