“How to Take a Nail Selfie!” “Fruity Manicure Inspo!” “Kylie Jenner Slammed by Fans for Nearly Poking Out Stormi’s Eyes With Ridiculous Claw Nails.”
The glut of hyperbolic nail-related headlines online points to our obsession with the endless possibilities open to the plate at the top of our fingers. In the internet age, the manicure, in all its incarnations, is a traffic winner. It peppers a plethora of Pinterest boards; the hashtag #nails has been posted 151m times on Instagram; nail artists are stars in their own right; and countless women will assert that manicures are a form of self-care. Detractors dismiss it all as frivolity.
When the pandemic hit, online musings about manicures became less about beautification. Rather, there was a sudden, stark realisation that the colouring, decorating and embellishing of fingernails is, for many, not simply a preoccupation but an occupation. From the social media furore provoked by a New York Times article questioning the future of the nail industry in an age of social distancing to the accusation of misogyny levelled at…
