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I've been watching a lot of TikToks recently and I've been shocked at how many women on there have their nails done. Growing up I've always had a strong "ick" for manicured hands and I remember being grossed out by a cousin who visited my home who had her toenails painted in red. I've always assumed doing one's nails is something uneducated, trashy women do and although I never consciously revisited this assumption, the years I spent in academia definitely did not contain enough notable counterexamples to force me to reexamine it. Am I deluded, or do most other men also find painted nails gross & icky? For years I've always thought that this would be one thing that women do but had no idea how unattractive most men find it. Has there been any study done on the increasing popularity of women painting their nails? Pretty sure the answer is zero lol
It's the exact opposite for me, when I see (rarely, but much more often in the last couple of years) women without nail polish on it immediately sends a negative signal about her. Now if it's a random person on the street I can rationalize a reason for it (busy week, unavailable technician etc), but broadly I see it as an "unkept" signal, not as viscerally disgusting as armpit hair or leg/arm hair which is genuinely disgusting to me, but close to say unironed clothes. Fortunately that's very rare in Eastern Europe as opposed to Western countries. I would genuinely refuse to date a woman who doesn't color her nails. Unpolished nails seem like man hands to me.
I also echo most of you here with a preference for short/shorter nails as opposed to those fake, long and pointy nails with added decorations. I see it as trashy. Unfortunately, you'd see a lot more of these than anything else. But as far as colors go, I would say that I see it as very feminine and youthful when manicures/pedicures have bright colors as opposed to "neutral" ones such as black, beige/nude etc.. Basically, I see nail polish as a signal for not only femininity but also the amount of how much a woman cares about her appearence. I also have developed a pretty good heuristic relating to nail color: muted colors tend to be chosen by quiet, shy women while more colorful choices mean more liveliness, openess to experiences.
I hope I don't sound needlessly antagonizing or offensive when I say this, but I honestly cannot fathom you guys who do not care about nail color. Like even guys who prefer natural nails I can almost understand, as people will have preferences for anything (see armpit hair above) but to not care? That's incomprehensible for me.
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