You "nailed" it Marc!

To Dick:

And is looks like you parents also "nailed" it

I agree - forget washing a dish - how would you even wipe yourself and pull up your pants!! Ridiculous and UGLY

I wash dishes, clean house, work everyday and do all the things I have always done with NO problem.

not for nothing but women feel the need to do these things to their bodies because most men now a days expect use all to look like super models; if you appreciated women more for who they are and not what they look like many wouldnt waste the money on things like mails, highlights, boob jobs, tummy tucks, face lifts... men have driven women to that extreme and now you want to complain about it. it seems like men just cant be satisfied with anything a women has to offer no matter how hard they try to please them.

Pam,
I hate to burst your bubble but my fiancee is a fairly wll known model/actress. She is 15 years younger than me 41/26. We get looks all the time from old, bleached out, saggy skin, bronzed hags like you who envy natural beauties.

Dunno. The ones with flowers and crystals look like Cher's nails from the Sonny & Cher show 30 years ago...

@clara cher has never been known for her classy getups. in this economy people should be more concerned about paying bills than getting ridiculous manicures

I totally agree Sharon. Not only about the infections, but being able to work at all! As a nurse, you need to be sanitary and look professional. I am a medical assistant and transcriptionist and there is no way that I could work with patients or type with nails like that. To everyone who said ghetto welfare mamas - truer words were never spoken. I've never understood that. Fake nails aren't cheap. Why is it that the unemployed have these nails?

Amen Sharon! You said it well!!!

Wait a min @beavismom62.. you can leave the ghetto nail comment out of it,, for your info its not about ghetto.. its about tacky and tacky comes in all colores shape and races... stop with the ghetto cracks... ghetto is a poverty way of life and so is trailer trash and trust me those nails are not GHETTO they are TACKY!! has nothing to do with living in poverty.. i know black folks who live in the ghetto and dont wear nails like that or they wear fremch manicured nails .. these are tacky .. het it right!!

The fact that you are a transplant nurse has NO bearing on this article. I wore artificial nails for 4 years while working in a med-surg unit, and was part of a quality study comparing artificial versus natural nails and organism growth affected by handwashing. Those of us who wore artificial nails had our nails done by the same vendor. Results: no significant difference. Several of us also donated our nails for culturing upon removal and there was no significant organism isolated. The bottom line, we all carry organisms under our nails, on our nails, around our nails. It is improper hand washing technique and TOUCHING a sink handle or towel mechanism/dryer that can contaminate the surface. Until healthcare facilities adopt an across the board use of motion sensor/foot pedal sinks and motion sensor hand dryers there will ALWAYS be contanimation found at a sink!! Don't even get me going on door knobs.
As far as anyone's choice to wear nails such as portrayed in this article, it is their choice regardless if they are on welfare or not. There are FAR worse things that an individual can do with their money than choose to wear artificial nails decorated with THEIR CHOICE of nail art. The article was a simple update of the trend in nail art today.
I would actually be more interested in an article advising readers of the toxins identified in the application of acrylic nails & the effects said toxins have on a human body...one would think there has to be a medical risk??

Sara - you could probably get away with it on Med Surg Units where people have near normal immune systems. I on the otherhand work Stem Cell Transplant my patients have zero white cell counts for weeks at a time. My hospital has zero tolerance. Another thing, how do you do normal nursing stuff with fake nails? Do you get another nurse to put your suppositories in? My question to people who have fake nails, and no meaness intended why do you do it? what do you get out of it? How does the nail underneath breath? If you want long nails why dont you just grow them out? Finally, when you take the fake nail off what does the real nail look like? I really would like to hear back from women who have fake nails.

Nail Art is Ghetto and it looks ridiculous, childish and juvenile. Also, filing the nails straight across also looks tacky. The tips of the nails should also be slighted rounded at the tip - not filed straight across. Besides,it makes the fingers look stumpy. File them across with a slight curve - going up at the corners a bit. The nails should also be shaped according to one's fingers. If the index finger curves in towards the others - it should be shaped acordingly. Basically, the nails should be shaped naturally - and nobody's nails grow left to right on a straight line. The look should be slightly rounded - giving the fingers a naturally curve look and it makes the fingers look longer and elegant. I seldom see boards of nail art selection in the better nail salons.