As a nail technician, you practice art in miniature. Your daring nail art designs grant
your clients a commitment-free way to spice up their everyday appearance. But while
your services leave your clients with a beautiful display on their digits and you with
the satisfaction of creative expression, doing this day by day can take a toll on your
eyes.
Are your eyes often sore or watery? Do you sometimes experience blurred or double
vision? Is it difficult to keep your eyes open? If you’ve noticed any of these
symptoms, you might be suffering from eye strain. Fortunately, there are ways to
alleviate this condition, even with a job as sight-heavy as yours. Here are a few.
Get prescription glasses
Refractive errors can exhaust your eyes and lessen the quality of your nail designs. It’s
challenging to create intricate patterns when your vision is slightly skewed—and
ignoring this problem in the long term can lead to headaches and even worse eyesight.
That’s why you should get glasses with prescription lenses, which can grant you sharp,
detailed eyesight using single-vision and progressive styles, depending on your unique
needs. You can even get them with anti-glare and anti-smudge lens technology to
further protect and enhance your eyes. With your specs, you’ll be able to see and craft
your tiny artwork with ease.
Use eye drops
One of the possible reasons for eye strain is that your eyes aren’t properly lubricated,
potentially because you don’t often blink enough when concentrating on nail art. This
will make your eyes feel dry and gritty as well as tired. To avoid this, you can use eye
drops to produce the moisture your eyes need; the ones you can find in your local
pharmacy are fine.
However, if you want an even healthier option, consider autologous serum eye drops,
which are produced by the separation of liquid and cellular components of your blood.
They contain biological nutrients present in your natural tears and can boost the
growth and healing of your ocular surface. Considering how much you use your eyes
as a nail technician, it might be a worthwhile investment.
Configure your workspace lighting
Your workspace should be equipped with the illumination tools you need to do your
job. Cheap, fluorescent lights that can harm the retina and cause eye strain won’t cut
it. The best working conditions for nail artists should ideally have windows that let in
a lot of natural light. Those windows should also be able to block damaging
ultraviolet rays. In addition, table lamps that brighten up your client’s hands can also
be helpful. Just be mindful that you’ll need specialty light bulbs—normal ones tend to
affect the nail gels you work with.
Eat for your health
Another factor that affects eye strain is how healthy your eyes are. If your eyes are
running low on necessary antioxidants, they’ll get strained more easily when you use
them during long hours while creating nail art. You’ll have a greater risk of developing
eye conditions like glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. Avoiding this is
simple, however: eat foods that will grant you the vitamins, nutrients, and minerals
that you need. A guiding principle is that you eat a rainbow or a variety of foods of
different colors. This will grant you the array of proteins, dairy, fruits, and vegetables
that can give you eye health. To start shifting toward this healthy diet, you can begin
by snacking on almonds, oranges, and carrots in between nail appointments.
Your work as a nail technician puts you at risk of straining your eyes. Follow
the tips above to ensure your eyesight remains healthy, comfortable, and precise.
