04/10/2026
I spent the majority of my 10 years working behind a salon desk, and I kept quiet for years while watching home-based techs struggle to charge properly. It still annoys me every time someone complains about the price of a set from home and asks what they have got to pay for.
For one, the mortgage or rent on their house, the exact same way any normal wage covers living costs. If your boss turned round to you and said you need to take a pay cut because you work from home now, you would be in uproar, so where is the difference?
People forget we are in this to make money, the exact same way anyone else is. In a standard job, people never see the true costs of running a business because someone above them handles it. When you are self-employed at a nail desk, you see every single penny.
The majority of nail techs in the UK do not even earn minimum wage because we have been programmed over the years to believe our time is worthless. If this industry disappeared tomorrow, people would be in uproar.
If people keep devaluing home-based techs, and techs keep working for less than minimum wage, then burnout wipes out the best talent, then desks close down, and an entire industry of skilled artists walks away.
We need to change this mindset and respect nail techs, their craft, their devotion to development, and their investment in high quality products. For the clients who already do that, we value you more than you know.
Nail techs, be honest boys: have you experienced people questioning your prices because you work from home, or do your clients respect your worth?
