Getting your nails done: thoughts about loyalty and price

For some time now, beginning I believe in September-October I have tried gel nails in Helsinki. Already from the start, I decided not to take long, fake looking ones but try to keep them short and natural looking. I must admit that I was very skeptical about the whole thing when I first made my appointment to a new nail salon in downtown Helsinki. Before going there I had had red finger nails almost for the whole summer. Red nail polish has been in for a long time now in Finland, although it not so in e.g. Italy. Therefore I didn't dare to use it during my internship there since it's considered a color of prostitutes or something like that.

Hands hurting

After my first visit, my hands were hurting SO bad! I couldn't believe it. I know you never should wish you didn't have hands, but that was the only occasion in my life when I have actually wished that. I had problems with even sleeping since my hands were hurting so much. All this due to the smoothing and grinding of the nails.

Nevertheless, immediately I noticed how much time I saved in this way. Before, I had to wake up 10 minutes earlier each morning just to color my fingernails because the nail polish didn't last more than one day even with several layers. Now with the gel nails, I never have to think about my nails anymore. They're already done. All the time. So relaxing.

I have encountered some problems, though, that I didn't take into consideration in the beginning. First, after some time, my natural nails grow out and the gel nails start to look ugly. It's been difficult to determine how long of a pause I can have between my appointments. I have realized now that three weeks is the absolute maximum pause I can have without the nails looking horrific.

Secondly, if I run to the nail salon every three weeks, it going to cost a lot. Where to find the money?
Third, apparently, the price goes up after three times since one's nails grow so much that the actual extension on the nail has fallen off and therefore the gel nail is a natural color. Since I want a French manicure, that costs extra.

Cheating on a nail parlor

Due to all of these dilemmas, I have been thinking about going to different places in order to be able to compare them. Today I went to a completely new place, and the funniest part about it all is that it felt like cheating. It felt like I was cheating on the place where I usually go. How funny is that? But I must say that getting your nails fixed is comparable to going to a hairdresser because you actually interact with the people working at the parlor. Therefore you get a kind of relation to them. And the most skilled women doing quality nails are of course Asians.

Today I realized that the first place I went to actually was good since I didn't like today's girl at all at the new place. She, unfortunately, didn't know that much Finnish and therefore didn't say almost anything to me during the whole hour I spent in the salon. I guess doing your nails is in some way a social act and it doesn't work without small talk.

Vicious circle

I don't know when I'm going back. Every time I get them done, I tell myself this is the last time but then when I start to look at my nails after a couple of weeks, I just can't help myself from thinking about getting them fixed. Vicious circle.