A nail shop in Los Angeles is putting the "man" back in manicure. The HAMMER AND NAILS (hah! Get it?), which will open in November 2013, is unlike any other nail salon. The macho man cave decor with big, manly leather chairs should tell you one thing straight: this is a nail shop for guys.
Screenwriter Michael Elliot (who wrote the 2010 romcom Just Write, starring Queen Latifah and Common) got the idea when he went to a nail salon in LA and struck up a conversation with the only other guy there. "It was just clear that we both felt uncomfortable, and we talked about how uncomfortable this is. I asked a lot of my other guy friends about their experiences and realized I wasn’t alone,” Elliot told Cheryl Wischhover of Fashionista. “I have always hated going to get a mani just because of that feeling of walking in the door and it seems like all the women kind of look at you like, ‘What are you doing here?’ and it’s just awful.”
How did the saying go again? Oh, yeah: "I don't always get a mani pedi, but when I do ..."
Elliot has got an ambitious goal: he wanted the average American man to be his customers, and to make manicures for dudes as common as haircuts. "There’s this misconception that only metrosexual men would get a mani or pedi, or only gay men,” Elliot said. “I want to make nail care as common as getting a haircut and I feel like creating the right environment is key to that."
We'll see if he can, ahem, nail it soon. Thanks Travis!