MANICURING LANDSCAPES: A CASE STUDY OF VIETNAMESE OWNED NAIL SALONS IN TORONTO

TINA MUCCI

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN GEOGRAPHY YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO

Septem ber 2012

©Tina Mucci, 2012 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada

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This study examines the micro-space of the Vietnamese-owned nail salon in Toronto. The Vietnamese nail salon has appeared in the Toronto streetscape, located in almost every strip mall plaza within the Greater Toronto Area. Identified by the fluorescent signage that reads, “nails” and “spa” the Vietnamese have carved a niche within the beauty industry offering a space where men and women can enjoy a quick and inexpensive manicure and pedicure. Traditionally, the beauty salon is a space where men and women can build relationships with their service provider and visit the same person each time they require a service. The participants in this study reveal how the Vietnamese nail salon is an impersonal space that resembles an assembly line. The study is made up of three main groups: Vietnamese nail salon owners, Vietnamese nail technicians and salon customers. I conducted fifteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews with participants and visited approximately fifty nail salons from different locations across the GTA. The key issues revealed in this research are performance, frontstage and backstage, and how these practices are rationalized by nail salon owners, nail technicians and customers. Acknowledgements

Thank you to the participants in this study who shared their time, stories and opinions with me. I owe a lot to my supervisor, Lisa Drummond, for her support, expertise and guidance throughout this research. Thank you to Alison Bain for joining my committee and assisting with this study as well as Stephanie Ross for her recommendations and assistance. Many thanks to my friends in the. Geography Department who have encouraged me and listened to my ideas. Thank you to my parents, brothers, family and friends who supported me especially, my husband, CJ for helping me with this project and for always being loving, patient and supportive. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract...... i Acknowledgements...... ii Table of Contents...... iii

Chapter One: Introduction...... 1 Vietnamese Immigration and Entry into the Nail Salon Business...... 6 The Vietnamese Nail Salon in Popular Culture...... 9 The Social Construction of the Vietnamese Nail Salon ...... 18

Chapter Two: Investigating the Social Construction of the Vietnamese Nail Salon 21 Methodology...... 21 Literature Review...... 28

Chapter Three: The Vietnamese Nail Salon Owners ...... 43 Introduction: Creating a Unique Space...... 43 “We are a family business. This is our home”...... 44 “Nail Salon work is a Vietnamese thing”...... 47 “You don’t need English to start your own salon”...... 50 “The only thing I have to do to train my employees is teach them how to talk to customers”...... 52 “Everything in this salon is Vietnamese”...... 57 Conclusion...... 60

Chapter Four: The Vietnamese Nail Technicians Introduction: The Production Side of the Vietnamese Nail Salon Space...... 62 “Nail work is better than hotel work”...... 62 “People come here because they know we are Vietnamese”...... 65 “Speaking English is not part of the job, but touching people is”...... 67 “We don’t want to scare our customers with our Vietnamese”...... 69 “Some of the nail techs don’t want to talk and they can come across as being cold”...... 71 Conclusion...... ,,,,...73

Chapter Five: Nail Salon Customers Introduction: Changing the way Beauty Services are Consumed...... 75 “I automatically associate nail salons with Asians”...... 76 “Sometimes I feel like an outsider when they speak Vietnamese the whole time”...... 78 “I know speaking in Vietnamese is part of the culture, even if it makes me feel uncomfortable at times”...... 83 “If I don’t like one nail salon, I can easily go to the other”...... 85 “I only visit Vietnamese salons because of convenience”...... 87 Conclusion ...... 90

Chapter Six: Conclusion...... 92

Bibliography...... 100

Appendix A...... 103 Manicuring Landscapes: A Case Study of the Vietnamese-Owned Nail Salon In Toronto

Chapter 1 - Introduction

A shy Vietnamese woman dressed in a stark white lab coat leads me to a plain worktable illuminated by a harsh fluorescent light. Another Vietnamese woman sits patiently waiting for me to sit down as she cracks a tentative smile barely visible behind her white mask. This unremarkable environment is the domain o f Vietnamese workers, who toil away alongside persistently humming machines while wearing lab coats and protective masks that shield them from the acrylic dust wafting through the air. The strict, industrial-like atmosphere is punctuated by the sound o f the Vietnamese supervisor barking orders at her minions, as though she's overseeing an assembly line. No, I ’m not in a factory in Vietnam. I ’m at a nail salon in Toronto.

