Houston-based nail technician Athena Elliott has a new client — and a new undertaking. Ayanna called Athena because she wanted to come in to get her 16-inch-long nails Minxed. After an initial evaluation Athena realized the weight of the acrylic on top and underneath Ayanna’s natural nails was not only painful, but also disfiguring her cuticles. That’s when Athena got the idea to help Ayanna reach her goal of making the Guinness Book of World Records. She’s already on the list of the Top 5 Longest Nails in the World and she’s trying to make the record books.

So in order to help her make her goal, while making her more comfortable, Athena is going to change out the acrylic to lighter gel nails. It’s going to take some time (imagine the gel lamp she’s going to need for 16-inch-long nails), but Athena will be documenting the journey. She’s set up a blog so everyone can follow the progress and she’ll be posting videos on You Tube.

She’s started yesterday by Minxing 28 inches of Ayanna’s nails. It took four hours. The video should be up soon.

It’s a pretty big undertaking just to do nail art or polish nails of that length, let alone to switch from acrylics to gels. And as an official Minx salon and Medical Nail Tech, Athena’s the one for the job.

Will you follow this story as it unfolds?

— Hannah