I believe long nails are functional for everyday life and should not be seen as unprofessional.
As a lover of getting long acrylic nail sets, I often receive a variety of mixed reactions and questions whenever my nails are first noticed.
Where’d you get them done? Did you get them done out here in Thousand Oaks? How do you even function in those? How do you put in or take out your contact lenses? How do you type or do any homework with those things? Why do you get them so long?
You get used to answering these questions and more when getting longer sets and they often serve as a great conversation starter to a genuine curiosity.
“In the beginning, it was kind of a learning curve. I guess it’s like ‘Oh, there’s something attached to my hands that aren’t usually there’ but I just fell in love with doing nails, so I’m kind of biased, so for me it doesn’t feel like a hindrance at all just because I love having nails,” first-year Octavia Knox said.
Knox said she had been doing nails for about four years now and since her first time, she had realized that she had progressively started to make her own nails longer once she started getting used to them and their functionality.
“If you’re just hesitant to do it because you feel like you’ll get judged or they won’t be manageable, just do it. I say find something that you absolutely love on Pinterest and draw inspiration from other aspects of anything in your life and just go for it,” Knox said. “Because honestly if you hate them and want to get them off your hands, you have that option. But at the end of the day, I just think it’s so fun, and just why not?”
As a nail artist, Knox said she loves being able to do longer nails on her clients because of the space available for more to work with, freedom to explore more creative ways, and self-expression in brainstorming between her clients and herself.
A nail receptionist at Top Nails Spa & Waxing in Thousand Oaks said nail length generally is associated with the lifestyles and occupations of clients.
She said she noticed that those who are in the medical field or are educators who work with younger children tend to get shorter and natural-looking nails but that other fields of work come with a variety of nail lengths.
“Generally we get a lot of younger people that get long nails, but we get other people who get long nails too. I find their jobs are more flexible in terms of they can work from home, or for example they’re doing something where they’re just kind of on the computer. I know some people say when your nails are long it’s hard to type but ultimately if you’re used to it, it doesn’t really affect people like that,” she said.
Longer nails tend to come with their own burdens especially if one is not adapted or used to working with longer nails.
According to Trieu Nails, one of the disadvantages of longer nails is difficulty in completing everyday tasks like washing dishes, cleaning, cooking, and etc.
Though the tasks may seem impossible to do, especially when new to long nails, they are but there just has to be some caution to completing these tasks since nails are more like accessories than tools.
Nails of any shape should be given regular care and attention to hygiene to prevent any issues from developing but in the end, the nail length is up to one’s preference.
“I think nails are just so personal. It even comes down to length, color, like all of it is just a chance of us expressing ourselves,” a nail receptionist at Top Nails Spa & Waxing in Thousand Oaks said. “I think nails are just so cool because they’re something that you can change constantly…and you can basically choose to put these little pieces of art on your nails whenever you essentially want and you can just remove it if you don’t like it.”
As for the professionalism of nails, there is such a wide field of careers, and being shamed or stereotyped a certain way for the length of one’s nail length seems unfair especially if the individual does their job well.
“I think now it’s really different and we’re just a lot more flexible as a society, in terms of looks and such… It’s more of: Are you able to do your job? And if you are, are you able to do it efficiently and effectively?” a nail receptionist at Top Nails Spa & Waxing in Thousand Oaks said. “I find that most people now, if you can function with it and if you could do your job well if it’s not affecting anything, then I feel like we see it as less than an issue now.”
Knox also shared similar thoughts about how there is a negative association between women who like to get long nails and go all out in their choice of looks.
“I feel like there’s an association with long nails and women who like to kind of go all out in their makeup and their dress and their nails. That they’re unprofessional or that they’re like ratchet, that kind of thing. But, I think that’s completely false. You can look however you want and still do an amazing job at whatever it is you’re doing,” Knox said.
The creativity that goes into getting and having longer nails even extends to how an individual is seen by others and in a way can be perceived as an expression choice that welcomes the thoughts of others building on communication skills and building connections between strangers with a common interest, or curiosity in some cases.
This discussion of nails also brings up other certain fields of reflecting an individual’s choice in self-expression like hair, tattoos, piercings, and even lash extensions but in the end, if these choices do not provide a big disruption to one’s lifestyle, let people decide how they want to express themselves.
