Nail art therapy: it’s in our favor!

It is difficult to imagine something more classic in cosmetology than a manicure. Only nail processing techniques, preparations for care and extension were improved. When it came to coverage, the choice of clients was unchanged: pink-beige colors for everyday life and scarlet polish for going out. In the mid-90s, stylists made an attempt to bring black lacquer into fashion. But only desperate fashionistas and supporters of grunge supported her. Yes, and not for long. In the early 2000s, we became more liberated, allowing ourselves to plum-brown and purple tones. But all the same, the color scheme in one form or another revolved around the red part of the spectrum. The most daring allowed their masters to paint a pair of nails with flowers or apply graphic patterns on them. Nail art then existed only as a parallel art and had almost no applied value.

colorful coup

But a couple of years ago, the nails turned blue, green, bronze, yellow, or even multi-colored. Real revolution! Then sequins, reliefs, drawings and stencils came into fashion. Manicure has become an art. There was even a fashionable English neologism nailista – “obsessed with nails.” But why is it now that our fingertips have become the center of attention? They have become more visible: on the computer keyboard, on the screen of tablets or smartphones. “Any improvement in our body is designed to create a new identity for us in the eyes of others,” explains sociologist Jean-Claude Caufmann. “This image involves clothes, gestures, and, of course, well-groomed hands – especially since in infancy we find them in ourselves much earlier than other parts of the body.”

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An unusual manicure can speak of a momentary mood, of who we want to be at the moment: a non-trivially romantic fashionista with cornflower blue and mint nails, a rocker girl with black and red manicure, or a frivolous teenager with yellow nail polish in sequins. Pasted on top of hearts, stars, letters and even skulls is also a way to communicate something about yourself. And this message is always connected with our femininity. Now, when men began to energetically look after their skin, hair, face, figure, and even do epilation, bright nail polish has remained one of the last bastions of a real woman. And we intend to defend it to the last.

Back to childhood

Applying nail polish is the first cosmetic ritual that a girl asks her mother for. And the first thing she gives permission for! But if little girls tend to grow up with the help of a bright manicure, then recently many adult women, on the contrary, willingly try on children’s manicure. This fashion came from Southeast Asia and is a continuation of the local tradition of kawaii (“small” in Japanese). Walking in school skirts, wearing knee-highs, blouses with a turn-down collar and gluing bears and hearts on your nails are not shy even those whose graduation was many years ago. Girls with nails like the heroines of anime and manga comics also appeared on the streets of Europe and Russia. This nail art looks funny and girly cute, although it hints at some regression. Do not come to work with cats on green nails. Even if the office dress code is not very severe, it will not add business reputation points.

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New Amazons

Coming to a manicure, we hardly think that nails are essentially claws, a symbol of struggle and the ability to stand up for yourself. But such associations are caused only by long nails of saturated colors, at the sight of which a man involuntarily thinks about aggressive sex, imagining how a sharp nail digs into his back during lovemaking.

After the “candy” trends in nail art, the fashion for bloody varnishes and long nails may well return. Today we can fulfill any of our whims and fantasies, change the image at least every day, and there is something fascinating in this. No wonder nails were an important element of witchcraft rituals and magic charms in the old days.