Before Gel Nails: 6 Things Many People Do That Make Gel Lift Early
The night before your appointment you want your nails ready, so you sort a few things out before you come in. You go to bed feeling well prepared. A few days later the edge of the gel starts to lift or the tip starts to split, even though the tech did every step properly. Many people who have had gel before go through this without knowing the cause sits in what they did before walking into the salon. This article covers 6 things most people do with good intentions that make gel nails lift earlier, and how to arrive the way a nail tech would like you to. From Nanny Nails, a nail salon in Nakhon Phanom.
If you are about to get gel nails and you search for how to prepare, most answers are long lists of things to do. What we see at the salon is the opposite. Most of the best preparation is the things you do not need to do, because preparing the nail is the tech's job at the salon anyway: shaping, pushing back the cuticle, trimming the excess skin and applying the base coat. Shaping, base coat and top coat are included in the price of every job. So what you do beforehand does not help, and often gets in the way of what the tech does.
First, gel can lift in 3 places
From the owner's 3+ years of doing every job herself, gel that lifts comes in 3 kinds: lifting at the base of the nail, lifting at the tip, and lifting as a whole sheet. The tech's side has its own causes, such as the nail not being cleared properly, the tip not being sealed well, or the gel not being fully cured. That is covered in Why gel nails lift: the spot where it lifts tells you the cause. This article is about your side only, from before you leave the house until you sit down at the table. What happens after you leave is covered separately in What not to do after a gel manicure. The two articles read as a pair, before and after, with no overlap.
Some of the 6 points below come from what the salon sees while working, and some are general nail care points worth knowing.
1. Do not put cream or oil on your hands before you come
This is the most common one, and the best-intentioned. Hands feel dry so you put on cream. The nail edges feel dry so you put on oil. You do it in the morning before leaving, or in the car while you wait. It feels like your hands and nails are ready.
At our salon the owner is clear: no cream or oil on the hands before you come, because oil on the hands and nails makes the colour hold badly. Gel needs to grip a bare, clean, dry nail. An invisible thin film of oil is a film the gel slips off more easily.
This is the same rule as for ordinary nail polish: before applying polish you swab the nails with alcohol to remove oily residue from creams or lotions, because even a trace of oil can make polish lift and peel. The same principle applies to gel, which also has to grip the nail plate.
What to do instead On the morning of your appointment, skip cream and oil on the hands. Wash your hands as usual and dry them well. That does not mean never caring for your hands. The daily cream schedule, and when to apply it so it does not interfere with gel, is in Hand cream at the wrong time. If you have already put some on, just tell the tech when you sit down. No need to feel awkward.
2. Do not pick, peel or remove your old gel yourself
The last set starts to lift and the edge comes up. Your finger catches it, you pick a little more with a nail, and before long you have peeled a whole sheet off. Some people go further and buy acetone to soak at home, so the nails are bare when they arrive and the tech saves time.
The owner says you do not need to peel or remove old gel yourself. We remove it for you with a nail drill and an acetone wrap, and charge the removal fee per nail at the shop's price, shown near the end of this article. We do not do gel fills: when you come back, we remove the old set and redo it every time. So old gel still on your nails is not a problem.
So directly: when the colour begins to come off, do not pick at it or use other nails or tools to remove it, and make an appointment with your manicurist to have it removed. As for what it does to the nail, with acrylic nails, taking them off yourself can damage or even remove the top layer of the nail, and advises against doing it yourself. Acrylic is a different material from gel, but prying a firmly stuck material off the nail plate is the same principle. It matters because, from the tech's experience, a very thin nail is one cause of gel lifting as a whole sheet: the colour has nothing strong enough to hold on to. Peeling off the old set today risks the new set not holding.
What to do instead Come with your old gel as it is. If you have old gel on, say so when you book and we allow time to remove it. If you really must take it off yourself, for example you live far away and the gel is badly lifted, the method that does not wreck the nail is in Can you remove gel nails at home? A method that does not ruin your nails.
3. Do not cut or file your nails short before you come
You want your nails tidy before you go, so you cut them all to the same length and file the corners round. Some people cut so close there is no white edge left, thinking short nails are easier to paint and look clean.
