My acrylic nail lacquer experiment

Subject: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: Will Fly
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 09:21 AM

For over 40 years as a guitarist, I was blessed with fairly strong nails - a great benefit to fingerpicking. Over the last few years, with age I suppose, my nails have become a little more brittle and not quite so strong. I also have a pretty sloppy (but effective) plectrum technique which means that, when I'm playing electric guitar in the ceilidh band, I tend to wear down or split my nails.

Having experimented with various types of finger pick - none of which I can get on with - over the years, I finally decided to have a crack at some sort of nail reinforcement. I'm wary of artificial nails as well. Anyway, some weeks before Christmas, I was watching a very good local guitarist - Terry Lees -playing at a guitar demo at TAMCO (The Acoustic Music Company) in Brighton. I chatted with him during the evening, and he revealed that he used acrylic nail lacquer from Boots the Chemist to keep his nails in reasonably tough condition.

I've been using it for about a fortnight now and, so far, have been pleased with the result. I had a band gig last Saturday and the nails emerged unscathed!

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 09:26 AM

Occasionally if I have a broken nail I cut the paper from a tea-bag (fresh not a used one) to the shape of the nail and paint nail varnish over the top. This protects the break and strengthens the nail.

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: GUEST,Peter C
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 10:06 AM

Yes I have been using acrylic nail strengthener (from Boots) for some time - works well, does not seem to matter which brand/price!

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: Jack Campin
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 10:29 AM

Is it chemically any different from superglue?

I've used that to fix broken nails and it works.

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 10:30 AM

My nails are quite weak. I tend to use superglue to both repair the split and form a protective layer over it. I've toyed with the idea of having the odd artificial nail but never done anything about it. May try the acrylic route.

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 10:39 AM

Next subtle application of Boots eyeliner, mascara, and lip gloss for the more mature folk guitarist ???

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: Will Fly
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 11:19 AM

Ah - been there, done that...

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 11:24 AM

Does one color (or colour, as you will) hold up better than another?

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 11:47 AM

Step one in nail care is moisturizing them. I have been using hand cream for years, but only recently did I read that one should make the effort to rub it into the fingernails and cuticle.

There is so much emphasis on handwashing today; when cooking a main dish, I may wash my hands four or five times. By bedtime, my hands and fingernails are longing for moisturizer. (Almost any kind will do.)

It may be the men's nails get brittle from dryness too.

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: Will Fly
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 12:18 PM

Rap, the lacquer is clear - but perhaps a scarlet red would set the audience's pulses racing.

leeneia, It's quite possible that, since retiring - and doing a lot more washing and cooking in the kitchen - my nails have felt the effect of so much more water. Thanks for the tip.

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: Harmonium Hero
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 12:44 PM

Hi Will. I too used to have good strong nails. They always say (who they?) that the hardest thing about being a guitarist is being born with the right kind of nails. I was, but about 20 years ago started having problems with nails becoming weak and brittle. I tried false ones, but found that they seemed to be designed for cats rather than men. Out of a packet of assorted sizes, there were none wide enough for my thumb - and I haven't got particularly large hands - and the smallest ones were more like talons. The ones I did manage to use were sort of OK, but the curvature was deeper than my nails, and after a while, they would go 'ping' in mid-song. Ditched that idea. Then I tried coating them with superglue, but that wasn't entirely successful. Then I tried supergluing strips of cotton cut from an old shirt across the ends of the nails, and it works. You need a couple of coats of superglue, and when it's hard, use an emery board to smooth it out. It usually lasts   for two or three weeks, but that rather depends how much exposure to water it gets. Not too sure whether it's doing any damage, but I've been doing it for several years, and my nails haven't fallen out. One of my problems is that I get ridges running the length of the nails, and they split along the ridges. It's a bloody nuisance, even if you don't need the nails to pluck with. (By the way, I too have tried finger picks, but can't get used to them. I think you need to have used them from the outset, or they just don't feel right. I've heard other nail- pickers saying the same thing). One time when I was at the doctor's, I mentioned it to him. He said "Oh yes; I get that as well". Which was a great help. I read somewhere several years ago that this was caused by zinc deficiency. So I bought a bottle of 100 zinc pills, and religiously took one a day for the duration. Didn't make a scrap of difference. I recently read that ir was caused by iron deficiency, and am currently working my way through a bottle of iron pills, but so far haven't noticed any difference.
John Kelly.

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 03:50 PM

I used to go to our local beauty parlour (or parlor, for Murkans who have strange ideas about speling!) and have the first, middle and third finger of my RH reinforced with acrylic gel/fibreglass wrap/acrylic gel/fibreglass wrap/two further coats of acrylic gel. Cost £3 per finger, and lasted comfortably four weeks, at which time I had them back-filled (where the nail had grown) and re-coated as above. In the seven or eight years I did that, I only had a breakage a couple of times.

I didn't have the thumb done, as I've always preferred a thumb-pick, which puts the thumb in a better playing position and gives a more strident tone (which I like).

I eventually was advised by the manicurist to stop having my nails treated this way for at least a year, as my natural nails had thinned and become painful. I started using Pro-Pik 'Fingertone' nickel finger-picks and, after a little practice, found them excellent, so I've never bothered to go back to the nail treatment.

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 05:00 PM

I just remember Tony McManus's lovely story of going to a nail parlour in Toronto, soon after he'd moved out to Canada: there was a bit of a language barrier as most of the nail parlours seemed to be staffed by people from the Far East (of Asia). They could not understand why he only wanted his RIGHT hand furnished with long acrylic nails: anyway, having only had the one hand done, he was about to leave when they asked - "You waaaant toe-nails done?"

And my own wee story is: having been taken to a pedicure place in Singapore as a treat from my daughter - including those wee fish that nibble off all the dead skin - I had to choose which colour I'd want my toenails done. Quite obvious: wearing turquoise shorts, toenails would have to be turquoise too. I'd reckoned without missing my footing in a dark restaurant garden the next (and our final) night (not drunk, just blinded by other lights!) - fractured metatarsal, correctly self-diagnosed, but which I kept until I got home before rolling up in the local Casualty Dept with my turquoise toenails!

Subject: RE: My acrylic nail lacquer experiment
From: kendall
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 05:16 PM

I play claw hammer style banjo, and it really wears my middle nail thin. I tried Gorilla glue. Don't do it.

I ended up with a tiny box of false nails, given to me by a manicurist,and told to use ordinary super glue. All is well so far.