Helping Hands
Nail tech Karen Hodges recounts a difficult journey that began with a diagnosis of breast cancer. Her load was made lighter by the support and friendship offered by her “angels” — other nail techs who came to help.
Wearing Contacts in the Salon
With filing dust, clippings, aerosol sprays, chemicals, and vapors making their way around the salon environment, wearing contact lenses while working can be potentially hazardous.
Protection for E-File Users
It’s most important to wear a mask when filing artifi cial nails. “Especially if you use an electric file,” says Schoon.
10 Tips for Staying Healthy at Work
The job of nail tech poses a few special challenges when it comes to your health. The good news is, little changes go a big way toward ensuring a long and healthy career.
When Your Client Is Expecting
Salons are carving out a niche by catering to expectant mothers. Moms-only menus, specialized massage, and targeted retail goodies are just the beginning. With some planning and training you can add to the joy — and relieve the discomforts — during the nine months before birth.
Health Tip: Use Smaller Portions
Scooping your products into smaller containers helps avoid waste and prevents cross contamination.
Take Control of Your Appointment Schedule
Everyone wants to be the master of her own time, but with clients, friends, and family all pulling in different directions, how can we? This is a call to all nail professionals to snatch your appointment book from the hands of your well-meaning (but clueless) clients, and take control.
What You Need to Know About Ganglion Cysts
There’s no proof that repetitive stress on the hands and wrists are the cause of ganglion cysts — benign, fluid-filled lumps — in those areas. But given the number of nail techs who develop them, the connection seems likely.
Preventing Burn Out Blues
If you’re feeling tired, apathetic, and cranky, you may need more than a good night’s sleep; you could be suffering from job burnout. Early symptoms of burnout are so common, they are commonly overlooked. Learn to identify the symptoms of burnout and develop ways to protect yourself before you crash.
Here, Smell This: Product Shelf Life
You may be able to determine if the mystery item in the back section of the fridge has gone bad by a deep, hearty inhale, but does the nose test work on salon products? Read below to learn what it's time to throw out your stock — and how to do it without harming the earth.
Got Space? Get Yoga
If you've got the room, why not round out your salon's offerings by introducing yoga to mix?
Capturing Fumes at the Source
Rid the air of nail dust, heavy odors and fumes with a Source-Capture system.
Disinfectants Defined
You don’t need to be a microbiologist to use disinfectants, but you do need to be an educated user.
The Wisdom to Know the Difference
Late clients, bad bosses, staffing woes — nail techs often face situations that are out of our control. Sometimes we are able to gain control; other times we need to resign ourselves to our limitations and learn from the experience. Balance comes from knowing the difference.
Ouch! The Downsides of Success
Successful nail techs boast a loyal clientele, a respectable income, and immeasurable workplace perks. They also endure frequent neck and back pain, sore thumb and fingers, and eye strain. You can’t have one without the other – or can you? Take a look at these common maladies and see what can be done to avoid the downside of success.
Immigrant Nail Salon Workers Win Legal Victory
After a four-day trial in October, a federal jury awarded $182,000 in back wages, overtime pay, and damages to Susan Kim, a Korean immigrant nail salon worker who worked for seventeen years at 167 Nail Salon Plaza and was fired in March 2005 after demanding regular breaks.
U.S. Deaths From Drug-Resistant Staph on the Rise
A new report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that the number of deaths caused by MRSA staph infections in the U.S. may soon surpass the number of deaths caused by AIDS, writes the Associated Press.