The Vietnamese nail salon has become a ubiquitous component of the Toronto landscape.

Vietnamese nail salons have built a reputation for providing a distinctive experience that separates them from all other spas and salons. Customers of these businesses have come to expect a fast-paced and impersonal environment. Workers perform quickly to serve as many customers as possible. The Vietnamese nail salon is a severe contrast to the archetypal beauty salon experience portrayed in pop culture, where women can spend entire afternoons gossiping with their service providers and fellow patrons.

This thesis investigates the Vietnamese nail salon space and the groups of individuals that make up this space. Through an analysis of fifteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews and the stories, experiences and opinions that are expressed and recounted, I will examine the impact that Vietnamese nail salon owners, nail technicians and customers have on the social space of the salon. Moreover, this case study examines how Vietnamese nail salons

1 are socially constructed as a micro-space that consists of embodied and emotional workplace performances. The social construction of the Vietnamese nail salon takes place through a staged performance, the geographies of display and interaction. In the next chapter I will further discuss these concepts in the literature review section. In Chapter 3,

I will discuss the perspectives of the nail salon owners and how they practice the ‘front stage’ and ‘backstage’ concepts. Chapter 4 considers the viewpoint of the experiences that the nail technicians have in the Vietnamese nail salon environment. In Chapter 5 ,1 will discuss the perspective of the customers and show how the customers are not always aware that they are visiting a Vietnamese nail salons, but an ‘Asian’ salon for the benefits of convenience and price. Chapter 6 offers a brief conclusion to the thesis summarizing perspectives on the social construction of the Vietnamese nail salon.

The Vietnamese nail salon both describes a specific building and refers to a specific form of work. It is uncertain where the term ‘nail salon’ first appeared. In fact, there is little documentation of when and where the nail salon first originated in North America. The nail salon in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is an interesting space and has a very specific social construction that is predominately made up of Vietnamese workers and filled with diverse customers. Vietnamese nail salons in Toronto have become an omnipresent part of the city’s streetscape, popping up in almost every strip mall plaza.

Their often gaudy fluorescent signage and animated pictures plastered on their front doors beckon people to come inside.

2 The Vietnamese nail salon is a growing industry, poised to dominate the wider esthetic industry in Canada in the near future. This burgeoning segment even has its own niche trade publication in the United States called VietSalon, pictured below.

Image taken from: http://www.viet-salon.com/pastIssues/issue.aspx?iid=17 . Accessed 07/12/2010.

Vietnamese nail salons in Toronto boast an almost exclusive culture. They even have their own nail salon schools, which are operated in Vietnamese. The salons have their own Vietnamese suppliers who assist Vietnamese professionals wanting to start up their own nail salons. Vietnamese nail salons are a multimillion-dollar industry, according to the owner of nail salon supplier, Classique Nails & Esthetics Distributor, who estimates that the segment brings in $5 million in annual sales (Marlin, 2009).

3 Unlike the traditional beauty salon, in Vietnamese nail salons, nail technicians work very quickly and in an efficient, orderly manner like an assembly line to serve as many customers as possible. I discuss this distinction further below, where I juxtapose pop culture images of the traditional beauty salon and contemporary nail salon. Salon workers communicate to each other predominantly in Vietnamese. They tend to work at stations that look like sewing tables, performing tasks that have been described as “the type of work that seems anything but glamorous” (Willet, 2005: 60). Unlike traditional salons, where customers are expected to call ahead and book appointments with specific employees, customers can walk into a Vietnamese nail salon at any time without an appointment and receive service from any nail technician. While it is common for customers to build exclusive relationships with specific technicians at traditional salons, this is not the case at the impersonal Vietnamese salons. This makes it easier for customers to show up without appointments, since they could see whichever technician is available at that time instead of a specific employee. The Vietnamese nail salon is designed to be quick and convenient rather than a luxurious indulgence. Clearly there is a demand for this new approach to the salon business. The Vietnamese nail salon is a space that is constantly busy; workers move as quickly as they can to get through the long queues of customers waiting by the front door.

4 This image is an example of Vietnamese nail technicians working as if on an assembly line. Image taken from: http://evolvingwellness.com/posts/120/nail- salon-health-risks/. Accessed 12/08/2009.

