i'm new here's my story & questions

[lucy_locket]

hello to everyone !
just wanted to say hello and tell you about myself and ask a few questions!!

since the age of 14 i have been a total geek about my nails trying to have the longest set at school and getting close jumping if i broke one.
when i was 17 i found that there was an easy way to get long nails and not feel faint at the thought of braking one.

acrylic nails here i come until i had my first child in 1998
(my little autistic jedi in training.)
i then waited till after my second to start having my nails done again.
in january 2004 every time i went for my infill's i kept thinking
"hang on i can do this ? ! ? "
so my hubby got me my first nail kit (Rio nails)
well what a nightmare!!

well after a couple of try's and 6 hr long attempts i though maybe i had bitten of more than i could chew!

not to one to give up so easily i thought i would upgrade a few things, starting with my uv lamp!

after renewing all my stuff and cutting my time from 6 hours to just under 2 lol!
within 2 months i felt i was good enough to do friends and family.
i then in the july did my sister in laws nails for her wedding and started being asked if i could fit people in.
it was then that i knew how good i could be.
i really enjoyed doing the nail art that was my best bit and i found that it was nail art that people loved so much too!
friends would come and have them done and give £10.00 todo the full set
i was happy with this as it payed for top-ups and seeing as i had no training i was happy people where willing to pay for them.

august last year i had decided to stop doing them and my kit sat very lonely in the kitchen and getting very dusty.
in march this year i decided to give all my stuff and nail designs to a family member who was starting to do nails and thought it better than it sitting in the kitchen.
my husband told me i was stupid and so did my mother in law.

now i know i was completely stupid
now thinking towards september when my little one starts school i've been thinking about starting work and to be honest i'm abit unwilling to do it as i don't want a job selling things or sitting in an office.
i sat and thought of the things i could do and enjoyed doing
!!!!! NAILS !!!!!

so here i am but this time i want to do courses and get qualifications so i can do mobile nails and hope that in the futurei might have my own little salon.

now my questions !


1) what qualifications do i need to become a mobile nail tech?

2) nvq ? or creative l&p ? or VTCT's ?

3) do i need to do beauty as well to start with?

4) how long does it take to become qualified?

i'm a bit lost at the moment
i know how to do a full set of gel nails and infill them every two weeks but feel i'm missing "training" i mean i've basiclly trained myself through watching and observing my own being done and basic practice makes perfect.

i would like to learn more about acrylic nails and prefer to use them in the future as even thought gel are ok i found it a bit time consuming and feel acrylic are a bit more hard wearing than gel.

i would love any tips and info you all have and sorry if i have made you all very sleepy!!

** lucy_locket **


p.s sorry for any spelling mistakes!! i never check what i write:smack:​

 

[Hard-as-Nailz]

hiya, firstly welcome to the site, i think its really good how you trained yourself to do extensions and as you became really good at it i think its the perfect opportunity to do nails again now your child is going to school. im not sure about training as i dont currently do extensions but all the courses you mentioned seem good. ill let the more experienced geeks help you out on that one, but hello and good luck with what you do. x :green:

 

[big miss nails]

hello and welcome to the site.i was like you my kids were starting school and i wanted to do somthink diffrent.so i went to my local college and had to do manicure and pedicure before i could the nail tech course.i qulified in july this year.i really enjoy doing nails which suprised my partner as he said i wasnt girly enough to do nails!(i showed him!!)my son starts part time school in september and my daughters full time so im gonna get out there and start joining the world again

 

[nailsbydesign]

Try to contact all the main and recognised nail product manufacturers (try a google search or search on here...Sassy Hassy has an article in the tutorials on this subject) and get the info on their training so you can make an informed decision on who to go with. You do not need to do anything else you can just do nails on their own...but you really must get proper training as being self taught you cannot get liability insurance to cover you against possible claims from clients.

 

[Good Skin Day]

Hi hun and welcome....

In answer to your questions....

1) what qualifications do i need to become a mobile nail tech?
You don't legally need any, although to obtain insurance you will need proof of some sort of training. Obviously, you will want to have training though, so you don't damage clients' nails and so you are confident in yourself and your work.

2) nvq ? or creative l&p ? or VTCT's ?
Research them all and find out what works for you best.

3) do i need to do beauty as well to start with?
It's a good idea to have a manicure qualification so you really understand the structure of the nail and different conditions that effect the nail. Most reputable training courses will include manicure training and certification.

4) how long does it take to become qualified?
All depends which training route you take.


There's also some excellent information to be found regards training in previous threads on this site. Just use the search facility and type in the keywords you're looking for.

Good luck! You'll love it here:green:

 

[Blossom26]

Just like you I am returning to training in Sept as my children will be 2 & 3, and frankly I need a new direction after being a SAHM!

I'm doing one day per week at college (NVQ2 in beauty therapy - make-up and beauty consultantion, depilation & mani/pedi), then in Nov I start my foundation with Creative, and move onto Creative Spa induction on Dec 1st. I am mostly interested in Nails and make-up so thought it best to start with things I'm interested in and take it from there.

I also hope to study make-up on a 3 day course at the LCF in March (if I have any cash, LOL), and peddle my wares at local hotels in the March wedding shows, and try to attract a small client base from there, as well as friends and family.

Well, it all sounds lke a plan, just hope I can pull it off..............

 

[GemmaS]

Hi

As the others say, using the training link and finding out which courses are best for you is the best option.

