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This page will feature one of us each month.  This month it’s me I’m afraid!  It will give us a chance to see who we are and what we are doing.  I think you will be surprised and the difference in all of us even though we all have the same job title.  If you would like to tell others about yourself fill in the enclosed form and return it to me with a photo of your self and your business card, if you have one.  You do not have to have your number printed if you don’t want to.

   This month’s Nail Tech 

Name: Melle Stripp                    Salon name and town: All Things Nails, London

Why did you decide on a career in nails?  I had fibreglass extensions for Christmas about 4 years ago.  Although I really liked the look of them I thought it was quite a lot of money to pay for the maintenance.  I saw an evening college course in the paper and decided to learn to do my own.  I’ve always been one for saving money where I can!

 What environment do you work in? I have a small spare room at home which I have decorated to be like a salon with posters, price lists and design boards.  I also offer a mobile service and have a portable manicure table which I take to the clients homes. 

 What services do you offer? Acrylic and fibreglass extensions and maintenance.  Manicures and paraffin manicures.  Nail art, jewellery and airbrushing.

 How many clients do you see per week? Usually about 10 a week.  I work full time in a completely different job and do nails in the evenings so I have enough clients to keep me busy and still give me time to myself.  During Christmas I usually manage to squeeze in about 30 a week.  Don’t ask me how!

 What part of your job do you enjoy the most and why? I enjoy the finished article.  Applying nail extensions is a skill that not many can master.  Lots of my clients have tried the home extension kits and afterwards appreciate the hard work that is involved in the application.  I also like to hear the stories clients tell  me about comments they get from strangers about the nail art they have.

 How do you advertise? My clients are my adverts.  Many of them carry around my cards and pass them on to people who take an interest, so I get a lot of calls from word of mouth.  I usually send out a leaflet with my local free paper advertising special deals around Christmas and in August just before the Notting Hill Carnival.  I am normally quite careful about where I advertise as I work from my home during the evening.

 What is your most popular nail art request? The beach and night sky scenes.  A lot of clients usually ask for animal prints or two colour fades.  They gradually get more and more adventurous.  I have a design board with 400 different designs to choose from so generally I get a good mix and don’t end up doing the same design over and over again.

 What is the weirdest request you have had for any nail service? I’m quite often asked If clients can keep the ends of the tips I cut off, just in case they lose a nail!

 Tip to pass on to other nail techs? If you take photos of your clients hands for your records or after any nail art, take a ‘before’ photo as well.  A lot of the photographic competitions ask for before as well as after photos as proof that you did the work.