Vietnamese nail salons serve a niche market in that they focus on providing low-priced manicures and pedicures, rather than offering a full suite of hair and spa services as in most traditional salons. An article taken fromThe Toronto Star observes that, “[b]ack in

1993, manicures and pedicures - offered by hair and full-service beauty salons - were priced up to $70, out of the reach of most middle-class Canadians, except for special occasions” (Marlin, 2009: 1). Today, the full-service beauty salon ranges from $80 to

$120 for services such as manicures and pedicures. Vietnamese nail salons offer their professional services for as low as $15 for a manicure and $35 for a pedicure. Vietnamese nail salons are constantly evolving and innovating to stay competitive. For instance, some have begun offering more services such as waxing, eyelash extensions, threading and paraffin treatments, extending into the domain of the traditional beauty salon. While traditional spas are still largely the domain of women, the no-frills Vietnamese nail salon has attracted men and women from different cultural backgrounds and of all ages looking to have their hands and feet groomed.

Vietnamese Immigration and Entry into the Nail Salon Business

The Vietnamese entry in the nail salon trade began with Vietnamese immigration to

Canada. Vietnamese communities began to emerge when they began arriving in Canada in the mid 1970s and early 1980s as refugees following the end of the Vietnam War. The first arrival of Vietnamese people dates back to 1950. Most of the Vietnamese that were arriving in Canada then were students studying in Canadian colleges and universities

(Vietnamese Canadian Federation, (n.d.). About Us. Retrieved from http://www.vietfederation.ca). France’s colonial involvement led Vietnamese people to arrive in Quebec and study in cities such as Ottawa where bilingualism is encouraged. A

CBC news article recounted that many Vietnamese refugees came to Canada and were sponsored by churches, shelters and corporations and many Vietnamese communities ended up in cities such as Toronto and Montreal. The Canadian government at the time decided that the number of Vietnamese refugees brought to Canada would be dependent on public support; therefore, government officials decided that for every privately sponsored refugee, the government would also sponsor families into Canada. This support brought in over 50,000 Vietnamese people in the mid 1970s and early 1980s

(CBC Archives, 1979). For instance, in June 1979, initiatives like the one organized by a

York University philosophy professor called ‘The Campaign to Save the Boat People’ in

6 the Toronto-area federal riding of St. Paul’s brought over more than fifty families in nine days (CBC Archives, 1979).

Most Vietnamese arriving in this period were refugees or “boat people” who arrived after the end of the Vietnam War. According to the Vietnamese Canadian Federation, the first wave of approximately 6,000 Vietnamese people settled in Canada after the fall of the

Republic of Vietnam in April 1979 (Vietnamese Canadian Federation, (n.d.).About Us.

Retrieved from http://www.vietfederation.ca ). This second wave of Vietnamese people arriving in Canada consisted of ‘boat people’ and there were approximately 50,000

Vietnamese people arriving in Canada between 1979 and 1980. The ‘boat people’ were a diverse group of people: they came from a variety of social classes, both urban and rural and most did not speak English or French. These factors led to challenges trying to settle in Canada. Today, the largest groups of Vietnamese immigrants have settled in Toronto,

Montreal and Vancouver ("Vietnamese Boat People." n.d.).

In 1996, Statistics Canada reported that the Vietnamese population in Toronto was

33,425. By 2006, the Vietnamese community was one of the largest non-European ethnic groups in Canada. There are over 150,000 Vietnamese people living in Canada today, including the 55,625 Vietnamese people living in the Greater Toronto Area (Statistics

Canada, 2006). The chart below is provides a breakdown of the Vietnamese population in the Greater Toronto Area and also shows the areas that I researched in this study which were Toronto, Mississauga and Vaughan.

