The Cut - It Doesn’t Matter If We Behave

When I first started working in the beauty industry, I was afraid to wear my nails long. I was terrified that my acrylics, the ones that made my hands look beautiful, would signal something about me I didn’t want to communicate: that I was “ghetto,” “loud,” or didn’t fit in. I was afraid of that characterization and the ways it might pigeonhole me while being acutely aware of how this consideration was an attempt to separate myself from a kind of Blackness I assumed couldn’t succeed. I was fresh out of college and coming off Frantz Fanon, Hortense Spillers, June Jordan, and bell hooks. I knew better.

But I kept my nails a moderate length and opted for neutral shades anyway — pinks, lavenders. In the summer, taxicab yellow. The reception was lackluster. Nobody gawked or said anything notable, and I was glad for it. I pitched stories about the very thing I avoided, wanting to celebrate the aesthetic that surrounded and inspired me but unwilling to go for it myself. As the years passed, long nails, the kind I’d seen growing up, became a mainstream trend. Suddenly, white women everywhere were sporting fresh sets, complaining about how difficult it is to type and discussing how to pull their cards out of ATMs. It was something familiar gone strange — like someone trying on “sis” for size. And not only did they wear them long, they wore them loud. Billie Eilish’s claws dripped acid green. Kylie Jenner’s talons took on every shape and size. It wasn’t long before the women around me followed. There seemed to be two camps: the girls waxing poetic about Essie’s Clambake and the ones asking after the best places to go for a fill. I didn’t have any recommendations. My nail shop is in Queens.

Kim Kardashian is joining the Ryan Murphy–AHS universe. What was Shiv saying with her messy wedding-guest bun on last night’s episode of Succession? A touring production of The Bodyguard was disrupted by a “mini-riot” when audience members refused to stop singing along with “I Will Always Love You.” Be cool; give blood. Celebrities love swapping houses. And it’s never not a good time to revisit the work of Gabriel García Márquez.

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