Dr. Manicure, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Paint My Nails
By Melina Bee
A couple years ago, my workplace had an intern, let’s call her Summer, who only lasted a week at the agency but impacted my life forever. She got me really into nails, ultimately teaching me how to love my hands and perceive my entire being in a new light.
See, I've never really liked my hands. They are ridiculously small, even for a person of my petite stature. My fingers have always seemed short and stubby. I hoped to be reborn with the hands of a mannerist portrait. It turns out I just needed to rebrand myself.
See, I've never really liked my hands. They are ridiculously small, even for a person of my petite stature. My fingers have always seemed short and stubby. I hoped to be reborn with the hands of a mannerist portrait. It turns out I just needed to rebrand myself.
In 2017, right before I met Summer, my life had basically fallen to pieces. I realized my career was going nowhere and went through a brutal breakup with an abusive live-in partner. For what seemed like the millionth time in my life, I was back at the drawing board feeling like a total loser. My nails were always bare and kept very short.
Summer was a stunning 22-year-old blonde with avant-garde clothes from Need Supply and a circle of eccentric, artsy friends (also a sugar daddy forty years her senior, btw). One day in the break-room, she said she liked my outfits and we got to talking about style. At one point she suggested I’d look great wearing lots of rings to which I laughed and said, “I’ve always hated my hands.”
“You just need to get your nails done is all,” she replied in her casually cool, young blonde way.
Summer was a stunning 22-year-old blonde with avant-garde clothes from Need Supply and a circle of eccentric, artsy friends (also a sugar daddy forty years her senior, btw). One day in the break-room, she said she liked my outfits and we got to talking about style. At one point she suggested I’d look great wearing lots of rings to which I laughed and said, “I’ve always hated my hands.”
“You just need to get your nails done is all,” she replied in her casually cool, young blonde way.
A week later we met at a salon where I got my first gel manicure right before heading to Portland, Oregon for a week. Although I still didn’t like my hands, I decided the pop of color did make me smile and just kept getting manicures all summer. That August I discovered Weeknd Nails on Instagram and got an amazing freehand design to celebrate the solar eclipse which I got to see in Nashville. My life still was still a mess in many ways, but at least my nails looked great!
By the time summer turned to fall, I’d left my job and decided to switch fields entirely. I was now a freelancer aka broke as a joke and unable to afford professional manicures. However, at this point, I realized how differently I felt with my nails done. My life wasn’t perfect or even very put together but my nails, it seemed, could be!
Thanks to YouTubers like Christine and Suzie, I learned how to take care of my nails and grow them to a glamorous length. Like Christine, my nails have a very pronounced “C-curve” which combined with lacquer and length make them look fake in the best way possible.
By the time summer turned to fall, I’d left my job and decided to switch fields entirely. I was now a freelancer aka broke as a joke and unable to afford professional manicures. However, at this point, I realized how differently I felt with my nails done. My life wasn’t perfect or even very put together but my nails, it seemed, could be!
Thanks to YouTubers like Christine and Suzie, I learned how to take care of my nails and grow them to a glamorous length. Like Christine, my nails have a very pronounced “C-curve” which combined with lacquer and length make them look fake in the best way possible.
Finding myself on another flight to Portland in June 2018, I snapped a similar image of my nails as I had exactly a year earlier (see above photo). After posting the new image, a longtime friend mentioned that I “seemed to occupy [my] hands differently.” I couldn’t agree more.
I’d gone from hating my hands to somehow being known locally for having, well, amazing, fake-looking nails. On our first date, my now-boyfriend wanted to know if he could ask “a personal question”: “Are your nails real?”
The shift in how I embody my hands is a metaphor for my life’s second act. As my interest in nail art and commitment to nail care developed, so too did my career. I had inched my toe into the communications/marketing world as a freelance writer but truly got my foot in the door of this new industry last August when I landed a job as a content manager at a local college.
While my overall life and career aren’t where I want them to be, I remain inspired by my nails to keep trying. Like good nails, a successful career requires diligent and frequent care. If I was able to embody my hands differently, surely I can embody my life differently as well—right?
Keep up with my nail adventures here on Quail Bell and on Instagram.
I’d gone from hating my hands to somehow being known locally for having, well, amazing, fake-looking nails. On our first date, my now-boyfriend wanted to know if he could ask “a personal question”: “Are your nails real?”
The shift in how I embody my hands is a metaphor for my life’s second act. As my interest in nail art and commitment to nail care developed, so too did my career. I had inched my toe into the communications/marketing world as a freelance writer but truly got my foot in the door of this new industry last August when I landed a job as a content manager at a local college.
While my overall life and career aren’t where I want them to be, I remain inspired by my nails to keep trying. Like good nails, a successful career requires diligent and frequent care. If I was able to embody my hands differently, surely I can embody my life differently as well—right?
Keep up with my nail adventures here on Quail Bell and on Instagram.