NAILS

114 | NAILS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2016to complete, depending on the student’s aptitude.A la carte nail classes are also a common offering of Vietnamese nail academiesthat target expatriates who visit Vietnam for combination family vacation/educa-tional tourism trips. “Vietnamese-American nail techs will go to Vietnam for oneor two weeks to visit family and learn new nail designs,” Tran says. “You can learn200 designs in a week for a more affordable price than you’d pay to learn fewerdesigns in the United States.”``````TRADESHOWSVietnamese nail techs can also attend beauty tradeshows to learn techniques.The country’s largest beauty trade exhibition is Cosmobeauté Vietnam. Held everyApril in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Cosmobeauté Vietnam will be celebrating its10th anniversary in 2017. In 2016, the three-day show boasted 12,686 attendeesand a record 220 exhibitors.Vu Bryan Nguyen, an international Hand & Nail Harmony educator, works theshow every year in the Hand & Nail Harmony/Gelish booth. Nguyen, who is alsoowner of Pro-Nails & Beauty School in Orlando, Fla., and runs two nail supplydistributorships in New York City, describes the show as just as busy but muchquieter than beauty shows in the United States. He attributes the difference toculture. “Each individual who stops at the booth watches and studies really hardand takes notes,” Nguyen says. “It’s taken very, very seriously. Also, when theywatch me demo, even though they don’t ask questions, they are trying hard tofigure out why I do something a certain way. Because they have a great deal ofrespect for their teachers, they do not want to ask random questions.” Nguyen saysmany attendees have the mindset that if they ask a question, it is disrespecting theteachers’ work — a very different mindset from the American idiom of “there areno dumb questions,” he notes.``````11. The launch of the Vietbeauty 2016 tradeshow is a sign of growth of the Vietnam-ese professional beauty market. 2. Students smile in this graduating class photo fromKelly Pang Nail. Their next step may be to do nails within Vietnam or to relocate toanother country and pursue a career in nails there.92615