I'm getting gel nail extensions on Friday?

i have never had them before and i am a bit nervous!





So... really I've got three questions:





1. Are fungal infections common and are they easily treated?





2. Can I paint gel nails?





3. how do i remove them at home? - I'm getting the done at a day spa and it is a good drive away so i cant just pop down to get them removed! lol!





thank you!


xxI'm getting gel nail extensions on Friday?
Gel Nails 101 (the short version):


1) Are fungal infections common and are they easily treated?


Good question. Let's take a quick look at the structure of both acrylic and gels, then answer that question for you. Acrylic nails are, by their very nature, a porous material. Basically, that just means that they will readily absorb liquids, such as water and other liquids. Nail polish is easily absorbed into acrylic nails. That is why it is very important to use a basecoat whenever using nail polish on them. But, more important is the fact that acrylic nails do not bond to the surface of the natural nail as well as UV nail gel does. Thus, lifting is more common with acrylic nails than with gel nails. Fungal infections typically occur when the acrylic and the nail enhancement have seperated and a small pocket of space is created under the acrylic nail which can retain moisture - namely water. Since this water really has no place to go, and many times it doesn't have a chance to dry out, a fungal infection will often form under the nail in the space where this trapped moisture is located. This usually turns a greenish color, and is referred to by nail techs as 'the greenies.'


Well, since a top quality UV gel forms a better bond to the natural nail, lifting is less frequent. Thus, the chances of getting a fungal infection while wearing UV gel nails is greatly reduced. And less lifting also means that you can go a bit longer in between fills - usually about 3 weeks as opposed to 2 weeks for acrylic nails.


2) Can I paint gel nails? Well, if you want to get technical about this, then lets use the proper terminology, OK? Generally, you paint a house. Or, you can paint a room in the house. Those kinds of things get 'painted'. Nails, on the other hand, are not painted. They are polished. So, if you were to ask, ';Can I polish gel nails,'; the answer is yes. You can apply polish to gel nails. But, keep in mind the fact that UV gel nails are non-porous. This is a very good thing because they lift less due to better adhesion to the natural nail. Due to this fact, nail polish tends to adhere less to gel nails than it does to acrylic nails. The good news is that gel nails will not stain from nail polish because of it being non-porous. If you would like to polish UV gel nails, the use of a good quality basecoat is essential. Don't skimp on the quality of basecoat no matter if it is used on acrylic, or gel nails because basecoat must perform several functions, and not all basecoats are created equal, and many will not perform as well as others. Basically, the cheap ones do not have the same properties as the better quality basecoats have. Basecoat serves a few purposes. FIrst, it forms a barrier between the nail, and the polish. With acrylic nails, this is important because it helps prevent the polish from staining the porous surface of the nail. With gel nails, this is much less important because good UV gel products will not absorb nail colors, and do not stain. Not do they turn yellow from things such as tanning beds. But remember, we are talking about top of the line UV nail gels. Some of the cheaper, poor quality UV nail gels will turn yellow in many cases. Always make sure that you are getting the best gel products used on your nails. This will give the best results every time. Trying to save money and getting cheap gel products used on your nails will not pay off for you in most cases. And there are a LOT of cheapies out there. Anyway, basecoat keeps the nails from staining. But, even more important in terms of UV gel nails is that a GOOD quality basecoat serves as sort of a double sided tape in that it adgeres very well to the surface of the nail enhancement, and it also forms a 'sticky' surface on top of the nail as well. This is sort of the way that double sided tape works. This is important because the nail polish will adhere to the surface of the basecoat all that much better due to basecoat having this 'sticky' surface to it. Also, basecoats help the polish to glide onto your nail much easier than if none was used at all. But, even with the use of a basecoat, gel nails will generally hold polish for less time than acrylic nails will simply because of their being non-porous. Yes, basecoat helps quite a bit, but polish will generally not last as long on them.


But, not all is lost in this case. You see, when applied properly using top quality UV gel products, gel nails will give off a very high gloss shine that will last for weeks at a time with very minimal maintenance. This is especially true when a UV gel finish gloss, or a UV gel sealant is applied over the gels. Never file gel nails because you will not only ruin the shine, but you also will run the risk of having the gel seperate from the surface of the nail since the bond which forms at the tip of the nail will be broken from filing them. This ns not a good thing because lifting may occur if that happens. But that problem is easily prevented by not filing them. There really is no need to file them in the first place - so don't do it.


