Nails, clothes, the whole shabang

Here in Brasil, the people are a lot more put together than in the States. Nails, clothes, jewelry, and shoes all matching...all the time. To the supermarket people wear heels, to the gym people wear makeup and jewelry, and when going shopping people are all made up. It is tough for me to get used to this, my prefered clothing is sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I am lazy and just throw anything on, but here that is not acceptable. The gym, you arrive and the ladies are dressed with matching spandex and matching tanktops, with all make up and jewelry on. To the supermarket the women wear high heels and you will never see someone out and about with casual clothes on. Everything has to match and be pretty. It is typical go to the salon about once a week. You are supposed to get your nails painted every week, your toes painted every 15 days, your hair trimmed or colored every 3 months, and waxed every 15 days as well. When I arrived here my nails were terrible. I bit them, and bit the skin around them when I got anxious so they were all scabs or dried blood around them. I wish i took a picture of them, because now they are all pretty and done up every week. If I forget to call the salon my host mom would call for me and mark a time during the week for me to go. Here in Brasil, the salons are very cheap, but amazingly good. To get your nails done is R$13 which is like US$8. Imagine getting your nails done in the US for 8 dollars, I don't think that this exists. If I want to go out on a friday night or something and I forgot to get my nails done at the salon my mom wouldn't let me go without having her do them for me. The conversation goes like this "hey mom can I go out tonight" -me "not with your nails like that..."-my mom hahah, this would never happen in my house in the USA. I think when I was in the states i got my nails done maybe once a year, but here, one of my favorite places to go is the salon. This salon is not what most of you are picturing though. It is in the basement of a womans house. Her and her oldest daughter own and run the salon. There are two rooms, one for getting your hair colored or getting waxed, and the other for your nails and getting your hair cut. The first picture I had was like "this is a good salon...let alone this is a salon?" If you picture a sign that says, for example "Theresa's salon" on the street, you see it everyday but you never ever would imagine going into it. This seemed like one of those places. Once I went for a few weeks I got used to it and now I sometimes go to talk to them. There are so many colors to chose from, even until now a majority of the weeks I chose red. Every week she has new colors that she bought and she always liked to try new techniques on my nails. After watching her every week do my nails, I decided to buy all of the supplies I needed for doing them on my own. Online everyone posts pictures of the new technique they did to their nails and its amazing how so many people pay so much attention to such a small thing, such as nails. I always want to practice and when I get home, I will be happy to paint your nails!

the nails I did!

These below are from blogs that are updated each day with fashion and type things.