I am lucky as a full time woman and also because of my light weight work that I can have my nails done elaborately quite often. But it took me some time to find out all the ins and outs of whats good and of course in the recent past I wasn't able to be female all the time. I hope this little guide on getting your act complete with nails will be of use to other girls who may just be starting out and wondering what works and what doesn't. So many girls ( even REAL ones ) make little or no effort with their nails but elegant hands are so very femme and will really complete an ensemble. Now if you have perfect natural nails then this article will be a waste of time for you. If however like the bulk of us T Girls you have typical male nails....read on.

False Nails

The old standby of real girls who suffer bad nails are the classic stick on types. These come in either plain, a sort of semi-translucent plastic or colored . They also come with either traditional glue or more recently with sticky tabs. In this section I will cover the basics, what types work best and a few hints and tips for buying and getting them on. I started with pre-colored nails. These are just false nails already colored - the colorings in the plastic. I started with these because they seemed like less hassle than painting nails. My first sets were all glue on types which worked out quite well. The downside to them is that they are generally not very durable, quite susceptible to damage and of course if you need to hold down a normal job you can only have them on when your dressed. The downer here is after a few uses they becomes 'corroded' with glue and cant be used anymore. There are some glue removal liquids on the market but these dont tend to work well and are almost as expensive as new packs of nails and in short a waste of time. Shown above, basic nail kit and also spare pack of two glue tubes. Handy hint here, keep ALL the old nails - I used to keep mine in an old powder compact because you never know when you may need one in an emergency. Something quite a few girls dont seem to know is that you can buy the nail glue on its own if you use up the small tube the nails come with. Its typically very cheap at about £1 a tube. Its worth keeping a spare tube of this in your handbag because there nothing worse than being out and losing a nail early in the evening. Again lots of girls never seem to have any spare glue with them so keep a tube handy and you'll be amazed how many friends you make. TIP - when applying your false nails with glue work from hand to hand. So place the little finger nail onto the left hand and then the same nail on your right hand working across the hands. Doing it this way means you keep a few fingers nail free which makes handling the nails easier until the very end when you will be working with the thumbs which being the largest nails are easier to handle. Sticky tabs for holding the nails on are also available. These are like very small pieces of double sided tape. You attach it first to your nail then press the false nail on. Some friends of mine find them OK but I find you have to be so careful with them because they dont grip as well as standard glue that I always end up losing nails all over the place. They are also VERY fiddly to apply. Again the sticky tabs are available separately as spares. The big advantage with the sticky tabs is so long as you remove the tabs from the nail quite soon after removing them the nails can be re-used almost indefinitely.

Doing it MY Way...

After using pre-colored nails for a while I started to find them quite expensive and a bit of a pain as I wasnt able to keep them on during my time in drab. My first foray into doing it different was to buy some plain nails, apply them, then trim them down and paint them a flesh color. This allowed me to leave the nails on for most of the time and not attract too much comment. When clubbing or going out I could remove the plain polish, paint up in a bright color and way-hay - boogie time. For synthetic nails you MUST use an acetone free polish remover otherwise the nails will start to dissolve and also the glue holding the nails on will be removed by acetone based polish removers. Acetone free polish remover is available at most chemists and beauty counters.   Doing it this way was a lot less expensive. Of course some of you wont be able to be in drab even with quite well trimmed and discrete nails but for those of you on the border this can work out quite well. The nails will stay on for up to 2-3 weeks at a time so its quite economic. TIP - When coloring nails ( your own or synthetic ones ) always use a base coat. This is a clear undercoat. It will stop the main nail color from discoloring the nails. You need about 2-3 coats of base coat to make sure staining isnt a problem. Another VERY useful accessory if your doing your own painting is invest in some 'smudge fixer' its a clear liquid that you paint over any small defects that may occur. It basically liquefies the nail polish and allows it to dry smooth again. Its useful if you get small flaws in the polish or minor damage.

