May I Have a Manicure?

He Puts the “Man” in Manicure
Here at the Year of Living Girlishly, we want everyone to get in touch with their feminine side. Indeed, we're not above bribing people to indulge in health and beauty rituals for the greater girlie good. To that end, I recruited my friend Dave to go and get a manicure with me.

Dave is a rock star. He spends a couple of nights each week playing various plucked instruments. This takes a toll on the condition of his hands. I couldn't convince him to have his nails painted a masculine shade of pink, but he submitted without much fuss to having a basic manicure.

Getting Nailed
As Dave and I settled our debts at the nail salon, we learned a shocking fact: men pay more for their manicures than women.

Sure, the difference isn't huge; in this case only $2. But when you consider that a woman's manicure includes full polish and more attention to shaping and buffing, the extra charges for men seem a bit unfair. So what gives?

Ruth contends that this is simply payback for many other cost iniquities that favor men. After all, a woman pays on average almost twice as much for a haircut, no matter how simple the style. And if a woman takes a shirt to the cleaner, it magically morphs into a “blouse” and cost infinitely more to clean.

So is that it? Are manicures priced higher for men as some sort of cosmic payback? Dave for one wasn't willing to accept this. So he asked the two women at the counter, “why do men pay more?”

The younger of the two women was blunt. “OK, take a look at your hands and take a look at her hands and you tell me.” This declaration was punctuated with a dramatic cocking of the eyebrows that clearly articulated the subtext, “men's hands are icky.”

The older woman was a bit more pragmatic. She gestured toward me and told Dave, “she'll come back.” In other words, the nail salon can afford to charge women less because of the repeat business. A man may come in for a manicure once or twice a year. A lot of women make a monthly trip to the nail salon central to their girlish routine.

We set out after work one day to a small nail salon Ruth had recommended to me. In front stood a series of manicuring tables, each appointed in a slightly different fashion. In back, behind a half wall, there were four pedicure chairs. Dave instantly relaxed when he saw, seated side by side, a gentleman and (presumably) his fiancee flipping through a bridal magazine while having their toes done.

In no time at all, Dave was seated at a manicuring station, soaking his hands and watching the news on an overhead TV. This nail salon had a much larger selection of polishes than the place where I'd had my first manicure. With Dave's encouragement, I selected a flashy gold color. The nail technician, a young Vietnamese man wearing a surgical mask, smeared a healthy dose of cream on my hands. After a brief massage, I went to a sink at the back of the room for a wash (strictly self-service at this place, I'm afraid). On the way back, I took a good look at Dave. An elderly woman was aggressively scraping under his fingernails as he sat with a look of exquisite torture on his face.

I returned to my manicuring station, where I couldn't help but ask what the deal was with the surgical mask. At first, the nail technician misunderstood me and thought I was asking about a scar on his hand. No, no, no, I corrected him. The mask on his face.

“Oh, this is for the smell.”

Say, I know a hair colorist who could use one of those. So, where did you get the scar on your hand?

“This? This is from manicure. I slipped.”

Oh.

With my hands safely polished, the technician conducted me to what I can only assume was a specially-built nail drying table. The table had two levels with about a five-inch space between them. Built into the bottom of the upper table level was a blue light. I placed my hands on the lower level of the table and, presumably, the magic rays of the blue light caused my nails to dry. I don't know if this was supposed to make the drying process faster or improved the finish or what, but it did seem awfully technical. And also, it looked really cool.

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