Had Gel nail extensions - what now?

[nickdrakeslovechild]

I love polish, but my nails have always been awful, so this weekend I bit the bullet and got gel nail extensions.

They are quite short and am just getting to grips with them but I know nothing about them and doing some googling doesn't seem to help either.

So a few questions..
How do I look after them?
Do I just get infils every 3 weeks or so?
Are they going to make my own nails even worse when they are removed?
Any other tips?

I would appreciate any help or advice please.

I suggest you ring the salon where you had them down Nick.
They'll be best abLe to advise.

Fwiw, I had gel fake nails once and was advised to come back to have them removed/ infilled. I chose removal as I only had them for a wedding.

My nails took months before they were ok again.

I use gel polish cured with a led lamp and they last two weeks perfectly, and my nails are great under the polish.

Did they put tips on or was it just polish over your nails?

I thought with gels/shellac you got them taken off and re done as it's more like a longer lasting polish

Watching with interest, I'm having my first ever gel nails done at the weekend.
Mine's for a one off occasion & I really don't want to ruin my nails underneath.

Yes they put tips on, I was trying to ask them, it's a great salon but none of them speak English ver well.

I have had the gel / shellac polish before and it's only lasted a couple of days before the whole nail of colour has popped off! I think it's because my nails are so bad.

Did they use a wee electric sander type thing to prep your nails?
One piece of advice is DO NOT PICK once the acrylic starts to lift around the cuticle When it's growing out, your nails will suffer I sadly speak from experience

As long as you remove them using acetone, don't pick, and they didn't use the wee sander thing your nails shouldn't be too bad when you take them off

You don't really have to do anything to care from the just keep your cuticles moisturised.
Infills will depend on how fast your nails grow but 3/4 weeks is the norm for me.

ooh yes cunty they did use a mini sander thing, but only for a second.

My cuticles are always so dry, I've tried EVERYTHING on the market and they are just always going to be skanky am using a mix of almond oil, coconut oil and the lush lemon cream at the moment.

There are 2 different types of 'Gel nails'
Extensions are done with tips that are glued on, then hard fell over the top. This is done to add length to the nails. It can be done just with a hard gel and not gluing tips on-this is better for the nail. These are then filled in by the cuticles every 3/4 weeks to cover the growth of the nail.
If you just want colour, then a different form of gel us used that is typically applied like nail polish and cured under a lamp.
Typically, these will be removed and redone at each appointment.
The colour can also be used over the extensions too.

The colour gel should never leave your nails feeling damaged, if it does then it hasn't been removed correctly!

When I've had just the gel colour in the past, its not damaged my nail at all. The longest I've managed a full set of the gel polish was 2 days, it just doesn't suit my nails.

These gel extensions have so far lasted since saturday and look great. Just got normal OPI polish over the top of them which I have loads of as I'm a bit of a polish addict, thats why i want the nails to be able to paint

Re the sander thing, that wrecked my nails and I now refuse to let one anywhere near my nails with one make sure if they do keep using it that you don't feel any heat on your nail plate as that can mean they are thinning out the nail plate causing damage and weak nails of you remove the acrylic completely.

I slather on cuticle oil when I go to bed and use hand cream a lot during the day which has helped my cuticles loads.

Re the polish, make sure you remove with acetone free remover to preserve your extensions. Other than that enjoy having pretty nails to looks at