What’s the first thing you notice about a person? Is it their hair, eyes, or jewelry? For me, the first thing I notice—whether it’s a wave or handshake—is the nails. You can tell so much about a person from the state of their nails alone. And this applies to guys too, so if you’re worried your man is cheating, check his cuticles.
These days, there are sooo many options for your nails: gel, gelX, acrylic, press-ons, dip, polish, tips; those alone just cover the base, not including chrome, cat eye, or charms. And with endless options, it’s easy to customize your hands and express yourself to the fullest extent. Even the decision of having nothing on your nails can say so much, for example: “I’m a single mom who doesn’t have time to spend 2+ hours every 3-4 weeks in a salon spending 60+ dollars” or “I need to keep my nails short and bare for my job.”
To give you some perspective to help you learn more about me, the current state of my nails looks like two-week-old almond shaped OPI’s Hello Kitty gel polish (on my natural nails.) If you don’t know much about nails, this may sound like a ton of random words, but if I were to see these nails on someone else, I’d be thinking, she’s probably pretty classic, going with an everyday versatile baby pink color! Gel is one of the cheapest (yet longlasting) options, so maybe that person is budgeting on a college salary, or lives a soft life without sports if she’s able to keep her natural nails long enough to file into a neat almond. Overall, I’d want to be this girl, and I am that girl—I’ve expressed this image of myself through my nails. While yes, my assumptions may be wrong—and are not always entirely accurate—I feel it does serve as a form of insight on a new person or a checkup on the current state of my loved ones.
This was put into practice for me when I noticed my mom’s hands looking worse than usual. She’s always been a nail biter, but I had recently noticed she had made her way up to her cuticles and her nail beds were always wrapped in band-aids. Knowing that the nail biting habit stemmed from stress, I asked her if everything was alright, which led to her opening up about being nervous about my going to college. I was instantly relieved once I knew it wasn’t something more dire, then reassured her everything would be okay. This little example shows how something as small as the state of your nails reflects your personality; my mom is a worrier. Now, if you notice your man’s nails looking worse than usual, he may be stressing, too!
I remember putting stickers on my nails when I was too little to go to the salon, and finally a group nail day with my friends for my 5th birthday meant the world to me. So, as basic as I may be with my OPI Hello Kitty, I’ve learned to truly value and appreciate the art that is nails and how art is used as a form of expression. I’ve always admired the people who get XL acrylic in bold colors and cover it in charms because nails have become a unique artistic subculture made for self expression and are truly an art.