Today is always a new day, isn’t it? But yesterday I talked about “Where’s the Beef” and the lovely Clara Peller. In all of that, I mentioned that Clara was a manicurist for 35 years in Chicago.
Manicurists. There’s more to their story than meets the eye.
At some point, somewhere, a person must have looked down at their hands and said, “I think I’m going to put coloring on my fingernails. Doesn’t that seem like a bright idea?”
Well. If they had asked me, I would have said, “No.” I like the naturally clean look of nails just as they are.”
But someone in history said, “Yes. Color those nails.” And that happened over 5,000 years ago in ancient Egypt, where both men and women would color their fingernails using different materials.
The purported ingredient of choice was kohl. That “kohl” is sort of like ground-up charcoal. It’s actually ground-up Stibnite. Anyway, in addition to the battle thing, other people colored their nails with various ingredients. And, reportedly, the colors of their nails may have signified their class. Black nails may have been considered higher rank. Green fingernails were down in the ranks.
Travel east from there. It’s said that in 3000 B.C., the Chinese used nail color as a distinction of rank and dynasty. The different colors denoted different statures, obviously. But here was something to remember: During certain dynasties, wearing the color of royals may have been punishable by death. So basically, if you were caught wearing the wrong nail color — the color assigned to your class — you’d be in big, big trouble.
But enough of grinding powders and such. The nail polish that we know today came roughly 5,000 years later. The first clear liquid nail polish was introduced in 1916 by the Northam Warren Corporation. The following year, in 1917, they came out with rose-colored nail polish. It all came about with the discovery of a substance called nitrocellulose. This substance was initially used to make automobile paint. Then someone thought, “Hey. Let’s paint our nails with the stuff.”
Two sidebars here.
First. What do these words have in common: polish, job, herb? All three words are pronounced differently when the first letter is capitalized. Polish. Job. Herb.
Second. I still remember all the early scariness around COVID and the world shutting down until scientists could figure out the magnitude of the disease. I mean, early on, they didn’t know if this could destroy all of humankind or have a massive impact, such as killing 7 million people. Which it did.
Anyway, the United States followed suit in shutdowns. I can remember seeing numerous women on the news lamenting that their nail salons were being shutdown. Oh, the injustice! There was one case in Florida where the woman was killed by an alligator after visiting someone in private to do their nails. ( https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woman-killed-alligator-attack-was-manicurist-house-call-during-south-n1201751 )
Okay, back to the actual polish.
Nail polishing is big business. The nail salon market was valued at over $9 billion in the United States in 2020. That’s a lot of lacquer. And who is doing all the work? Well, no surprise there. The majority of manicurists in the United States are women. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 94% of manicurists and pedicurists in 2020 were female.
If you are thinking of painting your nails, here are a few things to consider.
The lifetime of an adult nail is four months. And. Nails will grow 20 percent faster in summer than in winter. (For some reason, this is true even in climates where the temperature doesn’t change much from season to season.). Our nails grow faster on our dominant hand, and for most people, that’s the right hand.
So painting them is short-lived.
One more thing. I mentioned that I don’t wear polish. I’ve always said it makes my nails feel like they can’t breathe. Well, I just found out this morning that is a REAL thing. Nail polish damages your nail integrity. Even with blood supply, nails do still need air to “breathe.” The chemicals damage the nails. ( https://orlybeauty.com/blogs/news/is-it-bad-to-wear-nail-polish-all-the-time )
If you need to color something, try hard boiling some eggs. I bet it’s better for you.
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“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
—Confucius
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“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.”
—Khalil Gibran
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“Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.”
—Coco Chanel
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Color my world. Or at least my nails. But not my nails.