The owner says you do not need to cut or file them. We shape your nails in every job anyway, and nails cut too short before you arrive can make the shape harder to do. The shorter the nail, the harder the tip is to seal, which matches the cause of gel that lifts at the tip: a tip that is not sealed well, or very short nails that are hard to seal. Below is real work from the salon on very short nails, done as a smooth solid colour. Short nails can have gel, but that does not mean you should cut them short beforehand.
As for filing, file gently in one direction. Sawing back and forth weakens the tips of your nails, and they can shred or peel. Someone who files hard in the morning may start this round with tips that are already splitting without knowing it.
What to do instead Come with the length your nails are. The tech shapes them to the design you choose. If your nails are very short and you are worried, read Can short nails have gel?. If you bite your nails right down, we can do them in every case and recommend an overlay, in Bitten nails: can you get gel?
4. Do not soak your hands or wash dishes bare-handed until your nails are waterlogged, before you come
This one is general nail care. Appointment day is when many people tidy the house before leaving: a big pile of dishes, laundry, a long shower, or soaking the hands in warm water because they think it softens the skin and gets the nails ready.
When you soak your nails, the nail beds expand and then shrink back as they dry, which loosens a fresh coat of polish so it lifts, so we recommend a cuticle softener instead of a soak. Too much water exposure can also weaken nails so they split, peel or break, so wear gloves for dishes and cleaning. Keep in mind that this is the rule for ordinary nail polish. Nobody has measured it on gel directly, but avoiding nails that are waterlogged and then drying costs you nothing.
What to do instead On the day of your appointment, if you have a lot of dishes or water work, wear gloves and leave time for your hands to dry completely before you leave. Soaking after you have had the manicure is covered in point 1 of What not to do after a gel manicure.
5. Not telling the tech that your nails are thin, or where your gel has lifted before
This one is not about doing too much but about staying quiet. Many people with thin nails do not like to talk about their nails, or assume the tech can see it, so they do not say that the last few sets all lifted as a whole sheet, or that the tips always go first.
That information matters because, from the tech's experience, gel that lifts as a whole sheet often comes from a nail so thin the colour has nothing to hold on to, and this can be fixed with an overlay. We offer 3 kinds: care gel 100 baht, rubber base 200 baht and builder gel 250 baht. Rubber base and builder gel do not include colour, so for example one solid colour plus rubber base is 400 baht. If the tech knows beforehand that your nails are like this, she can recommend the right kind from the start, instead of waiting for the gel to lift for a third time. The two kinds compared are in Rubber base vs builder gel.
What to do instead Send a photo of your hands on LINE before your appointment, with a short note on where the last sets lifted: at the base, at the tip, or as a whole sheet. To learn what the place it lifted tells you, see Why gel nails lift. The tech looks at it and tells you whether to go straight to solid colour or build the nail up first.
6. Getting gel over thick yellow nails, hoping it will cover them
The last one is not only about gel lifting. A few nails turn yellow, thicken or go brown, and you would rather nobody saw them, so you plan to go for a dark gel colour to cover them. This really does cross many people's minds.
Our salon does not paint over nails that are thick and yellow or suspected of fungus. The shop's reason is that the manicure steps add moisture to the nail, which could let a fungus spread, so go to a doctor first. Nail polish traps moisture at the nail bed, fungi thrive in moisture, so polish may make a fungal infection worse. Ask your doctor whether you can wear polish while treating nail fungus.
The thing to watch is not deciding by yourself what your yellow nail is. Other conditions, such as nail psoriasis or a nail injury, sometimes look like nail fungus, and a doctor confirms with a nail sample. On the other hand, nails that are yellow from stain left by dark polish are not a disease. This is covered in Nail fungus or just yellow?
What to do instead If a nail is yellow, thick, separating, or starts to hurt, redden or swell, see a doctor first. Gel can wait at no cost. People with diabetes or circulation problems, or with redness, pain or pus near the nail, should see a doctor.
The 6 points: what you did before, where the gel suffers, what to do instead
| What you did before coming | Where the gel tends to suffer | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Cream or oil on the hands | Colour holds badly, edges lift easily | Skip it on appointment morning, wash and dry your hands |
| Peeled or removed old gel yourself | Thin nail, gel lifts as a whole sheet | Come with the old gel, we remove it |
| Cut or filed nails short yourself | Nail tips, hard to seal the tip | Come with the length you have |
| Soaked or washed dishes for a long time before | Nail swells then shrinks, colour loosens | Wear gloves, let your hands dry |
| Did not tell the tech about thin nails or past lifting | Lifting as a whole sheet again | Send a photo of your hands, say where it lifted |
| Gel over thick yellow nails | Moisture trapped under the colour | See a doctor first |
So what does help before your appointment?
