Why you need to know the difference between the nail convex & concave
By Katie Barnes | 18 February 2020 | Expert Advice, Feature
One of the most important yet surpassed elements of a nail enhancement is the convex and concave. Firstly, lets explain what the convex and concave is:
Convex: The exterior curve of the nail enhancement.
Concave: The interior curve or “the tunnel” of the nail enhancement.
The convex and concave should be identical and symmetrical through the entire length of the nail.
Natural nails aren’t perfect nor uniform, so this is why customers visit nail techs for nail enhancements to improve and enhance the look of their natural nail.
A client that frequents our nail desk more often than we may realise is one whose natural nail has an irregular shaped c-curve at the free edge. While a tech may be tempted to blame their skills, when working on a nail like this the form or tip will not be able to sit seamlessly to that higher part of the natural nail. This will leave a small vertical gap between the natural nail and the form or tip.
When you apply an enhancement product it will naturally sit in this dip. This dip will be visually apparent on the concave of the enhancement and appear like a small ‘belly’ hanging down from the roof of the concave.
When the convex and concave of the nail are not in harmony with each other, your eye can be thrown and force you to try and compensate elsewhere to correct the issue.
This ‘belly’ or a ledge of product will occur if the form fit wasn’t correct and enhancement product slips underneath the form.
When you have finished filing a nail, you may not be happy with the end result. Product is not always required to be further removed from the convex of the nail, and it is in fact the concave that needs some product removed to symmetrically line up these two elements.
When you hold something black around the C-curve such as black gloves then this makes this imperfection much easier to spot. Another great truth teller for flaws, is looking through or taking a photo of the nail. The camera never lies and shows all mistakes. You can then see these and correct them before moving on to add colour or art to the enhancement.
This additional product needs to be removed from the concave of the nail and there are several ways to do this. C-curve sticks with built in files have been designed to achieve this flawlessly – chose from a size that fits the whole free edge to remove product from all over or a small size to target one specific area.
Alternatively, you can make your own version of these by wrapping disposable file paper around a c-curve stick. An e-file can also be used with an under nail cleaner or safety bit but care must be taken to not remove too much product.
Love Katie B x
