Artificial nails, also known as fake nails, false nails,
fashion nails, nail enhancements, or nail extensions, are coverings placed over
fingernails as fashion accessories. Some artificial nails attempt to mimic the
appearance of real fingernails as closely as possible, while other designs may
deliberately stray in appearance from real fingernails. Artificial nails are
made from a wide variety of materials.
The artificial nails are not a replacement, but an extension
for natural nails. There are two main approaches to creating artificial nails—tips
and forms. Tips are made of lightweight plastic plates that are
"nail"-shaped. They are glued on the end of the natural nail and
acrylic is then applied over the entire nail. Tips are now available in many
different colors and designs, ranging from simple colors such as yellow or blue
to flamboyant designs such as animal prints and mixed metallic colors. Forms
are fitted over the nail and then an artificial nail is molded out of acrylic
and the form is removed and then properly shaped and buffed to a shine.
When historically female-centric practices—like cooking,
baking, hair styling, clothing design, etc.—have been legitimized into
celebrated careers, men typically end up being the stars who dominate those
industries. Look at Emeril Lagasse or the Cake Boss guy or Vidal Sassoon or
Karl Lagerfeld. Whenever there is money to be made or creativity to be
applauded, men have managed to establish themselves as the authority on things
that women had been doing thanklessly for centuries. That is, until nail art,
the increasingly-popular, rapidly-expanding field that has almost exclusively
remained all-girl.
Being predominantly female is what makes nail art unique
from other branches of the fashion and beauty industry. Go to any salon, editorial
photo shoot or backstage of a runway show and you're bound to see professional
stylists or hair and makeup artists that are male. You'd be hard-pressed to
find a guy doing nails, though. Only about 3% of nail technicians are male, and
there are even fewer who are nail artists. (And there's a difference, but more
on that in a bit).
There's really no concrete evidence as to why so few men
have taken an interest in nail art, but it might be because there was really no
widely-recognized glory in it outside of Japan—the mecca of nail art—until
recently. For example, with hair, there's the pageantry of Bronner Brothers
hair shows, the promise of owning a salon, and the profit of branding a hair
care line. But, for the longest time, manicures were mostly considered to be
maintenance. Doing nails was a trade, not a path to fame and fortune.
Perhaps one reason why nail art wasn't thought to be
potentially lucrative is because straight men don't care about it. After all,
the beauty industry is ostensibly predicated on selling women an ideology of
appearance that will make them more attractive to men. Men don't want to fuck
you because of the design painted on your nails or the 3D acrylic flowers and
bows attached to them. So that pursuit is worthless, right?
And that's part of what's so interesting about the rise of
nail art. It might just be the only form of primping and grooming that isn't
rooted in making oneself more appealing to men or exploiting women's
insecurities. It transcends skin color and hair texture and face symmetry and
body type. (Nobody ever says, "I look fat in these nails.") It's an
aspect of beautification that circumvents any conspiracy theories of the
patriarchy's hegemony because the patriarchy simply does not give a shit.
Nail art isn't anything except art for art's sake. (PBS even
recently noted that it's elevated beyond "craft.") So in that way,
nail art's growth in popularity has been organic and honest. A subculture was
slowly propagated on women taking pride in the work they were doing and their
clients serving as enthusiastic art patrons.
And then suddenly, it's a "thing." CNN is covering
it, a documentary is being made, a healthy online community is dedicated to
sharing and ogling elaborate nail designs and celebrities like Lady Gaga, Zooey
Deschanel, and Rihanna sporting ornately-decorated fingertips on the stage and
red carpet, nail art is truly considered artistry, and the profession has its
own set of rising talent, noted for their creativity and mastery of their
craft.
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