Taking high school Chemistry 101, I barely passed with a D. Now here I was gainfully employed at Leslie Ellen’s Nail Boutique soon fast becoming an alchemist. Graduation was quick and I mastered it. Mixing powder polymers with liquid monomers I learned how to sculpt an acrylic fingernail. Key to the success of mastering this art was using a very expensive Kolinsky #5 flat red sable artist brush . That one brush was $35 .Crucial to turning a nail into art was keeping that brush clean. Mastering this technique and skill was a must. I could give up working 3 jobs : cleaning houses, part time teacher’s assistant, and nights at Flying Tigers. Financial freedom and artistic expression were right there before me. I just had to master this chemistry lesson. Soon I launched my new career as a nail sculpture.

Chemistry has always been important to the evolution of the nail industry.Inspired by the high-gloss paints appearing on cars in the 1920. A French makeup artist, Michelle Menard, created the first bottle of nail polish. However that was a far cry from the beginning of nail history which began with the Chinese and Egyptian nail enhancements used by royalty and the elite.. The Chinese nail history dates back to approximately 3000 B.C.E . Back then nail colors were created from natural ingredients like egg whites, beeswax, gelatin and flower dyes. Colors were limited to two things: reddish pink and what your status was. Were you royalty or educated elite? A sign of either were the length of your nails. If they were long, you were educated and did not toil in the fields.

Leslie was our very own Bo Derrick from the movie 10. It was that summer when she had her stunning cornrows with beads red hair that she approached me to become her manager for her West Hartford nail boutique. It was at the beginning of the nail craze. Living as a life long nail biter, she was first introduced to the art while she was living in Montreal with her second husband. It was on one of her many outings to the horse track that she met the dentist who was responsible for all the long red fingernails that Leslie was envious of. I was never envious of those long red nails. Having my very own naturally long nails like Barbra Streisand. She had grown them as a rebellion against her mother’s wish for her to become a typist. She kept them long,only cutting them on one hand when she needed for roles like playing the guitar in A STAR IS BORN. I on the other hand, had to cut my nails to pick tobacco. In high school, I defied the request to cut my nails by my manager of Friendly’s ice cream where I worked as a waitress. In an inspection of the ice cream shop, the board of health had written me up for my nails as a violation along with my waist long hair. However, soon after I went to work for Leslie, I became the girl with the long red fingernails. Part of working for Leslie was to wear the “nails”. How else would I attract clients? Wear the nail and make sure they stay like a “10” . For years I wore the nails. The money was incredible and so were the clients but the hours were long.

Long before Leslie brought the acrylic nail craze to West Hartford, acrylic nails were in the creation stage by dentists since the 1930’s. However the early acrylics turned yellow and became brittle. By 1957, Fred and Tom Slack successfully patented an acrylic version. The first realistic looking acrylic nail happened by accident in a dental lab. In 1954, Dr Frederick Slack, a dentist from Philadelphia, broke his thumb nail which needed immediate repair. Using polymer, a dental acrylic, he created the first false nail made of polymer. According to nail folklore, Fred used this material on his wife’s nails to wean her off of biting her nails; making Fred’s wife the first woman to wear” realistic looking ” acrylic nails. Shortly after the success Fred and his brother,Tom, successfully patented a acrylic version and started the company Patti Nails. By the late 1970’s,a major industry development happened. Dr Stuart Nordstrom founded Creative Nail Design (CND)in 1978. Using Slack’s dental material, he developed the liquid powder system that I learned to sculpt nails.

The nail industry grew big time in California in the 1970’s . In 1975, Actress Tippi Hendren (known for THE BIRDS) became involved in humanitarian efforts for Vietnam refuges at Hope Camp, a California camp. When she noticed how they were fascinated with her nails, she initiated a program to help 20 women at a Northern California refuge camp resettle in the United States. She brought in her own personal manicurist, Dusty Coots Butera, to teach the women how to do a manicure and master acrylic nails. Dusty became known as the nail tech and first instructor of the “Original 20”. She was the “unsung nail hero’ creating a lasting legacy. This laid the ground work for Vietnamese owned nail salon across the United States.

By the next century, next millennium as nail salons flourished on almost every street corner across the United Stated, the hazards of the nail industry flooded the news media especially the New York Times. But until then I filed away with many new encounters that would take me far from home and eventually to The Land of Enchantment where I once again am like Barbra Streisand -100% my real nails.