I recently had gel nails for the first time. We were going on holiday and a friend persuaded me to go along with her when she had hers done. My nails are usually OK anyway - not long and a nice shape.
I thought that gel wouldn't damage my nails and it would be nice for the holidays. However, I was horrified when the nail technician started roughing up the surface of my own nails with a Dremel (small drill with a filing head on it) prior to putting on the nail polish
I had a shortish French polish, nothing exotic. After a couple of weeks they started growing out and chipping. It took me ages to get the gel off using cotton wool, 100% acetone and tin foil.
My nails are now wrecked and I wish I had never had them done. My nails are soft and flaking. It will take me months to get them back to normal. In the meantime, I am putting nail strengthener on every day and cutting them as short as I can.
I was speaking to someone about this and they said that the Asian nail technicians (who I went to) tend to file the surface of your nails but British salons don't do this.
Never again. Although they did look nice for a week or so.
I wonder if men actually find the slug eyebrow, thick lashes, trout lips, plastered on foundation etc. attractive. As Honeyrose said, they end up looking like pantomime dames.