Statistics show that there has been an increase in the amount of women who go out and professionally get their hair and nails done even with the current conditions of the economy.

One local nail dresser, Tara Jones of Nails by Tara and Maylnne said this year has been the busiest she has ever seen.

“I have been doing this for eight years and I have never seen out schedule be this packed’. I have honestly been surprised by the amount of people still coming in and having things done,” she said.

Jones explained that there are some reasons why women keep coming back to have their nails done and most of them include good hygiene and health related issues. Women who have brittle short nails come in to have manicures to help in making their nails grow and to keep their hands healthy. Other women, who want to have the instant gratification of having long nails, have fake nails put onto their natural nails to have instant fingernails.

“There are some good and bad things about having your nails done but things like manicures and pedicures really do help with keeping your hands and feet healthy,” she said.

Jones added that many of the problems that women have with fake nails can be fixed to where there is no health issue for having the nails placed.

One thing she said can be done is having fiberglass nails instead of acrylic nails. Fiberglass nails allow your natural nail to breath while acrylic nails can often suffocate your natural nail causing damage.

Another problem that women often run into is the lifting of a fake nail from their natural nail causing food and other particles to wedge between the two. This, Jones said, is one of two things. The nail was placed on wrong the first time or the nail has gotten too old and is lifting to off and should be replaced.

With many of the health and economical issues at hand there seems to be no slowdown of women getting their nails done and the trend is starting to fall onto the youth as one statistic showed 27 percent more high school girls are having their nails done.

“With the fact that younger people are coming out and having their nails done, it is important to remember the health risks and to watch your nails. You never want to make it to the point of getting a fungus or a mold growing on your nails, which is a possibility,” Jones said.

– Ashley McCartney can be reached at ashley.mccartney@clantonadvertiser.com.