7 Table 1 - The Vietnamese population in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Source: Statistics Canada, 2006

Cities within the Greater Ethnic Origin: 2006 Census Population Toronto Area Vietnamese Population in for the Greater Toronto urban and suburban Area regions of the GTA (in thousands) (in thousands)

Pickering 145 87,800 Ajax 265 90,220 Whitby 220 111,190 Oshawa 140 141,580 Clarington 10 77,800 Scugog 0 21,440 Uxbridge 0 19,170 Brock 0 11,990 Vaughan 3,990 238,805 Markham 1,585 261,610 Richmond Hill 945 162,690 Whitchurch-Stouffville 35 24,390 Aurora 150 47,620 Newmarket 760 74,225 King 15 19,500 East Gwillimbury 20 21,080 Georgina 35 42,355 Toronto 29,880 2,492,785 Mississauga 11,800 667,800 Brampton 4,080 433,145 Caledon 70 57,060 Oakville 735 165,710 Burlington 555 164,380 Milton 150 53,920 Halton Hills 40 55,245 Vietnamese Population in 55,625 5,543,510 the Greater Toronto Area Total

8 A Statistics Canada survey reported that 65 percent of Canadians of Vietnamese origin feel a strong sense of belonging to their new home (Lindsay, Statistics Canada, 2007).

The number of Vietnamese people living in some of Canada’s major cities has changed the way the urban streetscape looks today, explaining in part why Vietnamese nail salons appear in almost every Toronto-area strip mall plaza. According to Statistics Canada, there are approximately 15,883 beauty salons in Canada.1 In Ontario alone, there are

6,190 beauty salons, including nail salons and hair salons. Given the growth of beauty salons in Ontario, professional industry magazines and publications have emerged over the years. For instance, nail salon industry magazines such as the US-basedVietsalon have had a large influence in the Canadian context for providing a space for Vietnamese nail salon professionals to share ideas, tips and different ways of operating their business.

The Vietnamese Nail Salon in Popular Culture

The Vietnamese nail salon seems to have come almost out of nowhere to near ubiquity in the urban landscape, particularly of Toronto, even appearing in popular culture.

Traditional beauty salons, too, have appeared in popular culture, and the differences in the way the two spaces are represented foreshadow some of the issues raised in the interviews I conducted for this study.

1 Statistics Canada does not record separate figures for nail salons.

9 According to Vietsalon, the history of Vietnamese nail salons began with the encouragement of actress and former model, Tippi Hedren, best known for her role in

Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. Hedren introduced the Vietnamese community to the nail salon business in the United States. Hedren’s trademark was perfectly manicured hands.

She was often seen in films and magazine covers with polished shiny nails (Schlesigner,

2011), as seen in the image below.

Image of Tippi Hedren: http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Tippi-Hedren- Posters_i7817297_.htm Accessed 01/01/12.

In 1975, Hedren traveled to Vietnam and sponsored twenty Vietnamese refugees to come

to the United States to attend beauty schools in California so they could learn how to

work for themselves (Schlesinger, 2011). In the summer of 2011, Hedren was honoured

by the Vietnamese American Association for starting up Vietnamese nail salons in

America. She was given an award for her humanitarian work assisting the Vietnamese

10 community and for building their reputation in the beauty industry. Hedren’s influence has provided the Vietnamese nail salon with opportunities for growth and popularity and she has been named by several bloggers as the “Godmother of Vietnamese nail salons.”

Vietnamese nail salons have also entered into the lexicon of popular culture. MadTV sketch comedian Anjelah Johnson is well-known for her portrayals of the Vietnamese nail salon experience. The stand-up comedy performances take place in United States and were shown on Canadian cable networks. In the skit, Johnson, who is not Vietnamese and therefore an ‘outsider’ of the nail salon experience, parodies a Vietnamese nail technician using an exaggerated Vietnamese accent. Below is an example of one of her sketches:

Anjelah: Any of you ladies get your nails done? Nice, I go to this place with my sister called Beautiful N ail... As soon as I walk in they [Vietnamese salon workers] greet me right away. Anjelah as a nail tech:Hi honey, what can I do for you today? How’s your mom? Anjelah: Oh my God, do you know my mom? She’s really good, thanks for asking. Can I get a manicure please? Anjelah as a nail tech:Ok honey, do you like pedicure too? Anjelah: Umm, no, just a manicure, thanks. Anjelah as a nail tech:Honey, why you don’t like? Pedicure make you look nice, it’s so sexy, it’s better for you. Anjelah: Oh ok, I’ll get a pedicure to then, thank you. Anjelah as nail tech:Its ok honey, sit down, number six, Mi Ling she do good job for you only $20 more, it’s ok. Sit down. [Anjelah pretends to speak to an imaginary Mi Ling in her version of the Vietnamese language. The MadTV audience laughs hysterically].

