Story and Photos by Katie Hamness
MSUM Journalism and Graphic Design
Downtown Fargo is a bit more polished now. Polished Nail Spa opened in June and is located at 102 Broadway. The salon offers manicures, pedicures and nail enhancements, like gel polish, colored acrylic nails and rockstar glitter toes. The simple and modern atmosphere creates a relaxing and inviting environment that anyone can enjoy.
Visit the Polished website here.
A view from inside the salon showcases the modern and comfy décor.
Tom Huynh, the owner of Polished, has been doing nails for 11 years. He opened his first salon more than five years ago and now owns three salons in Fargo, with a fourth that’s run by his family. He’s currently in charge of 24 employees with 92 years of combined experience.
Polished provides worry free services that last and look good
Since the grand opening Polished has continued to stay busy and pamper their clients with top quality services that are creative and durable. During opening week Polished offered free services to its clients. Huynh said his goal was to introduce the downtown clientele to the salon’s exceptional products and services. “We wanted to show people what we can do,” said Huynh. “We wanted to show people that our services are different from everyone else’s.”
Owner, Tom Huynh, schedules appointments for clients even before the salon opens.
Making life easier, especially for women, through worry-free products and services is another reason why Polished is doing well in the downtown area. Their products won’t rub off, get yellow, or lose their shine in between visits to the salon. “Women work just has hard or harder then men do now days,” said Huynh. “So we want to make sure within that 2-3 week period between getting their nails done that they don’t have to worry about anything.”
Staying within the national average for nail prices allows clients to afford the excellent services that Polished provides. Manicures start at $15 and go up to $25 and pedicures start at $30 and go up to $50. Nail enhancement services start at $35 and can go up to $65 depending on the amount of detail and number of colors.
The pedicure tubs at Polished are more hygienic for clients and employees due to stylized jets that are removable for cleaning purposes.
Polished brings three new services to downtown
Through new and creative techniques Polished offers some new services that clients can indulge in. “There are three services we offer that really set us apart and that nobody else around can do because we brought them to Fargo,” said Huynh. “They’ve never seen the things that we’re doing.”
These three services are:
- Colored acrylic
- Rockstar toes
- Gel polish
The colored acrylic services are done inside the nail without using paint or polish and can incorporate multiple colors and designs on one set of nails just by using acrylic. There’s no shortage of colors, since 154 choices are currently available, with more options to come.
More information and examples of colored acrylic can be found here.
A close-up detail shows three different colored acrylic designs that customers can have done.
Rockstar toes are becoming the new craze in pedicure fashion and many more salons around the country are starting to offer this option for clients. For this service, the glitters that are used in the colored acrylics are placed onto toenails without using acrylic or polish. This makes it much thinner then acrylic, but it lasts for up to six weeks.
For more on Rockstar toes click here.
Gel polish is also a new service that Polished offers. They take any color nail polish on the market and use it in a gel polish. This service will last on natural nails up to three weeks. “We’re not limited with colors and that’s a big thing,” said Huynh.
For a video example of one type of gel polish click here.
These color sheets provide customers with 154 choices for colors and glitters.
Education is the key to success
The high standard of quality and creative talent that Polished employees display comes from training done by Huynh. He works with each of the nail technicians personally after they’ve gone to school to do nails professionally. For the first three to four months Huynh trains his technicians one-on-one before they even see a client. “I want to make sure that my nail techs are better then our competition before I start letting them work,” he said.
“Tom is a really good person to learn from,” said Megan Halstenson, an employee at Polished. “He’s great at teaching and you can tell he really loves his job, so that makes it easy to work for him.”
Salon employee, Megan Halstenson, works diligently on Stumbo’s nails.
Employee education isn’t the only type of education that happens at Polished. One thing that makes this salon stand out from all the rest is that they educate their clients on top of doing their nails. “We make sure we tell our clients what they’re getting, what we’re putting on their nails and that everything is perfectly safe,” said Halstenson.
“Their quality and education is really outstanding,” said Joy Stumbo, a longtime client of Huynh.
Clean air and simple décor make Polished stand out
The simple and clean décor welcome guests as soon as they walk through the door. Modern and comfy black and white leather chairs provide the seating for the manicures and pedicures. The salon provides a relaxing and noise-free environment for customers by only having four manicure stations and four pedicure chairs. Soothing music also plays to further relax clients and surrounds them in the ambiance of the salon.
The fresh and crisp air may be something customers aren’t used to when sitting in a salon, but the exhaust air system that’s installed in Polished is the newest and latest technology. It keeps the air extremely clean and clear from harmful chemicals. “It’s like being outside,” said Halstenson. “When it’s turned on you can almost feel a breeze.”
Shown above is the high-tech exhaust system inside the salon. Each manicure and pedicure station is set up with its own personal vent to prevent fumes and clean the air.
“There’s always been lots of opportunity downtown and I think Broadway is getting better and better,” said Stumbo. “Having a nail salon downtown is very convenient and really exciting!”
Outstanding education, a comfortable atmosphere, clean, fresh air and creative and durable services all come together to create an exceptional salon in downtown Fargo.
The outside of Polished mimics the inside’s modern atmosphere and catches customer’s attention from across the street.
Get pampered. Get pretty. Get polished.
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