A nail tech at the Columbus trade show grabbed my hand mid-set and I'm still rethinking my whole prep routine
I was at the Midwest Beauty Expo in Columbus back in March, working a booth demo on gel sets, and a nail tech named Renee from Dayton stopped me halfway through. She picked up my left hand, flipped it over, and asked how long I'd been prepping without checking the sidewalls. Come to find out she'd seen two clients that month with lifting along the edges from buffing too hard on the sides, and she showed me how much product I was pushing right into the cuticle line without even noticing. I'd been doing it my way for almost 6 years and honestly felt a little exposed standing there. She grabbed a 180 grit file and walked me through light passes at a 45 degree angle instead of digging straight in, and my retention on the next 9 clients has been way better. My fills are running a good 10 minutes faster too since I'm not fighting lift. If you work a trade show table, do you let other techs critique your hands-on work or do you keep your head down and stay in your lane?