2 In Chapters 3 and 4 some participants reflect on the influence that Vietnamese Americans have on the Canadian nail salon industry.

11 Anjelah Johnson imitates a Vietnamese nail technician doing nails during her skit on MadTV. This skit can be found on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wlsTg2MCHg Accessed 02/10/09.

Johnson’s depiction of the Vietnamese nail salon struck a chord with many audiences, many of whom have visited a nail salon and can relate to the situations she lampoons.

The conversation she has with her “nail tech” in the sketch outlined above demonstrates the impersonal relationship typical of many Vietnamese nail salons. Although there is still a sense of customer service, Johnson pokes fun at the relationship between the

Vietnamese workers and the customers because the interaction comes across as forced, superficial and commercially-driven, causing customers to feel insecure. Johnson also highlights another factor that contributes to customers feeling insecure, which is the fact that Vietnamese workers speak to each other in Vietnamese, leaving customers to wonder what they are saying.

12 Johnson’s skit depicts an experience in sharp contrast to that of the traditional beauty salon as represented in movies such asLegally Blonde (2001). la Legally Blonde, actress

Reese Witherspoon plays Elle Woods, an aspiring Harvard law student who strives to win back the heart of her ex-boyfriend. In one scene, Elle is bedridden, distraught over her break-up. Her friends arrive to cheer her up, and announce: “What makes us feel better no matter what?” The next scene displays the door of a nail salon. In the nail salon, Elle builds an intimate relationship with her nail technician by sharing her troubles and soliciting her advice. The movie portrays the nail technician as a trusted confidante, the exact opposite experience of that imitated by Johnson in her MadTV skit. Below is a still of Elle receiving a manicure from her nail technician taken from the movie,Legally

Blonde.

Reese Witherspoon, right, from the movieLegally Blonde (2001). Image taken from: http://www.imdb.eom/media/rm3795490816/tt0250494. Accessed 10/12/09.

13 The traditional beauty salon as depicted inLegally Blond has a long cultural history. The term ‘beauty salon’, also commonly known as beauty shops or beauty parlours, conjures images of an integral component of a woman’s social life, a place where women go to socialize, pass time and catch up on local gossip (Willet, 2000). The archetypal beauty salon was part of the local community and considered a female space dominated by the sound of whirring hairdryers and gossiping housewives. Men, on the other hand, were relegated to their own spaces such as barbershops, where they could socialize with peers and chat about local issues, sports and business.

Often a beauty salon was located in the back of a barbershop (Willet, 2000). Women and men had their distinct spaces for grooming, but ultimately, the beauty salon was traditionally “a place where women could enjoy the company of other women, ... cherish female companionship, exchange information, share secrets and either temporarily escape or collectively confront their problems and heartaches” (Willet, 2000:

3). Beauty salon workers would provide professional and personal assistance to serve the larger community and meet the requests of their clients, allowing the beauty salon, like the barbershop, to become an “institution vital to culture, community formation and social change” (Willet, 2000: 3).

The beauty salon has been around since the start of the First World War and primarily catered to wealthier women. Over the years, changes in fashion and technology have popularized the notion of having a beauty professional perform beauty services. More

14 and more women began to set up shop in the private spaces of their homes, while some beauty workers attracted customers door-to-door. Many barbershops also began catering to women’s needs to increase their profits (Willet, 2000). Numerous hairdressers in particular began to recognize the demand for women to have their own spaces, beyond the back of a barbershop. Beauty salons catering exclusively to women began to appear in every neighbourhood. Women would visit the beauty salon to get their hair and nails done, as well as to gossip and converse with women in their communities. The beauty salon was part of the fabric of the community because it offered women a chance to meet with other women, including the beauty salon professional who became a confidante, friend and trusted advisor. The traditional beauty salon still exists today and offers services such as hair cutting, styling and colouring. Many traditional beauty salons also offer other services, such as manicures and pedicures. Previously, these were part of women’s everyday beauty routines and performed by not only the hairdresser or hairstylist but also the manicurist.

