FashBlog.com

OK everyone, as you have already surmised, I’m not a big fan of black nail polish, and for the life of me, I can’t see what the attraction is.

My 14 year old daughter started bugging me for it about a year ago, and I told her flat out “No”, hoping that it would be enough to move her into the other non-traditional arenas of blue, purple or green. But did that happen? Of course not. With about one zillion nail polishes on the market, she still longed for the one she couldn’t have. Isn’t that always the way? In any event, before school started last year, she came back from the mall with a black glittery version from Hot Topic. (I may just devote one entire article to that quaint little abode of lightness and whimsy some day as well. But I digress.)

So, I say to her something to the effect of, "You spent over $3 of your own money on this, something that you know I think is abominable-but-but-at least it has glitter in it. That’s one positive. Anything with glitter can’t be taken too seriously. I myself was addicted to red glitter polish in 10th grade." And so I blessed her use of the ugly stuff.

Before you jump on me as having utterly terrible and prejudicial judgment, I’ll say three things in my defense…first, as someone who has lived a relatively long time, I’m entitled to my views, even more than younger folks, for the simple fact I’ve had decades more to justify them. Second, after suffering the fate of having my toenails turn black after a rather bad dance experience-and having other girls think I was wearing black polish when I was wasn’t wearing any at all-I’m a little sensitive to the bad memories. And third regards an incident I heard of about 13 years ago that I never have forgotten. It goes like this: A friend had a 5 or 6 year old daughter at the time, and was looking for a babysitter. A neighborhood girl came, and she was wearing black nail polish. The mother crossed her off the list of potential employees without a moment’s hesitation. Now, as this lady is relaying this, there I am, a brand new mother, wondering what was so bad about it. This woman continued to say that it wasn’t that the black nail polish itself was cause for concern, it was the reason why the girl wanted to wear it that bothered her, as a parent. I honestly am not sure if I got it at that point. About 12 years later, I did.

When a woman goes through pregnancy and labor, her one hope is that her baby is healthy, and if it’s a girl and beautiful, she considers herself even more blessed. Probably 99.9% of women want their little girls to be the ideal, and for many that translates into pretty, feminine and sweet. This normally does not include anything along the lines of gothic, punk, or heavy metal, hard-core looks. Ergo, when my daughter’s male friend showed up with black polish on his 8th grade hands, it made me see it as even more abnormal. Why would anyone want to look down and see that on their fingers, let alone a boy? The only reason would be to impress others, and therein is where I see the problem-with black, blue, green, purple, red or any color-when it becomes an addictive obsession to focus one’s persona around, it’s moved into the area of an unhealthy attachment.

Now, some gals use it with as much judgment as other colors, especially if wearing black. I even heard that guests to Ashlee Simpson’s wedding last week were wearing black nail polish. Now, why was that important enough to even be mentioned in the press? But no one can convince me that wearing it constantly is uplifting; every time I see it, I recollect many months of pain...

I keep telling myself that someday this too shall pass. Then we can get back to what nature intended-bronze, shiny pinks, and pale gloss on the tips of our fingers, right? And don't forget the glitter and decals.