With the unnecessary things cut out, a couple of things that really help are left. None take effort or money.
- Send a photo of the design on LINE before your appointment. The tech prepares the colour in advance and can tell you the price beforehand, so on the day you sit down and start, with no long choosing at the table. If you do not have a design in mind, browse the gallery of our work. Every design can be booked with its code.
- Tell us when you book that you have old gel. We allow time to remove it.
- Come with bare nails as they are. Nothing to prepare.
- If a nail looks abnormal, take a photo. Yellow, thick, or red and swollen skin around the nail: see a doctor first.
Everything else is the tech's job: shaping, pushing back the cuticle, trimming the excess skin, applying the base coat, and curing the gel under a UV lamp. And because the owner does every job herself, even someone getting gel nails for the first time does not need to worry about preparing wrongly.
Removing old gel and redoing it: what does it come to?
People with old gel often ask this. We charge 5 baht per nail to remove gel before a new set, which is 50 baht for all 10 nails. For example, gel on the hands in 1 colour is 200 baht, and with removal of the old gel on both hands the total is 250 baht. Every job includes shaping, base coat and top coat. To learn how long gel lasts and when to redo it, read How long do gel nails last?
What customers say about our work
Nanny Nails, a nail salon in Nakhon Phanom, has 144 Google reviews at 5.0. Read them all on the reviews page. Every job comes with our 7-day care period, so you can get on with life with peace of mind.
Less preparing, longer-lasting nails
Before your next gel manicure there is no need to tidy your nails up first, no cream to soften your hands, no old gel to pick off, no filing to round the corners. Wash your hands, send us a photo of a design you like, and sit down at the table with bare hands as they are. The rest is the tech's job, and after you leave, carry on with What not to do after a gel manicure.
FAQ
How do I prepare before a gel manicure?
You do not need to prepare much. Come with your nails as they are. No cream or oil on the hands before you come, do not peel or remove old gel yourself, do not cut or file your nails yourself, because we shape your nails and remove old gel for you. What helps is sending a photo of the design on LINE before your appointment, so we can prepare the colour and tell you the price in advance.
Can I put hand cream on before a gel manicure?
Not on the morning of your appointment. No cream or oil on the hands, because oil makes the colour hold badly. At other times of the day and after your manicure, look after your hands as normal.
I have old gel on. Do I need to remove it first, and how much is it to remove at the salon?
No need to remove it yourself. We remove it with a nail drill and an acetone wrap. Removing gel before a new set is 5 baht per nail, 50 baht for the whole hand. Tell us when you book and we allow time for removal.
Do I need to cut my nails first, and can I cut them very short?
No need to cut them. We shape your nails in every job. Nails cut too short beforehand can make the shape harder to do, and very short nails are harder to seal at the tip. Short nails can still have gel, so come with the length you have.
First time having gel nails: should I send a photo beforehand?
Yes, either a design you like or a photo of your hands. Send it on LINE @nannynails before your appointment, so we can prepare the colour and tell you the price in advance. If you have no design yet, choose from the gallery of our work on the website.
What is the salon’s 7-day care period?
If work done at the salon lifts or peels within 7 days, bring it back and we will fix it for free.
How do I book, and what if I am late?
Book on LINE @nannynails or call +66 99 002 8935. We take 3 bookings a day, 09:00 to 18:00. The deposit is 100 baht per booking. Tell us 1 hour ahead to move your booking and keep the deposit once. If you are more than 20 minutes late, we reserve the right to cancel the booking and keep the deposit.
Send a photo before your appointment and we prepare for you
Send a photo of the design you want, or of your hands, to LINE @nannynails first, whichever you like. For a design photo, we tell you the price and prepare the colour before the day. For a photo of your hands, we tell you whether to go straight to solid colour or build the nail up first. Mention any old gel, we remove it. We take 3 bookings a day, 09:00 to 18:00.
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