Have any of you tried the "Instant Nail" products offered at this website? My fingernails are too thin and brittle to withstand long periods of flamenco playing. I have tried other solutions that have helped, but that have not been totally satisfactory. I am tempted to try their "Instant Nail" solution, but decided to ask here first to learn whatever experience any of you may have had with it.

-Bob

I haven't tried Instant Nails, but I have used Miro's Guitar Nails for a couple of years with good results. Miro's method is similar, except that layers of silk are used instead of fiberglass. See http://mirosimic.com

Mendoza

This video shows how Instant Nails are applied for those who may be interested. -Bob

This video shows an another way to strengthen thin fingernails or repair damaged nails that I thought some of you might find interesting. –Bob

This is another guitarist nail care video that shows a way to optimize thumb and fingernail tip angles when sanding nails. However, it seems to me that there would be some risk of damaging the guitar finish when brushing sanding grit from the guitar top afterwards. It might be better to stretch a string above the top of a workbench if someone wants to use this method. –Bob

After a couple of years of frustration with au-naturale I committed to and have continued with a salon applied gel acrylic.I have them done about once every 6-8 weeks for a cost of $20 and they are strong and consistent. Mind you I do gardening,carpentry,mechanics, and schlepp musical gear everywhere,so they have been thouroughly tested and only I failure..when I played outside in the winter!
Jerry

We've all been around this block many times. I guess everyone has to find his own solution, but I have to say that I just can't understand why almost everyone is not using acrylic nail hardener. The thing to use is - "Hard As Nails," by Sally Hansen, or any of the other acrylic nail hardeners. (Revlon, Brucci, others). This is clear liquid acrylic that you paint on exactly like nail polish. Then when it dries you have a solid coating that encases the nail in clear plastic. First you paint it on the underneath part of the nail, then long vertical strokes on top. By coating the underneath part it protects it from chipping etc. when playing picado and rasgueado upstrokes. The best part is that your nails feel EXACTLY the same as though there is nothing on them, you play exactly the same, but they are well protected. You don't even know it's on there, and except for a slight shiny look, everything is exactly the same – looks and feel – as though you haven't done anything. You do two coats, and it lasts for at least a week, or more, depending on how much you play. Juan Serrano suggested this to me many years ago, and in all these years that I have been using it ever since, I have never once had any of the usual nail problems that I had before I started using it, and that countless guitarists, flamenco and classical, still seem to have, unnecessarily in my opinion. I highly recommend at least trying it.

Thanks for the suggestion. However, I tried "Hard As Nails" by Sally Hansen several years ago without much improvement. My nails may be more fragile than yours. It also may be that the chemical formulation of the "Hard As Nails" product has changed since then. Maybe I should try it again if the product has changed. Otherwise I need something different.

-Bob

guitguy77 wrote:After a couple of years of frustration with au-naturale I committed to and have continued with a salon applied gel acrylic.I have them done about once every 6-8 weeks for a cost of $20 and they are strong and consistent. Mind you I do gardening,carpentry,mechanics, and schlepp musical gear everywhere,so they have been thouroughly tested and only I failure..when I played outside in the winter!
Jerry

I am surprised that you are able to go six to eight weeks before having acrylic reapplied. I have had regular acrylic nails the past two years and can't go longer than three weeks without some of the acrylic starting to crack and break away. Nail technicians have told me that gel acrylic nails are not as strong as nails made from regular acrylic, but maybe that isn't true where you are able to go so long.

Another problem is that my nails grow out enough in three weeks that the gaps between the acrylic and my cuticles start catching on strings when I play rasgueados. Don't you have that problem after the first three weeks or so?

I'm also surprised that gel acrylics only cost you $20. I pay the equivalent of US$30 for regular acrylics and have been told that gels are more expensive. Do you have artificial nails on the fingers of both hands or only one hand?

Alvarez

Bob wrote:Thanks for the suggestion. However, I tried "Hard As Nails" by Sally Hansen several years ago without much improvement. My nails may be more fragile than yours. It also may be that the chemical formulation of the "Hard As Nails" product has changed since then. Maybe I should try it again if the product has changed. Otherwise I need something different.

Bob -
I would try it again - better yet Brucci, if you can find it, or Revlon. Possibly you did too thin a coat. I put on a nice thick generous coat, underneath first, then on top of the nail, as I described in my previous post. I let it dry really well, an hour, or more, or sometimes I wait until the next day even, then, as long as it's really well dried, i do another reasonably thick coat. As I said, it basically encases your entire nail, under and on top, in what amounts to plastic. It's great protection, impervious to moisture, and highly resistant to chipping, breaking, etc. And it lasts even a couple of weeks, depending. You don't even know that there is anything on your nails, they feel exactly the same, and so you can play exactly as you always have, because it just your own real nails. I would strongly suggest giving it a real good trial.

As I mentioned, Juan Serrano suggested this to me many years ago, and I think he still uses it. Why not - it works. I have been using it for more than thirty years, and have never once had the slightest nail problem, except naturally when I stupidly reach inside a cabinet or something with my right hand instead of my left, as I have trained myself to do.