Why We Do Our Nails

POV: You just walked out of the nail salon. You sit in your car and look down at your hands. Your nails are freshly painted with a new design. How do you feel?

We get our nails done for job interviews, school dances, weddings, and birthdays. There’s a reason we do this. It makes us feel put together. It makes us feel powerful, like we can take on the world. We can accomplish all our obligations when there’s polish on our nails. When we don’t have them done, it makes us feel plain.

When I asked my friend, Reagan, a nail extraordinaire, how getting her nails done makes her feel, she responded with, “superior.” Honestly, after I thought about it, she was right. Nothing makes someone feel better than having a fresh set of nails. After that, you feel like a baddie who can do anything, despite what anyone says.

One of my favorite things to do when I was little was to paint my nails. I loved the sparkly, hot pink glitter nails. So why did we love painting our nails when we were younger? We loved the feeling of being creative with your own body and experimenting and having fun with different designs. It was our first form of self-expression. It made us feel pretty and elegant. It made us feel like “grown-ups.”

We all know what happened in 2020. When Covid struck, it forced nail salons to shut down. This obstacle caused people to have to stop getting their nails done. But, on the positive side, people could create their ideal nails right at home. Some of our best work comes from being forced to be creative; sometimes, we just need something to push us towards

our best potential. Today, nail salons are back open, but people are still choosing to do their own nails.

In today’s society, we tend to lean toward maximalism in nails. We love experimenting with big, “out-there” nail designs that make us stand out. More is more. You can play around with different designs, patterns, colors, and jewels; you name it. It’s how we show people our personality, likes, and passions. Nails are a big conversation starter too. It is so easy to compliment a total stranger on their nails. You can connect with so many people over how their nails represent the person they are. Why do we follow and create trends? We want to make that connection between our peers and us. It’s fun to get to share our nails with people and why we chose the ones we have. We see it on social media. We follow trends from celebrities we look up to because we want to share something with them.

Overall, getting our nails done is the perfect way to make us feel elegant and productive. So whenever you don’t feel good, get yourself a fresh set of nails and know that you are beautiful and worthy and you can accomplish big things.