Nail salons give Central Oregonians a place to connect and grow

Before Kasia Moon started her nail salon business, Moonchild Artistry, she was burned out.

She left her job of 10 years as a social worker in 2021 and started looking into nail school at the suggestion of her nail technician. She was a self-described “active nail client.”

“I looked into it and started saving money for it. COVID hit and we got that first stimulus check, and I paid for nail school and decided to enter the beauty industry, mid-pandemic,” Moon said.

Sixteen months into her new career, she and her husband divorced. She said her nail business “100%” made that possible.

Making ends meet in Bend is hard for many people. Sometimes people work two or three jobs to pay their bills. But for nail salon entrepreneurs, this $8.4 billion global industry is helping them thrive in costly Central Oregon. According to Global Market Insights, self-care and wellness trends are driving momentum, along with Gen Z and Millennials embracing nail art, like the kind Moon creates.

Coupled with an increase in disposable income for some, multiple market research firms predict by 2030, the global nail industry will grow by 8%. Recent research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows employment growth in the U.S. nail industry is three times greater than average employment growth, at 12%.

“The money is honey,” Moon said.

Nail salons can help business owners make important life transitions, act as a third space for people to connect outside of work or home, or help people feel more like themselves.

That was the case for Suong Huynh, the principal owner of Three Sisters Nails in Bend. She said owning a salon and living in Bend was her longtime dream. Now, when asked how long she’s been in business, Huynh, 41, recites rapidfire, down to the day.

“Three years, two months and twelve days,” she said.

She said her motivation was to prove her worth to herself and her former bosses, “I can do this,” she said.

Huynh emigrated from Vietnam and is now a naturalized citizen. When she arrived, she said she didn’t know how to speak or write English or even drive a car. She said doing nails was a good option for her at the time.

The memories of her time as an employee brought her to tears. She had a string of bad bosses. She worked nearly nonstop for years saving money, she said.

Huynh started to learn English through television, she paid a tutor to speak with her for two hours a day and eventually when she could afford it, started taking classes at Central Oregon Community College.

The last time her boss yelled at her, she said, was the last time she worked for another person in a salon.

“I want to be free,” she said.

This year, Huynh’s business won two community “best of” awards from local publications, the Source Weekly and the Bend Bulletin.

Asian American people make up 44% of nail technicians in the United States. The 2018 documentary “Nailed It” explored the prevalence and complexities of Vietnamese people working in the nail industry, an industry that is oftentimes exploitative and hazardous.

There is no shortage of nail salons in Bend, and once a person finds a nail tech they like, they follow them from salon to salon. Two women in Three Sisters Nails said they had followed their nail techs from a previous salon. Huynh and Moon said some of their clients even book out a year’s worth of appointments in advance in order to ensure their spot.

Huynh said she loves her business and her clients, they’re like a second family to her. About 90% of her clients are regulars, she said.

Moon, 36, sees almost exclusively regular clients.

“I give gratitude constantly to the people who have stuck by me for the last four years, for all of my new clients, for people who don’t even get their nails done, who recommend me,” she said.

She said people mostly find out about her salon by word of mouth or social media.

Both Moon and Huynh said their clientele is spread throughout Central Oregon and beyond.

Moon said one of her clients travels more than 350 miles from Joseph in Eastern Oregon, to Bend.

“I’m like, girl, I can find you someone closer. I will vet them. I’ll make sure they do everything I do. And she comes to me. It’s super cool,” she added.

Moon is queer and Afro-Latina. She said she works hard to create a space that she would want to be in, while also making sure there’s an environment of non-judgment.

The former social worker said she often acts as therapist or participates in one of her favorite pastimes, chisme, or gossip. Moon said her view on chisme is that it can act as a way to keep people informed of safe spaces.

“That takes a little bit of gossip, that takes a little bit of tea, that takes being an open space for someone to be comfortable enough to say, ‘Hey, this is what happened.’”

Nail salons are often where people come to catch up with friends or connect with others.

As snow started to fall in Bend, two women sat in pedicure chairs at Three Sisters Nails, laughing, sometimes speaking to each other in hushed tones and leaned in close, while Huynh and her employee Sarah Vo massaged their feet.

For Moon, like Huynh, she loves seeing her clients delight in a fresh set of nails and also their ability to embrace their whole selves. Nails, she said, can be a form of gender-affirming care for some people.

“I’ve even done someone’s dead name on one side in black crossed out with red and their new name on the other side,” Moon said.

Cisgender women tell Moon how much more feminine they feel when their nails are done. “I have been told a hundred times over,” she said.

Moon said a manicure, or a set of claws, can also help trans women feel affirmed in their gender identity. But also, there’s space for nonbinary, queer folks and straight cis men to feel “exactly what they want to feel,” when they sit in her chair.

Moon works closely with her colleague and local drag queen MAJESTIC, who runs ALL CAPS Esthetics, a gender-affirming esthetics business in Bend.

“We just get to sit here and come up with cool ways to include everyone and be sassy and be queer-coded and just be ourselves and professionals at the same time,” Moon said.

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