How to Find a Good Nail Salon

How to check out the nail salon and manicurists before getting your nails done. You will learn what questions to ask and what to look for when choosing a nail salon.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. First, you should check with friends and others that you know use nail salons. Find out who their manicurist is and see if they have had any problems with false nails breaking, nail fungus, or cuts. Ask them how clean the salon is and ask about how their manicurist cleans their manicuring tools.

2. If you choose to use the nail salon that your friend uses, I would suggest stopping by and looking in on the nail salon and speaking with the manicurists to help you get a better picture of what you will be going into. Look around to see if you see chemicals used to sanitize their manicuring tools with. If you cannot tell how they are sanitizing, ask about how their tools are cleaned between each client.

3. Another thing you may be able to do is to ask the shop owner if you could watch the manicurists for a few minutes to see what they are doing and how they are doing their job. In some cases this may not be possible for you to do, but I would recommend at least asking. If you wish to do so, you could ask the shop owner or manicurist about bringing your own files or buffers to use on you instead of using the files and buffers that they use on other clients. They most likely clean their files and buffers, but they may let you bring yours for your own peace of mind.

4. Make sure you see a license for both the shop and for the manicurists. Some states require the manicurist to have a state license, so there should be one in there for each manicurist.
   Please read below for tips and warnings.
   Please look below in the Resources section of this article for more information.

Tips & Warnings

• DO NOT hesitate to ask for information about sanitizing, nail fungus, cuts or any other question you may have. Manicurists and shop owners will most likely expect these kind of questions from someone who does not know anything about the salon or who has not had their nails done before.
• Be cautious of salons that are not clean.

[staceytakaoka]

on 8/6/2009 Yes very good info. Never be hesitant to ask about disinfecting procedures and brand name of products being used. As for the file idea, here in WA you can NOT bring in your own file as it could bring in bacteria as it is not disinfected or perhaps just fell on the floor. I personally use to have individual client boxes with their own files etc in them and it is now not legal to do so per the State Inspector. So just make sure that files, implements, and footbaths are properly cleaned and disinfected between clients! Never hurst to ask but can hurt you if you don't. I personally use disposable liners in my footbaths for added security to my clients.

[alluringbeauty]

on 6/29/2009 This is so necessary! Thanks for great info! 5* and rec.

[LizzieB]

on 12/15/2008 Very interesting article. You can't be too careful these days. You have to be responsible for your own safety.