My Nail Journey

I have been a constant nail biter my whole life. It's a gross habit and I never liked doing it. It made my fingers sore, they were tender to touch at times and they just looked horrible. Then, one December evening last year, I decided I wanted to do something about them. Maybe it was turning 30, maybe I just wanted to break a bad habit I'd had for decades, but what I did know was I wanted pretty nail art and that couldn't happen on what you might struggle to call 'nails'.

Let me take you on my nail journey, showing you how it started and where we are now, eight months later...

Just for a bit of context, this is how my nails have always been:

Yes, they are gross and chewed-up. I don't know what it was, but that night in December 2022 I took a photo of my nails and decided to contact someone I hoped could help. That person was the lovely Alesha. You can find her on Instagram here.

She managed to take those itty-bitty nails and get some acrylics on me so my little nails could grow underneath and take away the temptation of biting (you can't bite through plastic the same way... I tried!) For the first step on my nail journey, I had these navy, sparkly beauties, ready for Christmas:

Then Alesha did me another set of acrylics to continue with that growth underneath. They were already making progress but not enough to do anything with. I mean, you saw the state of my nails at the start. It was going to take some time. I had another sparkly set to head into 2023.

Then, the unthinkable happened. My real nails were just long enough to do something with!

I could hardly believe that those were my own nails! They weren't in great condition but they had a bit of length compared to before and Alesha worked her magic on my baby-sized nails. Then we got into February and the growing of my nails was progressing nicely. I got these cute Valentine's nails this time:

99% of the time Alesha asked me, "what are we doing today?" my response is "I don't mind." Having nails is a novelty at this point and I don't have a preference about what goes on them. Everything is an improvement on that first photo and I trust that she'll make them look lovely. These springtime nails were one of my favourites:

Next, I was going through a phase where I was buying everything in cow print. I don't know why, I just like cows. Therefore, on my next visit, I asked if I could have some cow print on my nails to match my current pattern interest. This is what Alesha came up with and I loved them so much:

My nails are coming along beautifully now. They are growing nicely and I'm not able to chew through them with gel on. At this point, while I had the cow print nails, I realised I'd stopped having that urge to bite them too. It felt like I'd been cured of compulsive biting after all those years. It felt great!

On my next visit, just before Easter, I asked if Alesha could do mini egg nails like some I'd seen on Pinterest and she knocked it out of the park on this one! Check these sweet nails out:

Then some children in my class asked if they could design my nails. I printed them some hand templates and set them the task of designing my next set of nails over the weekend. They came back with some wonderful designs. Some would have taken Alesha hours with how detailed they'd made them. One set had "Miss Brazier is a great teacher" on every nail, another had an individual illustration on each nail to cover all of our topics in class (plants, volcanoes, fossils, fractions, the Stone Age, etc.) However, I did like the pink cherry design by a girl in my class - and these would be much less time consuming for Alesha - so I had these next:

In May, Alesha got really artsy with my next set as I asked if she could do something to match a dress I was wearing to a wedding. She went above and beyond to create these beautiful nails that matched perfectly with the green tones and purple flowers on my dress:

Now we get to the jazziest pair of nails I've ever had! These are Cameron's favourite and, to make it even better, these were the nails I had for my birthday. Again, the care and precision Alesha took to make this spectacular nail art blew me away. How amazing are these?!

After my wild birthday nails, I had something softer. I also had my nails shortened as the length was still new to me and it's pretty tricky to teach PE with long nails when you've previously bitten them your whole life. These pretty, pastel ombre rainbow nails were amazing:

Here, I had a wobble. I was stressing about jobs and other things and unfortunately peeled all of my rainbow gel off. Whoops! Then, without the strength of the gel, some of my nails snapped. So when I went back to see Alesha and sheepishly showed her my hands, she worked with what I gave her and still gave me these blue beauties ready for my weekend away in Center Parcs:

Then we get to a set of nails that Cameron chose, combining a couple of Alesha's previous designs from her Instagram. He selected a two-tone pink wavy set but instead of the pink, he picked neon green and biro blue. Alesha was a little taken aback but worked with Cameron's suggestions and gave me a dialled-down version and honestly, they're one of my favourites:

On my last visit before going back to school, I let Alesha choose what to do again (no surprise there!) Here is what she came up with:

Now it's time to start getting autumnal, Halloween inspired nails before going into the glitter season that is Christmas!

Alesha truly has worked wonders with what I first walked in with and has helped me to care for my nails to get them to this point. Biting my nails was a tough habit to break but it's one of the things I am proudest of, having finally stopped and having pretty nails to show for it now. Don't forget to check out Alesha's amazing nails on her Instagram and, if you're in the area, come and see her!

Are you a nail biter? What design shall I have next?