Protecting the surface of finger
nails
The nail surface WILL wear when playing rasgueados. Protect
the surface by applying a thin layer of nail lacquer, such
as Cutex "Strongnail" to the top part of the nail
only. Putting anything on the bottom half of the living
nail is just asking for trouble. This will deprive it of
oxygen and make it soft.
Then it takes ages to grow out strong again. Simply
applying the lacquer, blowing it dry and using it within 5
minutes is not really good enough. It may look and feel
dry, but it’s still soft and the sound will be soft too.
For best results, apply it in the evening and let it
properly harden overnight. Some people also like to press a
layer of tissue paper into the glue while it’s still wet to
make it stronger. Depending on your needs, you may want to
apply several coats. File the edges to suit, making sure
the top nail surface is seamless where the real nail
surface meets the edge of the protective coat. The last
thing you want is to hook on this. Some people prefer to
use superglue, but use this mainly on the dead part of the
nail tip. To help prevent the superglue from cracking,
apply a a thin coat of superglue, then press a layer of
tissue paper onto this so the glue is absorbed into the
paper. Finally apply another thin layer of superglue on the
top. It's brittle stuff and can be very messy if you're not
careful with it. The advantage of superglue is that you get
a hard surface in a few minutes.
Here's a tip. Don't use the superglue sold in supermarkets.
Get the really fine stuff from the cosmetics section in a
good department store. If you thought the supermarket
variety was cool, wait till you try the good stuff. If you
manage to get your fingers stuck together, you'll be sorry.
It glues anything instantly on contact and unlike the cheap
supermarket stuff, it flows and spreads easily. I advise
you to also throw some nail polish remover in your shopping
basket just in case.
As a general preventive measure for nails that are prone to
cracking, peeling or splitting you may want to rub olive
oil onto your nail surface. Read this forum thread for more
insight into this.
I've had my share of broken and split
nails.
These days I don't put anything on my nails. I am lucky
enough to have reasonably strong, natural nails. But when
you're playing flamenco for hours every day in dance
classes, teaching, practicing at home, rehearsals and
performances, little accidents can and do occur. What do
you do when you a have a well paid gig to do tonight and
your thumbnail breaks off in rehearsal. Canceling the gig
is not an option because some pissed off dancing girls who
invited their whole family to the show might seriously
consider killing you. So you have to do something about
repairing the nail somehow. Life is so cruel when this shit
happens and all you want to do is go fishing.
Repairing split nails
1. Always carry a basic repair kit in your guitar case.
Nail clippers, emery boards, buffers, superglue (the good
stuff) and a ping pong ball. The easiest way to make a
quick repair is to cut a piece of your ping pong ball and
stick it on with superglue. Then carefully shape the sharp
edges with so there is no hooking anywhere. I also carried
a scalpel or some other sort of sharp blade. I used this to
carefully scrape the sharp edge so I got a smooth
transition between plastic and nail on the top nail
surface. The aim is to NOT scrape anything off your real
nail. You can use fine emery paper to polish the
surface.
2. Use superglue with a layer (or layers) of tissue
paper.
3. An alternative to tissue paper that is much stronger is
a piece of woven fiberglass sheet. We're not talking about
industrial fiberglass. We are only repairing a spilt nail,
not building a surfboard. Very thin sheets of fiberglass
are available as cosmetic nail accessories and can be cut
to size with a scissors.
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