So, I'm an Aircraft Mechanic. I work with my hands all the time. I also work on my hot rod a lot. I am just a hands-on guy, it's what I do. I frequently ignore the health of my hands, and more importantly my fingers. My knuckles are frequently busted, and holy crap my nails. Oh my God, my nails.

I wish I had a picture of how bad my fingernails were. The cuticles, mainly. They were horrendous! I'm talking like blood almost every day if I grabbed something wrong, because the day prior I was working on something and tore into a cuticle or something. I'm just rough on my hands, what can I say. It's been that way my whole life, so I've always just managed; bleeding is expected, ugly cuticles, ugly nails expected. It's life.

Until yesterday! So last Saturday I'm on a date with this girl. She tells me that she pampers herself once a month to a manicure, a massage, and a hair appointment. I tell her "yeah my nails are pretty bad." She shows me her nails to talk about how bad they are, bullshit, they're perfect. I show her mine, and she's damn near horrified. She can't believe how bad my nails look. Before this she's talking about how suave I was getting her number, how she couldn't believe how smooth I am, how well taken care of I look, etc. When she looks at my nails, it's 100% different, she tells me I need to do better. Thanks, girl! My ego wasn't hurt one bit, I was glad that an attractive girl was telling me honest things. This is a good thing!

So yesterday I'm out with my brother. I call my ex-wife and ask her where to go for a manicure (I do this to piss her off, because I never used to take care of myself THIS much, and she fucking hates that I am now). She sends me to this place, and I ask for a manicure.

Dude, I can't tell you how fucking amazing having a manicure is. The whole time I was relaxed and loving what was happening to my fingers. I can't put into words how relieving this whole thing was. And the best part? $15.00! No shit, fifteen bucks cured years of neglect.

Seriously though, my nails look a thousand times better. Even if my fingers weren't all fucked up, it would have been worth it to get a manicure.

I will now be getting a manicure once a month. It's amazing. I feel like my hands are attractive now.

Today I went to Ulta (the chick's beauty place) and got a pair of $10 nail clippers (trust me, they're fucking worth it, if your nail clippers weren't at least $10, then they're worthless), some cuticle oil (to moisturize my cuticles so this shit wont happen again), and a nail file. I also got some nice Aveeno hand lotion just for safe measure.

I'm serious, guys, if you haven't had a manicure before, then I cannot suggest enough for you to go treat yourself to it. You'll see what I mean when you do it. You'll love the result. Too, us being men and being able to teach ourselves to do shit by watching. Watch the chick do your nails and you'll pick up on some things you can do yourself to maintain them properly. Like how she files, how she deals with the cuticles, everything.

Do it! It's amazing, it makes your hands more attractive, and it's cheap!