fake nails

[Shellby19]

My nails are short and always breaking at the corners so I'm thinking or trying fake nails. I would like natural looking neat/short ones but having never had fake ones before I haven't got a clue where to start as are there different types of fake nails? What do I ask for or look for?

[Sasha13]

Depends what you want, how long you want them to last and how long you're going to wear them for.

Stick on ones are available in chemists. You stick them on to your nails using sticky pads or glue. The ones with sticky pads don't damage your nails at all but only last for a couple of days and can ping off quite easily. If you use the glue they'll last a bit longer but the glue can be hard to remove from your nails - lots of acetone nail varnish remover does the trick.

Then you have gel and acrylic nails. You can buy kits for these to do them at home, but it's better to go to a salon. They take around an hour to put on and last about 2-3 weeks before you need an infill (obviously the false nail grows out as your natural nail grows so the bit at the bottom needs to be filled in).

Gel/Acrylic nails last ages but you must get them removed professionally and they can make your natural nails weak depending how long you have them on for. Gel ones tend to be a bit kinder on your natural nails but don't look quite as good, I don't think.

Hope this helps!

[EngTeach]

I get my nails done at a nail salon every two weeks. I started with tips as I am a bad nail biter. As my nails grew underneath, I would get a fillin. Now I have silk wraps on my own nails. They also make your nails very thin underneath.

I m in US and almost ALL the nail places in NYC are owned by Asian people. Is this true there too? Just curious.

[abstibus]

I had acrylics done about 4 years ago, and boy, did I regret it. They broke, or came off, and of course, my own nails grew underneath. The upkeep was incredible. When I finally has them removed, my nails were like paper, kept splitting, and took over a year to look half decent.
Now I invest in regular manicures, and keep my nails short well cut and buffed (though this was painful at the start) . My advice is 'Don't do it'.