Doing it MY Way ( 2 )

After having false nails on all the time and finding in 90% of cases people never noticed ( so long as they were painted a flesh color ) I decided to try some permanent acrylic nail extensions. The first type I bought were of the DiY variety. Unlike false nails these take quite a bit of time to put on and you need to make sure you have lots of free time to fit these little devils. The finished result looked quite good but I found that they were very easily damaged and also tended to fall off at about the same rate as normal nails. They did look much better than basic false nails BUT the kits are quite expensive and as I say they take no small amount of time to fit. On balance these were the most disappointing of all my experiments with nails and I couldn't recommend them to people.

The last word in false nails....

My current nails are acrylic extensions fitted by a professional nail salon. These are only really viable because these days I live as woman full time. For any girls like me who have that privilege and who aren't doing any work that nails may interfere with these are the very last word in synthetic nails. Fitted by a professional and then filed and blended in they look as close to real nails as I am ever likely to get. Because the pros use much stronger glues and finishing compounds these last for up to 12 weeks at a stretch but you need to go back every 2 weeks to have them 'in filled' as your own nails grow out under them. Fern pattern in lilac and violet with purple glitter. Black tiger stripes on deep red metallic base below - my fave. They aren't cheap at £50 a go ( though for me that included having them nail arted ) but they look beautiful are quite hard wearing and when painted in a good lacquer will last ages with very little maintenance. They need oiling with nail oil 2 or 3 times day which helps protect them from damage from objects like keys and other metal items and also helps to keep the glue and the blending gel which is like a filler from going brittle which will cause the nail to fall off. These take quite some time to fit by a pro and I was in the salon the best part of 4 hours for the first set. I have since been back to have a few damaged ones replaced and also to have them trimmed back a bit. Initially I wanted VERY long nails but found them way too difficult to cope with for stuff like typing and also they are much more easily damaged. You need to exercise care when these are fitted for the first time because the glue that holds these to your nail is stronger than the body tissue that holds your nail to your finger so if they get caught on things there is a potential here to rip your own nails out.

Nail Polishes - Any color you like....

While at the nail salon for the first time I decided to have them paint my nails for me. I hadn't seen the polishes they used before so was curious as to whether they were really better than basic off the shelf polishes from Rimmel, Maybeline etc. The Salon I went to uses lacquers with the brand name 'China Glaze'. I have to put in a word here for this product - its totally superb if you have your nails painted for long periods. It goes on very smoothly, is quite easy to apply and once dry and hardened will last for weeks without chipping or getting damaged. You can see from the main pictures how elaborate my nails often are but I dont take any real care with them and still do all the household tasks - after 2 weeks the finish is as good as when it was applied. This is party due to regular oiling but mainly because professional lacquers are just better quality. 'China Glaze' is about twice the price for a color as Rimmel at around £8.50 per bottle ( though the bottles are slightly bigger ) but for people like me who keep their nails colored its worth every penny as it LASTS. The only real downer to it is it take ages to set off. 15 minutes before its touch dry but you cant do anything for at least an hour while it sets off to medium hardness. After 12 hours it reaches maximum hardness. If your using this stuff smudge fixer is a must because if you damage a nail finish after say 2 hours its much easier to smudge fix it than to strip off the lacquer and start again.   For coloring I use a few coats of base coat before the main color. With the 'China Glaze' lacquer most colors will go on in a single coat though I always apply two coats which gives the color eal depth. Once its touch try I apply a clear overcoat to protect the main color and finally some oil to help protect them from scratches. After the nails are fully dry at around 12 hours they are almost indestructible when painted with 'China Glaze' but I always oil the nails two or three times a day to keep the nails protected from damage and also to keep the cuticles in good shape. Finally heres a few pics of just how elaborate your nails can be done. My fave salon did these for me for a very special date.

I needed something extra special for a date recently and so had my nails redone to a much more expensive style. These are painted my favourite red, colored over with black and silver glitter stripes and then each nail has two jewels added. As it WAS a sprcial date I had the old nails removed and completely replaced with new tips at a longer length. The cost for the nails and this artwork plus the jewels was £70 - Ow ! BUT its made me feel soooo special it was worth it.

My thanks to Mel at NAILZ for her advice and also her fabulous work on my nails.

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