The Price of Beauty: Nails

I was plagued with the habit of picking my nails throughout my life as long as I can remember. It stayed with me through primary, secondary school and all the way into my adult life even after graduating from university.

While I was growing up, I tried so many methods to stop the picking habits. There were so many warnings and encouragements too. Methods such as sticking plasters over my nails, dipping them in weird stuff, putting transparent nail polish. Encouragements such as "if they can do it so can you, if you want to look pretty on your wedding day" and warnings such as "having such short nails give you adverse health effects".

Needless to say, all those methods, encouragements and warnings did not work.

It bothered me, each time I hang out with new friends. How do I shake hands with them without them noticing the short nails. It make me insecure in front of the guy I liked. How do we hold hands without him noticing this imperfection of mine.

Throughout my life, I've tried to hide my hands away from cameras. In a world where social media is so prevalent, it's a chore to have to try and look good, to hide your imperfections as memories are immortalise forever. For me, there was one more thing to look out for.

I went on to do my pre-wedding shoot and wedding with those ugly nails. It will always be a regret for me, not being able to having the cliche photos taken of my hands, fingers with the rings for the event. The stick on extensions I put on last minute for the wedding came off when I was signing the wedding certificate too. 😖

It was in 2019 and Instagram fed me with an advertisement of a nail salon. On the Instagram page of that nail salon, I saw a before and after of nails treatment. Curious and with hope, I contacted the profile but they said they were unable to do anything for my nails. I started looking up for more on Google and found Nail County.

On their page, Nail County shared about their Resin Gel Treatment with descriptions that fit my situation. They also showed pictures of the Before/After treatment which gave me more hope about getting my nails fixed that I ever had in my life.

My first treatment was on 6th April 2019.

This was how my nails looked like before any treatment was done. Yes, very very badly picked. So bad it was kinda nuts to think there was any hope to it.

When I stepped into Nail County, I was greeted very warmly by Stella. My manicurist for the next few session. For the first time ever in my life, I stepped into a nail salon for a nail treatment. And the best thing? I didn't felt like I was being judged.

Stella is a Korea so communication was kinda tough. She tried her best to understand what caused this, and how the treatment works. She also explained and breakdown the cost so everything was transparent and it made me confident about what I was in for.

The treatment was most of the time, painless except for the part where the gel was applied as an "extension" and the extended part that was in contact with my flesh had to be cured under the UV light.  I had to take it out of the UV light a few times, waved my hand to cool off before placing it back.

This was how my fingers look like after the extension.

When they asked me what colour I wanted, I picked purple. That is my mum's favourite colour so I wanted to choose a colour that was meaningful.

I was extremely satisfied with the result of the first treatment. For the first time in my life, I walked out into the streets were I was not afraid of people looking at my hands.

Yes I know, it wasn't the best looking fingers but compared to what I started with? This was more than I could have asked for.

Before I left the shop, Stella reminded me not to pick the nails. They were after all, extensions of some sort and not my real nails. They could pretty much dropped off any time if I pick them too much. I also bought a nail serum that I felt really worked for me.

Accordingly to Stella, this nail serum can prevent fungus growth and it will aqlso help slightly with accelerating the growth of my nails.

In less than a month's time, I went back to Nail County for a second treatment.

Less gel resin was needed for this trip.

The growth was slow but it was certain.

It took me a total of 3 trips to Nail County for my nails to finally be enough for a decent manicure at a normal nail salon.

I've also bought some nail polish on my own. It was something I really wanted to try. Alas, I am not good a nail artist myself LOL. Still, I managed to pull off some colours on some day when I thought I felt the habit of picking starting to kick in.

The happiest moment of this transformation was when I twinned my mum's nail colour without agreeing prior.

As I wean off the habit of picking my fingernails, I weaned off the habit of picking on my toenails too. And they are growing quite okay. :) I went for a pedicure once (I think only once) at Penang and it was a bad experience. Don't think I did any after that.

It was also quite a while before I went for any manicure. Until recently before CNY.

I kept filing my nails because they kept chipping off while I was working. It was getting annoying and before I knew it, the nails were overfiled and it became to a point where I was scared all would go back to square one. The only idea I had was to get some sort of overlay for it, in the form of extensions.

I went to the nail salon at Stars of Kovan. Wanted to do a gel extension but in the end the manicurist did acrylic extension. I couldn't tell because I never tried any extension of that sort before. It was halfway through the process did I found out it wad acrylic extension.

I was quite worried at first because I heard acrylic was bad for the nails. But she assured me that it was okay and she buffed very little off the surface of my nails, not enough to make it weak and unhealthy.

Not regretting it though because I see my natural nails growing out under the extensions and extensions had very little chipping off. All is good.

My nails are far from perfect but to look back where it started from, it's all I can ever ask for.

Price I paid: The pain I had to endure at the start of the treatment, money (of course), and the time spent on travelling to the salons, waiting for the nails to grow.

Reward: Confidence to my self-image, and not having to be afraid of sharing hands or having my hands show in pictures.

At least I am not afraid to show off my nails anymore.