Click, click, click: the sounds of acrylic nails tapping on objects are everywhere. They’re clicking on the keyboard of a laptop or the screen of a cellphone.
Various colors, designs, shapes and sizes can be seen on many young women’s fingertips. Perhaps they’ve done their nails themselves or paid a professional to do it, but the difference can be hard to tell.
The trend of having acrylic nails or nail extensions of some sort has skyrocketed in recent years. According to Mirium Chandi, the editor in chief of Start Motion Media, nail extensions emerged as a simple beauty trend but have now become part of people’s identities.
Akesha Reid, a writer for Refinery29, wrote that acrylic nails emerged around the 1990s, but really began to grow in popularity in 2019.
Many women you see likely have some type of art on their nails. Whether it’s a nostalgic hobby, helps alleviate anxiety-induced skin picking, boosts confidence or has simply become a part of someone’s identity, everyone has a different reason for getting their nails done.
Quinlyn Rutherfordstone, a freshman Architecture major at the University of Idaho, grew to love having her nails done when she was a child. It was a way that she bonded with her mother. “We did ‘spa days,’ and she’d always paint them [her nails], so it made me really happy to have them painted,” she said.
Rutherfordstone has been doing her own nails for four to five years.
For many people, confidence and a sense of completion to their identity is a driving force for wanting their nails to be done.
“I dress up and do crazy makeup and stuff, so it’s weird without my nails to match,” Rutherfordstone said. She spends upwards of seven hours on her nails, focusing more on the artistic side of it, to match her creative personality and vibe that she has crafted for herself.
She sees them as more of an art piece and a testament to her identity than just a fashion accessory.
Rutherfordstone feels she is “a little incomplete” without her nails done. Others agree.
Barbara Rivera, a 19-year-old lead optical specialist, has been getting her nails done for about nine years to help alleviate the anxious tendency to pick at her skin. It’s also become part of her identity.
“When I don’t have my nails done, I feel like something is missing when I look down at my hands,” Rivera said. “I get so used to having them done.”
Rivera has her nails done one to two times a month, depending on how long each set lasts. As one set reaches its extinction, she is ready for another one and has booked an appointment to prevent her nails from being bare.
As the trend has become more popular, the prices for sets from professional nail technicians have also gone up. This spike in price has created more “at-home nail techs,” or people who do nails themselves, without being licensed or intending for it to be their full-time job.
On social media, this trend seems to be popular among women in their late teens and early 20s.
Julissa Gonzalez Mendosa, a freshman Psychology and Child Development major at UI, began doing her own nails between appointments to save money. “Now I only do them myself,” she said. “It was getting expensive, and I wasn’t getting any richer.”
Mendoza would typically pay around $75 in her home state of Oregon. Rivera, who almost always gets her nails done at salons, pays $50 to $60 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where she lives.
For low income or college students, this price can make a dent in their earnings or savings, which was the reason why Mendoza began to do her own nails.
Many people are satisfied with the nails they do themselves, which is showcased in an emerging trend on TikTok. Women post a video saying, “Me coming out of my room hours later because I’m my own nail tech,” while showing off their newest set.
Rivera said that she’s had her nails done at home by her sister and many times in a salon.
“The main difference between her sets and the salon sets is [the salon sets] seem to last longer,” Rivera said. “I once went three months with the same set from a salon.”
This trend may be around for a while, as will the unmistakable “click, click, click” sound of acrylic nails tapping away on cellphones and laptops.
“For certain people, nails aren’t just an aspect of design,” Rutherfordstone said. “It can be a passion, a hobby, a confidence boost or even help them medically.”
Brooklynn Jolley can be reached at arg-life@uidaho.edu