I grew up in the eighties so I spent a fair amount of time at the nail salon getting acrylic nails put on. Long nails were a thing, much like tanning beds were a thing. For years I have looked back on the photos of me in high school and wondered, “what in the world was I thinking?”  The big hair, the neon clothing, the fake nails with the French Manicure, the tanning beds: all bad decisions. As a result, I have distanced myself from all of those fashion and beauty choices.For the past twenty years, I’ve been pretty consistent with my nail regimen. Short, square manicures with red polish. Occasionally, I would deviate in color. For a while I was keen on gel manicures, alternating them with regular manicures to let my nails strengthen again. The problem was I simply could not keep myself from peeling the gel off. This was less than great for my nail beds. Enter the dip manicure. Instead of painting on a gel lacquer and sitting under a UV light, I had several layers of adhesive applied and powder applied in between to give a stronger, peel-proof layer to my nail. This manicure lasted a few weeks. Initially. Then, like all good things, that ended.I tend to be a pretty active person at home and at work. At work, I am constantly ripping open boxes and pulling product out of even more boxes inside. I move heavy displays around to clean and I am always hauling boxes around to put product on the shelves. At home I am always cleaning, doing laundry, and, now that the weather is nice, yard work. The dip manicure is strong and lasts me a week, no problem. After a week, it seems to get a bit weak at the base. This wouldn’t ordinarily be a problem, except that with all the hauling and lifting and digging I would find my nails bending at the top and the base would lift significantly.Dip manicures aren’t inexpensive and they aren’t super quick. I don’t have an hour every week to get this done nor the desire to add a $65 “maintenance” fee to my routine every week. I want this bad boy to hold up for at least two weeks. Then one day I had a new display arrive. I had to haul it out of the boxes and hoist it up onto the display table. As I was tugging the display up and out of the box, the nails on my two middle fingers simultaneously bent back and popped off, ripping my natural nails to the quick. Aside from how horrible they looked, it was incredibly painful.What to do? I went in to get a new manicure and expected the nail tech to suggest I take a week or two off. Instead, she suggested tips for those two nails. I instantly recoiled as it brought back the days of old, but she convinced me that they would help while the nails grew out. I realized this was an opportunity to try the current nail trend (long nails) and allow my mistreated nails to grow. So, she popped tips on all of them.I was worried that I would really be in for it at work now, but oddly it’s just the opposite. I have to be more aware of them so I am more careful not to do stupid things, like grab a 75 pound display out of a box alone. I have also noticed that they make my fingers look longer and thinner. Since I could have been the hand model in the Seinfeld episode “Man Hands,” this has been a nice surprise.Texting on my iPhone has been a challenge. Looking something up on my phone isn’t quite as quick as it used to be, either. These are definite draw backs. So much so, that I may tank the length on my next visit. But it has been an interesting experiment. There is something oddly feminine about long nails, just like there is with long hair. For now, I’m enjoying the look. How long that will last I don’t know, but that’s the great thing about beauty. It’s meant to have fun with. What’s next? Hair extensions? Maybe.