As you can imagine, I cannot be in all places at all times. This is why on occasion I will request a guest blogger to cover things I hope you will find informative or fun. What’s unique about this guest blog is that not only is it written by a fellow nail professional, you may recognize her from NAILS’ My Other Life column in as the reigning Mrs. Wisconsin — Lynz Parks! Enjoy!
I was honored to be asked to write a post about one of my favorite nail education events…HRTE! HRTE stands for The High Road to Education. It’s an amazing opportunity to network with other nail professionals and learn from some of the top nail techs and educators in the industry. It’s a non-product-specific event that focuses specifically on tips, tricks, and techniques. HRTE offers a great opportunity to learn new techniques that you can do with product you probably already have in the salon! This is such a small and intimate event, with only 60 attendees in this session I attended in Phoenix, that you get the chance to have all your questions answered and talk to the educators one on one.
HRTE travels all over and is held anywhere that there is enough interest to support organizing one. It was in Phoenix last month and will be in Buffalo, N.Y., for the 10-year-anniversary event in August. Every event is unique, with different educators, and features some of the hottest trends and techniques in the nail industry, as well as new tips and techniques on nail structure and basics.
HRTE Phoenix was the third HRTE that I have had the opportunity to attend. I previously attended one in Chicago in 2015 and in Las Vegas last year. This year we had the privilege to learn from Amy Becker, Max Estrada, Elizabeth Morris, Tony Ly, Ami McClure, and Traci Dungan.
Amy Becker, founder of Masterworks, gave us some amazing tips on sculpting gel nails, how to work with mylar, and some great timesaving techniques with the e-file.
Max Estrada, founder of Exclusive Nail Couture Professional, gave some awesome tips on gel-polish nail art, glass gels, and the cat-eye products.
Elizabeth Morris, founder of The Nail Hub, showed how to properly do an e-manicure without damaging the nail or the eponychium and how to calculate the true cost of your services to know what you should charge to make a profit.
Tony Ly showed his unique and stunning techniques for creating a perfect color-blocked acrylic nail, timesaving tips on building an acrylic nail, as well as how to secure your stones to the nail quickly and easily.
Ami McClure and Tracy Dungan, co-founders of ProFiles Backstage and the ProFiles franchise, focused on chrome art techniques, including how to make sure your chrome turns out perfect every time and doesn’t chip before your client’s next appointment.
I left the event so inspired and ready to up my nail game to the next level when I got back to the salon! My clients love knowing I am going to an education event, because they know their nails will turn out even more amazing than before at their next appointment. My clients have left the salon glittered, Swarovski crystal encrusted, and chromed since I got back from Phoenix! I tell all of my nail professional friends, and I’m telling all of you, that you need to go to HRTE if you can. It is well worth the investment and will give you an amazing return on that investment in terms of professional networking, inspiration, timesaving tips, and new techniques to awe your clients with. I can’t wait to see what the next HRTE will bring!
For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.
media brand
The secure and easy all-access connection to your content.
Bookmarked content can then be accessed anytime on all of your logged in devices!
Already a member? Log In
