Lash extensions advice

[Elrose]

I'm a self employed full time acrylic nail technician working from home.

Concerned about my health living and sleeping in essentially a nail salon I have been looking to learn new skills and veer away from nails until I can find somewhere to rent.

I've taken a course in lash extensions but it was only 2 days long and I am aware I'll have to do most of the real learning myself (as I did with nails.)

I have booked 5 weeks off work (it's as much as I can afford to take off, and even then I'm going to be a bit low on money) but my family are sick of the acrylic smell and I want to devote my time to learning lashes to my best ability.

Can I ask:

♡ Is 5 weeks enough time to practice before opening up for paying clients? (I have a practice head with strip lashes and friends lined up to be models)
♡ How long should a set take?
♡ Can I get good at volume fans/Russians in 5 weeks?
♡ How much income can I expect to make? (I usually make about £1.5-2k p/m doing nails)
♡ How regularly do you have to buy new stock and what are your most common monthly re-purchases?
♡ What additional tools aside from the usual do you recommend?

Thank you so much, any other tips/ advice super duper appreciated!!

 

[user 111574]

In addition to adding lashes to your business, is there a nail system without odour that you could switch to? Seems a shame to loose all your expert skills in this area, not to mention your client base.
Perhaps other nail techs on here can advise on other nail extension brands?

 

[Elrose]

Thanks I haven't heard of any odorless, I definitely plan to get back to it at a later date and have no worries that it would pick up again but I'm really committed to learn lashes for now.

 

[chelseagirl72]

Have just come across this. NSI have brought out aroma free monomer https://www.nsinails.co.uk/nails/acrylic/acrylic-liquids/spa-liquid.html

As far as lashes are concerned I've been doing them for 6 years now and they take a lot of practice. I would probably do classic lashes for a year before even trying a volume course as making those fans are alot harder than it looks. You can use pre-made fans though if you are classic trained. You also have to get the hang of lash mapping ... good luck x

 

[Sarah Park 2018]

Could you change acrylic nails for gels? I do gels because i find the smell of monomer really strong and lingering and it always gives me a tight feeling in my chest. If you did gels you could slowly phase out the nails by adding lashing at the same time and build your client base again. Or perhaps alot of your nail clients would also add lashes to their treatment when they come to you which would leave less time for nails and still give you a decent income at the same time as building your client base.