Nail Art Doc Explores Origins in Hip-Hop to Cult Favorite Status
I stumbled upon a cool YouTube page/website called Nailgasm TV the other day as I was going through some of my favorite nail artist’s Instagram pages. They produced a 35 minute documentary about the cult fanaticism behind nail art. Actually, it’s not cult fanaticism anymore now that nail art has become a mainstream phenomenon.
I haven’t watched the full documentary yet but I plan to now that I’ve seen the following trailer. The short film explores nail art’s origins in hip-hop and trace its popularity to the pop culture boom.
Check it out:
Nail art was everywhere when I was growing up in Harlem, and I hated it. I had an aunt who lived next door to me at one point, who had a nail business set up in her apartment. She literally had a mini salon situation going on with a mani/pedi station set up in a little nook and people loved her for it. She always had funky designs on her own nails, and was considered an art innovator because she wasn’t afraid to play around with nail shapes, neon colors and charms. My cousin and I were fascinated by her clientele but also her display. She always had a board of nail art on display that she constantly changed.
Said aunt, her clients, and everyone in the neighborhood loved getting super long claws and in retrospect, I didn’t hate the art, I just never liked long nails. I didn’t realize this until I got to college and started actively getting manicures and pedicures but started looking for things to enhance my look. The nice salons with sanitary practices were very vanilla, while the hood salons did nail art but their hygiene and treatment of nail health was suspect, so I just started playing around with my own skills at home.
Finally, the boom caught on and more salons started getting into the groove and in some cases, competing with each other when it comes to innovation so I got more options.
Anyway, enough of my rambling.
Visit www.NAILgasmDoc.com to stream the full film. You have the options of streaming it for $1.99 or buying it for $5.00.
YouTube subscribers get 10% off NAILgasm orders at nailgasm.bigcartel.com (use code NAILgasmTV at checkout).
Category: Makeup/Beauty, Nails
About the Author (Author Profile)
Starrene Rhett Rocque is a recovering journalist who often fantasizes about becoming a shotgun-toting B-movie heroine.Subscribe
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