Like several of you, I pick, backstroke, do a flamenco-style roll with my fingernails, etc., and fingerpicks don't work for a lot of what I do. I found a place here in Portland, OR, which was recommended to me by Kate Power of Artichoke Music store.  The proprietor is a young man named Tony, and he did a fantastic job installing acrylic nails on three fingers on my right hand.  (I use a thumpick, so don't need the thumb done, and I use my pinky mainly as an anchor.)  This cost me $9.00 plus the tip.

One of his workers did my first fill, and I think she made the nails too thick, and I don't think she got them extended into the 'corners' of my real nails as well as she could have.  But the fill is only $5.00 (plus tip) for the three nails.

So far, I've been delighted with the acrylics.  I keep the nails pretty short, anyway, and they keep my nails from tearing off the way they were always doing before.  I still use my fingertips as much as the nails for picking, on most songs.

I waited a full month before having my first fill, partly because I wanted to let my real nails "breathe."  As long as the nail tip is very much intact and not in danger of tearing (because of my real nail being exposed at the edge), it does not seem to be a problem.  Bear in mind that these are, by now, not glued-on nails, but, rather, my own nails built up with layers of acrylic material.

Next time I'm going to schedule an appointment with Tony himself, to see if he does a better fill job than his assistant did. (All the staff are Asian, but Tony, who may be of Thai or Philippino ancestry, speaks fluent English, and he did apply a thinner layer of acrylic than his assistant, a Vietnamese lady with limited English, did.)

I can't give you an assessment of their long-term practicality yet, though.

Genie