The History of Acrylic and Gel Nails - Who was the first girl to paint her nails?
Who was the first girl who painted her nails and why?
How and when did this phenomenon begin?
Nail painting began around 5000 years ago in the Egyptian and Chinese culture, About 4,000 years ago, gold instruments intended for manicure treatments were found in the royal tombs in Egypt.
There are some things in this world that seems very logical to us, but if we think about it in depth, we will be surprised to find out, how and when did it ever become a normative and acceptable matter!
Lets Take an example, nail polish! Think about it, who was the first person to say for the first time: “ I feel like walking around with green or pink nails”.. and why. who was the first girl to paint her nails colorfully and what went through her mind at that moment?! Surely that was weird once, and people around her thought she might just be crazy!
So how and when did this phenomenon begin !?
Nail painting began around 5000 years ago in the Egyptian and Chinese culture. At that time, they used simple and basic ingredients to prepare nail polish: egg white, Arabic gum, wax and gelatin, and henna as a dye component. they would leave this mixture to set all night and in the morning they got a reddish pink paint.
About 4,000 years ago, gold instruments intended for manicure treatments were found in the royal tombs in Egypt.
Nefertiti, Egypt’s’ Great Royal Wife, preferred the ruby hue, while Cleopatra preferred the crimzon hue.
At that period, long and painted nails were a symbol of high social status, the women of ancient Egypt used to accessorize themselves with long artificial nails as a symbol of their high status. Some of the materials used for this purpose were bones, ivory and even gold. They put on nails to show their wealth in public. on the other hand, for the common people, the working class, there was no such privilege, and if anyone dared to paint their nails in a bright hue, they were sentenced to death!
In China, on the other hand, in the Ming Dynasty, women and men used to lengthen their nails as much as possible - around 13 cm, this aimed to show that they were not simple workers but a dynasty of emperors. they even used to sprinkle them with gold powder! Back then, The longer nails ones’ had, the more respectfully he was treated in society. In the image: cixi, the last Chinese empress, showing off extra long nails! I wonder what we would think today if Trump's wife had nails such as this!
In Greece of 19th century, upper class women wore empty pistachio shells over their natural nails! By doing so, the artificial nail trend, spread all over Europe!
It was not until the early 1920s, that nail polish was invented in the form known to us today. It happened following the development the glossy laka polish color for cars, and this gave the inspiration for developing glossy polish for nails as well.
In contrast to ancient times in history, fashion at that time among high society was mainly centered on long nails painted in light shades, at this time French manicure was invented. The intense shades, like red or black, were more associated with the lower classes or - prostitutes! It was only at the end of the twentieth century that Coco Chanel sparked the short red paint nails trend, turning it into something fashionable and sexy, the opposite of "cheap", as it was considered at the time!
In the late 90's the movie “Pulp Fiction”, Uma Thurman the lead actress, painted her nails in red black color, the “rouge noir” by Chanil, thus red nail polish returned to fashion again!
In 1950, a dentist named Fred Slack, broke a nail, and began experimenting various chemicals to create an artificial nail in place of that broken one. During this time, acrylic materials were used for building dental crowns for aesthetic purposes, and by mixing different materials, Dr. Fred, tried to produce a nail that looked exactly like the broken one by using acrylic. His brother, Tom Slark, realized the potential, And together they registered a patent for the acrylic version and started the company “Patti nails”.
Acrylic nail art also paved the way for the creation of UV nail polish that dries in a UV machine as we all know today, it started in the United States, back in the eighties, and quickly, each beauty salon held such a lamp, it became a popular trend and consequently a thriving industry which Spread to the whole world. This didn’t even pass over our best friends - dogs - yup you heard right!
In 2003, OPI company launched nail polish for dogs! called “Pawlish”! ¬I think it's cool, don’t you think?!! Let me know in the comments down below!