I have never had great strength in my hands. I learned long ago that I have to rely on my clients’ cooperation to twist their hands from side to side in order to do my job and I have no problem making those verbal commands.

Now, maybe I’m a weirdo for this. Maybe I’m such a rarity in this business that clients find the idea that they actually have to cooperate with their nail tech in order to get their nails done insanely alien. People are so used to sitting down at a manicuring desk and just ignoring the person who’s doing their nails that the experience of sitting at my table and having me expect them to pay attention to me while they are here and actually help me with my job is just so out of the ordinary they cannot cope.

All I know is, whatever excuse they give me, if I can’t access their nails, then I can’t do them.

I don’t care if they have ADD. I don’t care if they have arthritis. I don’t care if they have carpal tunnel syndrome. I don’t care if they have fibromyalgia. I don’t care if they need to answer this call or that text.

It doesn’t matter why they can’t let me maneuver their hands, it matters that I can’t. If I can’t get to their nails, I can’t do them.

WHY DON’T PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THAT?!

Then they laugh about it and say, “I can’t relax” or “I don’t know how to relax.”

This is not funny. It is a blatant statement of refusal to allow me to do the job they have contracted me to do. It’s a power play. A control issue.

I’m sure I could get a psychology student to come up with a really interesting thesis on the psychological facets of nail services. But on an everyday basis, here in my salon, in my life, I just want to do nails. If a client expects me to be able to accomplish that while she sits four feet away from my desk with her hands locked in position against me — we will be having a conversation. A conversation about how if she is physically incapable of having her nails done, then she should not expect me to do them.

You want me to spin straw into gold? That’s not a problem. I can do that. But you gotta give me the straw first.