Nail Varnish on girls

[BePearlCritic]

Hi,
DD came home today and said her best friend was sent to the office and made to remove her nail varnish.

Her other friend had to last week after a woman from the office came into assembly and stood in front of the whole year with nail varnish remover and waved it about and said ‘Nail varnish off, girls.’
Then she walked around and checked girls’ nails.

They both love nail varnish and both cried after it was removed.

I make sure DD’s is removed before school but do you agree with schools getting girls to remove it and would you mind if they made your daughter remove hers?

I would support this. Until they learn to put their gum in the bin and not stick it on the bottom of the desks or chairs, or drop it on the carpet, I'd be banning it.

No issue with make up or nail varnish, but 2 inch acrylics can make it a little difficult to work.

Woosh...

At least it was nail varnish remover, at my secondary we’d have had it stripped off with pure acetone in the chemistry lab 😄
I don’t understand the problem with following uniform rules, if you don’t like them work with the school and governors to change them, but don’t encourage them to be flouted. All you’re doing is distracting from teaching time whilst someone faffs with identifying who isn’t following the rules and sorting it out.

So nail varnish remover then?

Her best friend and her other friend both had theirs removed and they both cried.

Not my daughter as I make sure hers is off.

One girl was sent to the office in registration to have hers off and another girl was in assembly the week before.

I don’t think they’ve ever had any boys wear it there.

It's stupid to not allow normal nail varnish, what difference does it make? Just ban acrylics/falsies and anything other than normal painted real nails.

Choose the hill you die on, imo.

Totally normal rule. I used to have to send girls to the office that had fake nails put on costing ££££, that was always a fun conversation but the rules are clearly laid out. Clear nail varnish or a french manicure on natural nails was fine and allowed they just didn't want that.

What did piss me off royally though was we had a boy who wore black nail varnish and he was allowed to wear it largely because he had MH challenges but still it shouldn't be one rule for one and one for the others.

We had nail inspections in school to make sure we weren’t wearing varnish.
No big deal, just take it off.

I think if the children at the schools aren't allowed to wear nail polish then teachers shouldn't be allowed to either. It's sets a pointless, one rule for you and one for us ideology. What College, Uni or future job is going to care about a bit of nail colour?

Spiky long ridiculous fakes, of course shouldn't be allowed but I think that in general anyway, they look gross and weird and like they'll have someone's eye out.

Teachers are not children. They are adults at work they have their own dress code to adhere to but it isn't the same as the students and nor should it be.

Well actually my daughter was not allowed to wear nail polish or extensions etc in her last job as she was handling food. My nail lady told me she was losing a client because she was starting some type of nursing/caring role where gel nails were not allowed.

They have to make a blanket rule or things will get silly. At my son's previous school I see that that it is allowed but it has to be clear or pale pink. However it is a school that starts at Year 9 so the students are slightly older.

But why shouldn't it be the same? I'm not being a dick, I just respectfully disagree.

Because most adults won't take the piss at work whereas a lot of kids will. Plus the kids might be doing things the teachers won't. Eg the history teacher will just be desk based whereas the food tech teacher and the kids will have other things to adhere to. And the teachers won't get into scraps in the playground where they scratch each other with their gel extensions.

Because in a school they cannot be seen as equals. You have 1 adult in charge of 30 children, many of which are bigger than them by the end of Secondary you have to be able to differentiate between them. If students see themselves as equals all hell breaks lose. You only have to see a young teacher who could be mistaken for a 6th former struggling with behaviour management to know that.

Teachers, unless they are DT teachers they are not handling food or using tools so there are no practical reasons why they shouldn't. Students will be doing PE, DT and science, all of which pose a risk of accident or injury. From a first aid point of view should there be an accident natural (or clear) nail varnish is better to view capillary action.

Some parents and students also need something pointless to bump heads with the school about allowing staff to get on with the actual job of teaching.

By that logic @ElsaMars teachers should be in school uniform then?

Mine is acetone free 🤷🏻‍♀️

They need to pull themselves together, for decades students and teachers have been having the eternal battle of bending the uniform rules with regards to nail polish and make up. If you get away with it, consider it a win, if you don’t, just play along, remove it, leave your nails bare for a couple of weeks to stay off radar and then start the cycle all over again. There’s no need to cry!

This. Small acts of safe rebellion are good for children. Set the rules further back than you need them and let the risky, revolutionary, peer-focused teenagers rebel against skirt length, nail polish and lip gloss rather than the important rules.

My personal opinion is that acrylics shouldn’t be allowed as they’re long and can pose a risk of injury but I really feel there’s no harm at all in girls expressing their individuality and personality with nail varnish.

There's no harm in kids wearing normal clothes but there is a uniform. Which they have to wear.

Acrylics are not always long, they are as long as you want them to be.

I think it is sensible for schools to ban false nails, eyelashes, heavy make up etc. There can be immense pressure on girls to adopt extreme beauty fashions and follow an stereotypically “female” style of presentation. Not allowing it at school gives a safe space from which to resist those pressures and instead focus their attention much more usefully during their teenage years.

I know, ideally, you’d make sure your daughter’s nail varnish was off before school but regardless would you mind the school removing it?

I'd think they were wasting their time a bit, but I wouldn't mind at all. If my DD minded I'd tell her not to wear it to school again.