If a stranger grabbed my hand at a store, I’d be terrified in most scenarios. However, there is only one scenario where I would make an exception. If it has to do with my nails, I am sincerely complimented and just made a new friend. This scenario happened to my friend recently when a sales associate grabbed her hand as the woman inspected her nails with great detail and obsessed over them.
As a lover of all things nails, this is both something I do and something I have noticed a rise in, the use of nails as a form of language. As someone with social anxiety, I have found nails to be a wonderful form of a universal language. Complimenting someone’s nails always elicits a great reaction from that person and usually lets you learn something new about nail art, or a new nail artist, or a nail polish you didn’t know about.
Nails have morphed into the new full face of makeup, where you would compliment someone’s eyeshadow and ask what brand their foundation was. Now we grab someone’s hand and ask how they got the cat eye polish look. Nails are a great way to connect because there is accessibility to them. You can do your nails at home, have a friend do them, go to a salon, or even put on a press-on. Nails allow for personal expression in a time where we have really pushed this no makeup, clean girl look.
Makeup only stays for a few hours (unless you sleep in your makeup, which I’ve been there), whereas nails can last weeks. With nails, no matter how you feel in your week, your nails and cool nail art are still there and something that can connect you to other people.
Language is more than the black-and-white view we have of it. Language can be how we connect, whether that is a topic or a way we connect to others. Makeup for a long time was the main type of beauty language. However, that is changing with nails at the forefront of this new language.
One of my favorite parts of nails is how transformative they are. They can transform an outfit or your attitude, and you can even change a set of nails. I personally love a good cheap online or drugstore pair of nails with a good nail file and great glue to make them look like real acrylics. When the language of nails is used, these are fun facts you can share. I have always loved sharing how I make my pres sons last with other people and seeing if they have any fun tips to add as well.
Words by Annika Petersen.
Graphics by Emily Strycharz.