Johnson City, Texas. I don’t think about fingernails very much in our part of Texas Hill Country. When I do, it’s mostly about whether one will be lost while I am imitating a person who knows how to use power tools. We don’t see a lot of retail space devoted to fingernails.
Or at least we didn’t, until recently.
The Mani-Pedi Boom
But things change. Now, I’m watching a veritable mani-pedi boom. Trust me, this is weird.
If you aren’t familiar with Texas Hill Country or, worse yet, have never seen the Texas countryside, here are some of the typical places I drive by to get to the nearest supermarket in Dripping Springs:
- Boutwell Steel Co. Perched on a hill just off Highway 290. They can fabricate just about anything. They like to show off their Corten steel designer ranch gates. Very proud of their huge plasma cutting table, too.
- Triple S Feed. A country hardware supply store with parts of all kinds and a drive-thru adjunct where their guys load your truck with feed bags.
- Hill Country Outdoor Power. Tired of messing around with your wimpy little riding mower? Ashamed of your oh-so-delicate electric gizmo that trims your 8-by-8 urban back yard? Drop in here and you can leave with a $17,000 Scag Cheetah II Commercial Zero-Turn, a piece of equipment so heavily built you’ll need to include it in your estate plan. Big engine. Two gas tanks. Moves like a tank.
- Tractor Supply. If there is a fashion leader for country living, it’s here. The latest in bandanas, Carhartt and Wrangler togs. Not to mention Field & Stream T-shirts. You’ll know they’ve gone too far into fashion when they stop keeping cartridges for your back porch gun. I just love the look of a compact box of 22LRs.
But that’s the past.
Sprouting Nails
TipToe Nails appeared in a new Valero gas station/strip mall. Nothing but six-packs and beef jerky at first. It was the closest place to get zero-ethanol gas. You could run your weed whacker and other tools without wrecking the carburetors. (Only available on pumps 13 and 14.)
Now it has a mani-pedi salon and “detailed nail art” is a specialty. The only other retail nearby is a well-drilling establishment, a worn Dollar General store and the beloved El Rey Bar and Grill. It sells a lot of margaritas and a surprising number of huevos divorciados on Sunday after church services.
Then the boom.
In the last few weeks, the Prestige Nail Lounge has opened behind the El Rey, stuffed with vibrating pedicure chairs. Further down highway 290, the huge Zen Nail Lounge has opened near a space once occupied by a promising, but failed, restaurant.
It’s not too far down the road from a well-stocked John Deere dealership and offers a “spacious, non-toxic salon.”
Did America have an unrecognized need for more mani-pedis?
Faster Than Accountants and Auditors (among others)
If the Bureau of Labor Statistics is to be taken seriously, we’re as behind on nail salons as we are on affordable single-family houses.
According to BLS projections of job growth over the next decade, manicurists and pedicurists face a booming job market. Imagine! Seven percent growth over the period, a rate described as “Much faster than average.”
And it really is.
The same BLS study found that all U.S. jobs were expected to grow only 3 percent. That’s less than half as fast as manicurists and pedicurists.
Demand for manicurists, at 7 percent growth, is also expected to exceed the 5 percent growth of registered nurses, the 5 percent growth of accountants and auditors and the 4 percent growth of funeral service workers for the many who won’t make it through the next 10 years.
The real worry here isn’t the growing ubiquity of nail salons. I was going to joke about the developing Nail Cartel, but it turns out to be an actual nail design, the El Chapo Manicure. It was created for women who don’t care what others think.
What does all this mean?
I have no idea except that we’d get a better answer from Dave Barry than from any of the analytical types (e.g., economists and public policy wonks) who insist on believing that our species is rational.
Related columns:
Scott Burns, “The Good Life Is Also A Long Life,” 1/27/2012: https://scottburns.com/the-good-life-is-also-a-long-life/
Scott Burns, “Retirement 2.0: Another Life,” 10/10/2025: https://scottburns.com/retirement-2-0-another-life/
Sources and References:
Bureau of Labor Statistics Data Sources:
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/manicurists-and-pedicurists.htm
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm
Forbees, “El Chapo-Manicure, 07/28/2016 https://www.forbes.com/sites/susannahbreslin/2016/07/28/el-chapo-manicure/
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Photo: With thanks to Lucy Lu, 5/29/26, giving her manicure a hard workout fly fishing in Madison River, Montana
(c) Scott Burns, 2026