As much as your staff love what they do, being a nail tech doesn’t come without its problems. Repetitive strain injury (RSI) and wrist pain can rear its ugly head due to the repeated movements needed to perform manicure and pedicure treatments back to back. More than half of your techs (53%) change their seated position frequently to minimise this happening, as well as performing daily stretches (47%) and hand massages (27%).
Your retail business is slightly up on last month’s figures and this could be down to a renewed push on upselling homecare to customers. Cuticle oil is your biggest seller (56%) and for good reason, followed by hand cream (16%), which is becoming more of an essential due to the colder weather. Educators, professionals and students battled it out at our PB London Nail Competition to be recognised as the best techs in the UK. See who took home prizes on page 52.
On the spot
Which do your nail techs do to prevent hand and wrist pain?
1. Change positions frequently (53%)
2. Perform stretches (47%)
3. Perform hand massage (27%)
4. User a mixer to take strain out of shaking bottles (17%)
45% Know how to apply forms on clients’ nails with extended hyponychium growth
Which homecare product do you retail the most?
1. Cuticle oil (56%)
2. Hand cream (16%)
3. Top coat (9%)
Month in numbers
16 nail treatments performed on average per week in October
METHODOLOGY Insider is compiled from a monthly survey of spas and beauty salons. The people who participated represent a cross-section of the industry and were polled by email from November 1–11, regarding business for the month to October 31. Nail business for the Insider Nails page was calculated from data provided by salons that offer nail services among other treatments. The figures given represent the average score for each answer. Brands are ranked when mentioned by several respondents.