Well done, Mick.

There is absolutely no point in asking these girls to shape the nails, that is something you have do do for yourself, as you have already gathered. I understand that most women leave their nails square at the ends (yeah, beats me too ....)

As far as belt sanders go, they can in fact be very useful. You need to have the belt set vertically, not horizontally, and in this way you can get all the roughing work done, leaving just a little "fine-tuning" required with the nail-file/dresser thingy. Seriously. I do it all the time.

The other thing you need to have is a "scraper" tool to remove the bits of acrylic from the underside of the nail after they have been filled. I use the end of a scissors blade for this, it does the job quickly, and a quick rub with a sandpaper block finishes the job. The last thing you want is a "hook" on the end of your nail.

I suppose all this must sound like a hell of a lot of trouble to go to. It isn't really, and the end results, musically, are well worth it.

Murray