Birds fans are getting manicures with eagles, Jalen Hurts jerseys, and other intricate designs for the Super Bowl
Nail technicians across the tri-state area report Bird-themed nail requests have been on the rise since the team entered the postseason.
They come round, pointy, bold with glitter and the national bird, or subtle with various green hues. Clickety-clack, Eagles-themed nails are back.
Nail technicians across the tristate area report Birds-themed nail requests have been on the rise since the team entered the postseason, giving artists the opportunity to flex their creative muscles.
Kathy Tran, a tech at Nails at Taormina in Millsboro, Del., said one of her Philly clients asked to go all out on an Eagles acrylic set, with no two nails the same. The finished set includes nails featuring a Jalen Hurts jersey, a football, and a LOVE statue replica.
“Philly is the City of Brotherly Love so I had to incorporate that too,” said Tran. “I didn’t want to just include the eagle. I had to add the LVII and the NFL logo.”
Philadelphia clients going to Raw Lab Spa have also been giving Candice Nguyen creative liberties for her hand-drawn designs that include the Liberty Bell, abstract eagle wings, and glittery kelly green nails. A die-hard Birds fan — she wore an Eagles jersey in her kindergarten school photo — Nguyen has strongly encouraged her clients to avoid combining Valentine’s Day nails with an Eagles theme to avoid looking like they’re rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs.
“[The Super Bowl] is so great for us, get the Super Bowl nails and steer away from the red,” she said. “Valentine’s Day is every year.”
And clients have been pretty receptive.
Sandy Keoboupha, a nail technician at Polish Lounge in Glen Mills, said the business usually sees an uptick in sports-themed requests when a specific team is doing well but one fan base has stood out.
“Eagles fans are really committed,” said Keoboupha, who is now getting up to two Eagles commissions a day as the go-to Birds technician. Outlines of an eagle’s face, footballs, and field goal posts top the list.
Polish Lounge tech Jennifer Khounsacknarath said people of all ages join in on the fun and tend to come in with ideas from the internet.
Still, with strict work guidelines on nails, some customers need to get creative when they rep their teams. This means technicians can play with various color schemes: a kelly green nail here and a brown nail representing a football there.
“Even in the playoffs [clients] get their colors, I think it’s for good luck,” said Monique Beachaump, manager of Brushed Nail Salon in Sewell, N.J. “But they can’t get too much nail art, they don’t want to draw too much attention.”
Obadiah Fuller, a West Philly nail art enthusiast studying to become a nail technician, did a practice acrylic set for herself last week. She opted to leave nothing to ambiguity, spelling out the team name in black fanciful letters with a kelly green border. For her pinky nail, she drew the silhouette of a bald eagle.
The surge of Eagles designs doesn’t surprise Fuller, who said nails are a form of everyday self-expression — you can be as subtle or as obvious as you’d like.
“You can be creative in so many ways, even if it’s green glitter or green art, if it’s designs that go underneath, there’s so many ways to show your support while still maintaining your everyday nails,” said Fuller.