Nailing it in Belgrade

Let me tell you that when you take yourself out of your regular environment and are thrown into a completely different locale, stuff starts to happen.. It’s called change. If you leave yourself open to the possibilities, you can find magic in the mundane.

Somewhere around week 3, you start to realize that almost everything you do is different than you do in your home environment. When you vacation, it’s fun.. it’s part of the cool part of going somewhere new. When you start to call someplace  a temporary home, there’s all sorts of things you start to need or want to make your life comfortable. For me.. it was time to get a manicure. Well, this became an immediate emergency and obsession on so many levels. I thought the sky was falling ! Where the hell am I going to get my nails done in Belgrade? (As if the rotation of the earth depended on my nails!)  In the US, we are accustomed to a wide variety of inexpensive, fast nail options. It’s as if there  is a requirement that at least one nail salon be in any strip mall.  I discovered (my extensive research is thanks to Google) that there were 7 standalone nail salons, a 3 day spas offering nail services in a 5 mile radius of my home. It’s no secret that most of the standalone nail salons are foreign owned and operated. It’s part of our community fabric and the entry point to the economy. Your interaction with them is easy: you show up, they do your nails, you pay them, the next person gets in the chair. In masterful supply chain execution, regardless of how many people are in the salon; there always seems to be someone who can service your need immediately. This makes it almost a fast food commodity… McChair 2 is waiting and supersize me. 

Here in Belgrade, the nail salon is considered a value added service. You have to find someone, who knows someone to get you access to the most skilled technician. There is not a nail salon on every corner. Cleverly, I asked my new Pilates friends who does the best nails. They all gave me the same answer ending with… it may take some time to get an appointment. I immediately got on Google to search for them, eureka!.. a Facebook page.. The digital hunt starts: Liking their page, then requesting via messenger for an appointment.. Starting off..’ my apologies, I do not speak Serbian’… then getting a cryptic reply.. two new vacancies, you must reply immediately. Not knowing if it was a regular direct Serbian response or the person’s English; I responded not quite immediately. My response was too late! These people are relentless. This is serious. Game on. I then asked for the next available, it was 3 days out. This may not seem like much, but remember… I’m used to having 10 options at my chipped nail fingertips. I took the appointment, got Maps to take me within steps of the well-hidden secret entrance (seems to be a prevailing theme in Serbia… how can we disguise the entrance game..?)     I rang the security bell, and was promptly greeted by a well-groomed woman wearing a white medical coat embroidered with the salon logo. I was in the inner sanctum! She seated me, gave me beverage  (a nice chilled beverage, might I add) and got the process going. My appointment was at 2:30 and I was in the chair at 2:29. My technician got her tools and space prepped and laid out 20 color wheels, each with 19 different hues for me to select. This must be color heaven! We decided that my summer emergency demands a bright color and a punched up hue of magenta was selected. She commented on the quality of my prior manicure and wanted to know if it was ‘executed’ locally… Made me smile. It was ‘executed’ all right.  Remember I said I was in full-on nail emergency, I was looking all chipped and snaggle-nailed. I needed an expert.

The process of polish removing, cuticle shaping and nail filing is boring.. but she had a rhythm to her work that kept me engaged with the process and even liking being there. Her polish application was extraordinary precise. It was also kind of funny, but the background suspended TV had a US episode of “Big RV’s”; focused on Americans buying RV’s for family vacations. Hearing it dubbed in Serbian was telling in a bad way like looking in to us from the outside (and it wasn’t pretty)… My whole nail extravaganza lasted an hour and half and there was chilled Serbian wine!

This was not a trivial outing. It was an experience, a nice experience. The atmosphere in the salon was communal, these people liked each other. They liked working together and they enjoyed their customers. I wasn’t just sitting in McChair 2. All of this for $15.. Did I mention the chilled Serbian wine too?  While there, I got the follow-on manicure appointment, booked a pedicure and got myself in queue for a facial. I might end up spending a day there in the hidden retreat behind the buzzer door.

I do declare: this is the best manicure I have every had! I’m giddy over it. It makes me happy. It’s another instance of finding magic in the ordinary, Belgrade style. This is city of contrast, grit and artistry at every turn.. even in the nail salon. I am smitten.

 End Note:

The New York Times did an interesting expose the state of US Nail Salons. It’s a good read. Makes you look at supply-demand and fair wages in a whole different light.