My Nail Tech Journey

 I can remember being around 12 years old and watching my mom paint her perfectly long, almond shaped natural nails in a bright red shade at our kitchen table. I then proceeded to beg her to let me paint my own nails but she told me red was for grown women and I had to pick a different color. I think this is where my love for nails started. I have always been good at painting my own nails and feet, even when I was little. I remember my older cousin Takiyah looked down at my feet one day and said where "where'd you get your toes done? They look good!" I felt so proud to tell her that I did it myself. I  would paint my nails every chance I got. This was part of my self-care regimen before I knew what self care even was. I just knew that painting my nails and having my nails done in general made me feel good. 

Fast forward  to about 17 years later, during a global pandemic, I decided to take a stab at doing my own acrylic nails at home. I ordered a shit ton of products from amazon including a practice hand and got to work as soon as all my products arrived. My first acrylic nail looked sooooooo bad, lmao! I didn't touch acrylic for about a month after that. But then I realized how much money I spent and decided to try again, this time watching hella Youtube videos to see where I went wrong. Slowly but surely I got a little better. I was working from home at the time and had a little coin saved up and decided I was going to go to nail tech school. And just like that I enrolled and started my journey to becoming a licensed nail tech. 

Learning from teacher at School

School took about 6 months to finish up the 525  hours required to take state board. I took my state board soon as I was done with class and felt confident enough that I would pass and I did! Prior to taking state board I had already landed a job at a day spa in Atlanta and was also taking clients on my own from home and sometimes traveling to their homes to provide services. 15 year old me would not believe that I was really out here working as a nail tech and actually making a living off doing nails. WOW!

Doing My First Set on an Actual Person

This journey is very much ongoing and has been filled with lots of doubt and fear if I am being honest. However, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I am so glad I took the steps to get here and didn't talk myself out of pursuing a dream of mine. If you have been thinking about pursuing a long term dream of yours, this is your sign to do the damn thing. I promise you will not regret it! I cannot wait to to see where else this journey takes me and I am so excited to bring you along with, so stay tuned!

XO, Asia!