I’m always flummoxed by how many manufacturers seek to get their products into the schools. I keep hearing them say that nail techs usually stick with the product line they worked with when they were in school. Essentially, product loyalty starts in school.

Really?

We used what I’ll call “Brand X” in school. It was in huge containers in the backbar area. Everyone was in and out of there all day, scooping out powder and pouring out monomer from the big containers... and pouring their leftovers back in at the end of the day. Because that’s what we were told to do.

(Horrified grimace!) Can you imagine?! OMG! Seriously, just the thought makes me dizzy today.

But that’s what our school wanted us to do — not waste product.

So it’s no wonder that my entire class of burgeoning nail techs developed the opinion that Brand X was utter crap and were spending hundreds of dollars of our own money to experiment with any other product we discovered long before we were out of the three-month program.

I know now that Brand X was not “utter crap” but I admit that it took years for my realize that and I didn’t run out to give them a second try.

Maybe other cosmetology schools don’t encourage students to contaminate their supply of product and that’s why other nail techs (and cosmetologists) tend to build brand loyalty while they’re still in school.

So many new nail techs go through a phase of blaming the product for their underdeveloped skills, always looking for the "magic bullet" that won’t lift, never yellows, doesn’t show fill lines, etc. — all things that are achievable with just about any product, once the tech using it has learned to overcome those obstacles. It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around the idea that there really are people out there still using the same products that came in their kits when they started their nail course.