As with the hairstylist, the customer would often build a rapport with a specific manicurist, and request to see that same person on a regular basis. The manicurist in beauty salons or beauty parlours was the regular go-to person and an important figure in women’s lives. This is evident in the popular “Madge the Manicurist” Colgate-Palmolive commercials, which aired between 1969 and 1992 and began to define the role of the manicurist in popular culture. Colgate-Palmolive adapted global versions of the concept, giving each country its own version of Madge. The commercials are set in theSalon East

15 Beauty Parlor, where women sought Madge’s ability to make their hands soft and smooth. Her secret, of course, was pre-soaking all of her clients’ hands in Palmolive’s dish washing liquid. She told all of her patrons that “Palmolive.. .softens your hands while you do the dishes.” In almost every Palmolive commercial featuring Madge, an intimate and personal relationship or bond between the customer and the manicurist was formed. The dialogue outlined below from a 1970 commercial is typical of the Madge series:

Client: Madge, why did you decide to become a manicurist? Madge: Oh, the usual reasons: romance, money, thirst for power. And when I see your hands, I wish I were a nurse! Client: Dishwashing, Madge. Madge: Use Palmolive dishwashing liquid. Softens your hands while you do the dishes. Client: Pretty green. Madge: You’re soaking in it. Client: In dishwashing liquid? Madge: Palmolive. Client: Mild then. Madge: Oh more than just mild. [Two weeks later] Client: Madge, that Palmolive liquid of yours, I’m simply in love with it. Madge: What? Does your husband know about this?

16 Image taken from the original Palmolive commercial: http://www.tvacres.com/admascots madee.htm. Accessed 10/12/09 This episode can also be viewed on Youtube http://www.voutube.com/watch?v= bEkq7JCbik

The photo and dialogue displayed above represent the type of intimacy involved in getting a manicure. The conversation between the manicurist and the customer is intimate, and their relationship is based on sharing secrets and advice on how to delicately care for a woman’s hands using Palmolive. Madge has clearly developed a friendly relationship with her client, as illustrated when the client returns two weeks later and Madge jokingly asks “does your husband know about this?” The character Madge demonstrates how close the archetypal relationship between a client and her manicurist can be, as Madge holds her client’s hands, divulges secrets and jokes in a familiar manner. Similarly, Elle Woods inLegally Blonde (2001) also demonstrates the close relationship she develops with her manicurist by sharing secrets, gossiping and often turning to the manicurist for support and advice.

17 On the other hand, Anjelah Johnson’s skit about her experience in the Vietnamese nail salon communicates a different message. Johnson demonstrates that she can get the same service offered by Madge and received by Elle in the traditional beauty salon but one that is focused on a quick, convenient and impersonal type of experience. My exploration of

Tippi Hendren, Anjelah Johnson, Legally Blonde and Madge the Manicurist suggest not only that nail salons have become a unique part of the urban landscape across North

America, but also that the Vietnamese nail salon is a distinct kind of space that requires investigation.

The Social Construction of the Vietnamese Nail Salon

The traditional beauty salon and the Vietnamese nail salon are two distinct micro-spaces, which are “spaces of interaction among people and nodes” (Ettlinger, 2003: 146). Both spaces offer the same services but the provision model has diverges significantly, contrasting one based on personal relationships and familiarity with one based on an impersonal, ‘factory-like’ system. The main focus of this thesis is to explore the socio- spatial construction of the Vietnamese nail salon. I consider the Vietnamese nail salon as a new social space since the Vietnamese salon operators have transformed the way traditional beauty salons operate. The unique Vietnamese nail salon culture is characterized by its distinctive relationships between nail salon owners, nail salon technicians and customers. Participants in this study of nail salons in the Toronto (GTA) suggest that the primary factors that set Vietnamese nail salons apart from traditional

18 salons are language barriers, communication and feelings of trust and comfort in the relationship between the nail technicians and their customers. The nail salon is unique because it is so closely tied to the experiences and perspectives that the people who make up this space bring in from different places. As the backgrounds of the people operating and working in these salons change, this new social space transforms.

In the next chapter I outline my research methodology and offer a discussion of the key theoretical issues relevant to this study. In Chapter 3 ,1 introduce the Vietnamese nail salon owners. They provide insight into their choices for starting up nail salons and some of the challenges and benefits of owning their own business. They explain how the nail salon is a space where they can communicate in Vietnamese and enjoy the comforts of managing and hiring family members and friends. Some of the major themes that emerge from this chapter are they way salon owners train and control their workers through a script and staged performance. They teach their employees what to say and how to act in front of customers in an attempt to make customers feel comfortable in the nail salon space. The Vietnamese nail salon owners explain their belief for training the nail technicians with what to say and do as guidance to advancing in their profession and help them overcome the challenges of being a nail technician.