Now that you have that knowledge, it should be easy to understand that polish is not normally applied to UV gel nails. Why? Because top quality UV gel products will shine, and shine very well at that. This produces a very natural looking nail enhancement. So, why ruin the appearance of the nail by applying polish to it? It doesn't make much sense to do so. If you want your gel nails to have a polished surface, then there are special UV nail gels which are colored that can be applied as a finish coat. They come in just about every color of the rainbow, and they are cured under a UV lamp the same way that UV nails are. The difference between polish and gel polish is that gel polish will last MUCH longer than regular nail polish will last. The choice is yours, but when you see the high shine that Uv gel nails have when finished, you may not want anything put on the surface. They really do shine quite nicely, and that shine lasts, and lasts.


OK, got to move along here. I've already written half of a book on these things, LOL!


3) How do I remove them at home? Well, the answer is yes, you can remove them at home, but I highly recommend that you do not attempt it yourself. Lets jump backward for just a second. Remember that I said that UN nails are non-porous? Well, that means that liquids of any kind are not easily absorbed into the surface of the nail. And I mentioned that acrylic nails are porous, and readily absorb liquids through the surface of the nail. WHat this all translates into is this: Acrylic nails are properly removed by soaking them in pure acetone. This can be done easily at home because they absorb the acetone making removal possible because the acetone will penetrate the surface of the acrylic, and dissolve it, making removal a relatively easy task. On the other hand, gel nails will not absorb acetone, or any other liquid. Thus, you can put UV gel nails into acetone and sit there for hours at a time, and nothing will happen. The UV gels will not dissolve. Why? Because they are non-porous. Remember? So, the acetone which removes acrylic will NOT work to remove UV gel nails. After 2 or 3 hours of constant soaking, they MAY soften just a tad bit, but they will not come off in acetone. So, how do you remove gel nails? Well, some gels are soakable. But this sort of gel is not widely used because it is inferior in quality to UV gels. So, most techs do not use this type of gel. That means that the gel will have to be filed off of your natural nails when it comes time to have them removed. But, there really isn't any reason to remove them in the firt place because nails do not need to 'breathe' as is the popular belief. Nails do not have lungs, nor do they exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen in any way. Therefore, they do not need to 'breathe.' Besides, nails are dead. Period. And the last I knew, dead things do not have a need to breathe, LOL! Anyhoo, gel nails MUST be filed off. And though you can do this at home, I urge you not to attempt this on your own. You see, gels are really easy to file. But the problem is that it is very very difficult for an unskilled person to be able to judge when enough filing is enough. Its very difficult to tell when you have reached the end of the layers of gel, and are now on the top of your natural nail because it looks so very similar in appearance. Thus, it is VERY easy to keep right on filing through your natural nail. This obviously damages your natural nails at the very least. Most often, you will end up with very thin - ruined nails. Removal is best left to the pros. You will need to have a highly skilled nail tech remove them. This person MUST have extensive experience in the removal of gel nails or they can easily ruin your nails as easily as you could do it. Make sure you get a real pro to remove them, or you will be sorry you ever had them removed in the first place.


One last thing I need to mention about gel nails. You are going to a day spa, so there is less chance of this happeneing, which is a good thing. But, be aware that many salons will give you acrylic nails, then apply a UV gel topcoat, and call them gel nails. This is NOT true. If a tech uses ANY liquid and powder on your nails, you do NOT have gel nails. You have acrylic nails. Period. No exceptions to this rule - ever. UV nail gels look exactly as the name implies - they look like 'gel.' UV nail gels are NEVER a powder - ever. They are gel. To see what a UN gel looks like in its raw form before it is applied to your nails, look at the pic in the link:


http://www.cnd.com/Home/homelink-consume鈥?/a>


OK, that should be way, way more information than you will ever need, so I'm going to shutup now. Whew. My fingers are tired from typing, LOL!


Anyway, good luck, have fun, and enjoy your new gel nails.I'm getting gel nail extensions on Friday?
1. Fungal infections are common. They take a few weeks to get rid of. Also, if you keep your nails on for a while, the fungus can get worse and that can actually damage you real nail to the point that it needs to be removed;





2. You can paint gel tips. All salons offer this for free when you are getting tips (gel/acrylic nails);





3. You have to soak your nails in acetone based nail polish remover for a long time and gently remove them with a nail clipper device. I would recommend going to the salon to do this though; you may have to pay for it, but they are trained to do this.





***Be careful about which salon you go to and what ingredients they use. Many salons that just do nails and are inexpensive usually by products that should not even be used, but because they get them at cost since they have relationships with the distributors, they will use them.