If you are interested after your search, Pinks Academy in Derby (01332 204804) is a private beauty school that offers intensive courses - normally over 1/2/3 days in all sorts of aspects of nail tech and also has a manicure course that you take before all your extensions and art courses. (It's common to need to qualify at manicure before qualifying in extensions) All their qualifications (whichever route you take) enable you to gain insurance and legally work on paying public - think you asked about this in your msg.

Thought it might be relatively close by for you, Kirstie (trainer) is really nice, sure she'd give you the info you need if you give her a call.

Best of luck

 

[Sassy Hassy]

1) what qualifications do i need to become a mobile nail tech?
Can you beleive that you can go out there with no quals whatsoever!!!! But you really need public liability insurance, and you won;t get this without the proper training. You would therefore need to phone up your chosen insurance company to check that they will cover you.
2) nvq ? or creative l&p ? or VTCT's ?
It depends on your ability to learn, some people love the weekly visit to their local college for weeks on end, whereas some people prefer to have the same info crammed into 5 days! There are certain boroughs though (particularly in London) who require you to hold a licence and an NVQ qualification is mandatory so you'd be best to check
3) do i need to do beauty as well to start with?
Depends which training route you decide to take, most colleges require you have level 2 mani and oedi before moving onto level 3. HOwever I had no beauty training whatsover when I started and don;t feel I missed out at all. All H&S, anatomy etc is still covered.
4) how long does it take to become qualified?
How long's a piece of string?!!!! Some people do their basic course, never do any more training and never take any kind of exam, but still consider themselves to be qualified. Creative for example, do not consider you to be fully qualified until you have achieved Masters status which can take a few years!

Your gel will be time consuming because you are self taught and also don't do a lot of nails. A good quality gel can be as hard wearing as Liquid and Powder (often referred to as acrylic, but they are in fact ALL acrylic!)

For more help on which training route to take have a gander at these http://www.thenailgeek.com/training/27430-answer-most-faq-training-should-i-choose.html

http://www.thenailgeek.com/training/14950-nvq-who.html

 

[lucy_locket]

Thankyou all for the advise

I guess i'm asking because when looking up about training theres so much choose of things to study and didn't want to start college and then find out I've spent time doing something I might not have needed to do ( ie beauty).

I don't want to focus on beauty, makeup & waxing thats not what i'm interested in at all. my main focus and what I really love and enjoy doing is nails and nail art.I would like to see myself doing mobile work with qualifications ( I'm shocked that you could do it without!!) anyway and hopefully having my own little shop, thats my acrylic dream at the moment.

I'm just on the outside of wolverhampton, shropshire more and have been looking for any courses near me. the closest seems to be birmingham and althoughit's easly enough to get to it's the thought of having to stay over night if I do a 3day course, the running of my home wouldn't like it much being away!

I'm interested in the Creative course it sounds like thats what I need and to continue to get higher from there and that creative can fulfil this.

I have also been told about the Acadamy in birmingham and that they do a course over the week with certificates at the end. any info on this place or if anyone els has done courses there i would love to here!

As for my gel issues, I guess everyone has a fav and mine is acrylic rather than gel but I just did mostly gel at the time and so now my gel nails are perfect (well perfect enough for people to pay me ) I now need to perfect my acrylic so i could even do both a be confident at doing both.

sorry I've gone on abit again, just think it's best to get info thats needed and explains everything

I really must say this site is a gold mine.

 

[Sammm]

Hi and welcome to the site...
I am new here too and i really wanted to take on a new career, as i had been interested in doing nails, i thought id try this out..I went to my local hair and beauty salon suppliers and they were doing various courses.. there were different ones for nails.. 3day.. 4 day etc covering a variety of topics but i chose the 6 day course..which covered basically everything you could cram into 6 long days... It was very informative and made a good start...i was then given 8 weeks to go out and put what i had learned into action before my return for an exam, which i passed.. i still need to do other training courses as i do not feel confident that i have Learned enough about doing nails to be a good tech and i need to perfect a finished nail. these girls here will give you all the advice and help you will EVER need to know.. good luck to you..Leese

 

[Glorsclaws]

Hi welcome to the site,
Im in Penn, Wolverhampton and I did my Creative Foundation in Birmingham. It is hard work to get there in the morning gridlock traffic but, the education is worth the hassle!
If you decide on Creative, you may find that Marianne Manly is closer for you ... Her academy is in Broome near Craven Arms in Shropshire ... ring the education dept on 0800 389 3415 and ask to speak to an advisor.

Before you give any further consideration to the Birmingham Nail Academy, please type it into the searchbox above and check out the experiences of others.

There is also the upcoming show Professional Nails 2006 at earls Court, London on 10-11 Sept. www.professionalbeauty.co.uk/nails If youve never been to one of these shows they are a great way of meeting and getting /seeing demo nails from nail companies. All the major companies are usually represented and demo nails are a great way to see how the pro's work and road test the product for yourself!
If youre into nail art it will knock your socks off to see what Antony Buckley (EzFlow) can do with glitter powder & 3D, and of course theres loads to buy as well as the comps to see.
Good luck.

 

[lucy_locket]

thanks for the advise glorsclaws!

to be honest it is the traveling that troubles me! thats why i want to make sure that i get as close to home as possible.

i've found a site today (only though the the mis spelling of *acadamy* whilst searching :o) the creative nail academy (training for 4 creative nails) in ludlow not sure if this is the same one as you mentioned but think although ludlow is still quite far out it might be better.

i will do a search about the birmingham academy but to be honest i think creative will be best!

thanks again a from a fellow wolves geek !!