New nail association vows to tackle standards and product diversion
The newly formed Nail Industry Association (NIA) has outlined its goals ahead of its official launch later this year.
Founders Belinda Price, Amanda Gould and Sue Davies said the NIA would represent nails as a standalone industry by giving business advice to techs and campaigning for standards.
Goals of the new association include: guidelines on acceptable course lengths and standards – for example, campaigning to get rid of one-day beginners’ courses; getting gel polish added as a unit to college courses; and educating techs and clients about problems associated with buying product through unofficial sources.
“Product diversion is a major problem for the nails industry,” said Gould. “People are buying cheap products from unofficial distributors, not realising it is often fake, old or from overseas where formulations vary.”
Gould, who owns Nailistics in Crawley, Price, owner of NailSpa in Huddersfield, and Davies, owner of Gorgeous Nail & Beauty Emporium in Kent, are now looking for other salon owners, techs, suppliers and training centres to join the board.
Davies added: “We’d like to work with other associations, such as Habia and Babtac, as we have some shared goals. But they are seen as beauty and hair associations; there needs to be something dedicated for nails.”
The association will initially be funded by corporate memberships. Once established, it will be launched to nail techs at Professional Beauty North on October 19 to 20.
Techs and salons who sign up will be asked to meet a minimum level of training and adhere to a code of practice. They will be offered benefits including free advice and access to discounted services.
The association will hold focus groups to get input from the industry. These will be held in Huddersfield and Bexley on June 9, Doncaster on June 17 and Bournemouth on June 23.
Anyone interested in getting involved can sign up to a focus group by contacting [email protected]
This story first appeared in the May issue of Professional Beauty magazine. To make sure you're first to read exclusive news, subscribe for £37 a year for print issues, or just £4.99 a year for 12 full digital issues.
