The nail industry has a diversity problem. Here’s how I’m fighting against it

Scrolling through the Instagram feed of the latest in-demand nail artist, I felt a growing sense of frustration.

I was initially taken in by the beautifully clean manicures and minimalist nail art, but as I carried on scrolling an all too familiar outsider feeling started to creep in.

It’s the same one I get when my friends are shopping at Zara and I’m left browsing the scarves. If you know, you know. 

As a plus-size woman, I am all too used to the feeling of exclusion. It’s the silence that lingers when the receptionist hands you a dressing gown for your spa day that you both know won’t fit you. It’s the friends who rally around your newly single pals with offers of blind dates that they’ve never once suggested to you.

This acceptance of exclusion even extends to my nails. Despite being a nail art fan since October 2012, when I got my first ever custom design at Wah Nails in Topshop Oxford Street (RIP on both counts), it’s an unwritten rule that no matter my design, no nail tech will ever ask for a picture of my nails at the end.

Even when they tell me how much they love the design I picked, I know my chubby hands will never make it to their main grid, for fear of ruining their painfully curated ‘hand model only’ aesthetic.

But as I carried on scrolling through this latest profile, I could no longer quiet that silent acceptance. Every single manicure pictured a cookie cutter, young, slim, white, female hand, with long perfectly shaped nail beds. There was no deviation in hand or nail size or shape and rarely any variety in skin colour or age.

Once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it. For nail artists and brands, Instagram is a portfolio of their best work, and it speaks volumes when they only want this to be reflected by one type of person.