My nail broke, but I didn’t do anything.

Nail techs hear this all the time “I broke a nail, but I didn’t do anything”.

Well, you MUST have done SOMETHING because you are sitting in the chair across from me. So how did you get there without doing anything? I’m pretty sure you had a shower this morning.  You probably got dressed, made coffee, made your bed, tossed a load of laundry into the dryer, walked the dog, got into your car, drove here, etc etc etc.

We KNOW that you did something.  Nails don’t break by themselves by sitting and doing nothing. There have been many times that I have been sitting doing nothing (reading a book, watching a movie) and never once in over 25yrs of wearing nail enhancements did any of my nails spontaneously fall off or break.

Every day, people do things. Every moment of the day, people do things. Let’s examine a routine task that everyone does at one time or another. Kitchen duties.

• Washing dishes- did you wear gloves?
• Did you lose your grip on a slippery pot, and nearly drop it but catch at the last moment with the very tips of your nails?
• Did you use your nails to scrape burnt remnants off the bottom of a pot? Or off the stove-top?
• Did you wash a counter-top and hit the back-splash with the edge of your nails?
• Were you putting away left-overs and struggling with a tupperware lid, and so used your fingertips to pry it off?
• While putting away the cutlery that you washed, did you catch a nail in the drawer handle as you pulled your hand away?

and the list goes on.

You did SOMETHING.

I have known people to break nails doing the following.

• Making the bed.
• Pulling up their tight jeans
• Getting wash out of the machine
• Washing the tub
• Opening the car door
• Pushing a button on an infant car seat.
• Putting shoes on.

Very simple, mundane things that everyone does.

Sometimes, we do ‘something’ and feel it, and panic. We look down, “pheeew”, the nail is still intact. Not realizing that there might be miniature cracks that we can’t see, and something as simple as snapping a finger is the last straw to break the camel’s back.

I explain all the time “it’s not WHAT you did, but HOW you did it”. Just like my 6’4″ and 220lb husband can sneak up on me, but my 70lb daughter sounds like a herd of elephants. It’s not what, it’s how.

I have had housewives who have housekeepers to do their housekeeping, come to me with broken nails. Then I have had women who work in metal machine shops, grinding and cutting and what all else to metal who NEVER break a nail.  Not what, but HOW.

So please…. spare us both and don’t say “I didn’t do anything”. We BOTH know that you did. It’s ok. Accidents happen. Honestly, sometimes we are naughty and do things with our nails that we know we shouldn’t. We’ve all been there, including myself.

I broke a nail this week. I rarely do so.  I was picking up a ginormous rubbermaid bin. HUGE.  Going out the front door with it. I didn’t push on the metal door enough, and that sucker came back and smacked my hand holding the bin. (yes, I did indeed turn the air blue and taught my dogs a few curse words). So in effect, I was both doing something and doing nothing.  I was carrying the rubbermaid bin- that’s doing something.  The door hit me- I didn’t do that. LOL  Accidents happen.

You CAN tell us what you did.  It’s ok.  We might ‘tsk tsk’ in jest, and laugh with you at your naughtiness OR commiserate at your unfortunate accident.

But I can pretty much GUARANTEE that every nail tech out there that hears the words “I didn’t do anything” is rolling their eyes (even if only the ones on the backs of their heads that you can’t see).