In Chapter 4, the nail technicians are introduced. They explain the challenges and advantages of working in a Vietnamese-owned nail salon. The nail technicians’ challenges mainly stem from the language and cultural barriers that exist between

19 themselves as service providers and their customers. The nail technicians discuss the advantages of being able to speak Vietnamese to other workers in the salon, since many nail technicians thought that their main challenge was their English speaking skills. In this chapter, the main theme that is the embodied interaction that the job of the nail technician entails. This type of service work is interactive yet there is little verbal interaction involved when it comes to providing service.

The customers, the final group who make up social construction of the Vietnamese nail salon, are introduced in Chapter 5. The customers discuss their reasons for visiting the salon and their feelings of insecurity and trust during those visits. Another common theme that emerges from this chapter is that customers associate nail salons with Asian people and discuss their association of service work with this racialized group. Finally, in

Chapter 6 ,1 offer some conclusions regarding how these three groups come together to socially produce this distinctive space, which is now such an ubiquitous feature of the

Toronto landscape.

20 Chapter 2 - Investigating the Social Construction of the Vietnamese Nail Salon

In this chapter, I introduce the methodology used to investigate the social construction of the Vietnamese nail salon, which I will explain in the next section. Later in the chapter, the literature review, I discuss from a geographical perspective how geographers have described micro-spaces such as restaurants, beauty salons and night clubs, to name a few.

Methodology

Participant Recruitment and Sources o f Data

To investigate the social construction of the Vietnamese nail salon, I interviewed members of the three groups that populate this space. Thus, I conducted fifteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews with nail salon customers, nail salon owners and nail technicians. To begin, I created a directory of all the beauty salons listed in the Toronto phone book, online business directories such as http://www.411 .ca and http://www.21 l.ca, and speaking with online telephone operators from these companies who helped me discover more salons.3 The 411 operator also explained that not all beauty salons or small family businesses would list their business in the phone book or directory because they just do not feel the need to do so. Furthermore, Vietnamese-owned nail salons have names that are similar to non-Vietnamese-owned nail salons so they are difficult to identify by just looking through a 411 directory. As a result, the process I used

3 One particular operator from 411 spent over an hour on the phone with me providing tips on how to use the search engine on the 411 web site. This proved to be very helpful because each time I searched terms such as ‘beauty salon,’ ‘nails and spa,’ ‘Vietnamese spa,’ and ‘day spa,’ for instance, a new nail salon or beauty salon appeared in the search results.

21 to locate Vietnamese-owned nail salons proved to be beneficial as I was able to identify a large number of these salons, which are an invisible population.

Next, I began to call each salon on the broad list of Toronto-area salons I compiled, asking if it was a nail salon and, if so, whether it was Vietnamese-owned. From there, I began visiting the Vietnamese-owned salons to see if they would participate in this study.

I would visit the salons on the weekdays and during the daytime when there were fewer customers around. The salon workers explained to me that the weekends were their busiest time so visiting during the day provided me with the right amount of time to speak with the participants. Nail salons were accessible by public transit but I often drove to the salons since it saved me time and was more convenient, especially when visiting nail salons in the suburbs where transit is more infrequent than in the inner city. Using a vehicle to get to the nail salons also provided me with more time to speak with participants. The rest of the salons were discovered through snowball sampling (word of mouth). Regardless of whether the salon owners, workers or customers decided to participate in the study, I asked them who their competition was or who else they knew owned a nail salon and then visited that salon. I visited approximately fifty nail salons from different locations across the GTA. Many interview requests were refused, in part because Vietnamese salon owners were suspicious of me as the researcher. They thought that I was a government worker or working for another Vietnamese salon trying to copy their ideas. The map below displays all the beauty salons in the Greater Toronto Area,

22 including Vietnamese-owned nail salons. The Vietnamese salons that participated in this study were located in Vaughan, Toronto and Mississauga neighbourhoods.4

Figure 1: Beauty Salon Businesses in the Greater Toronto Area (Each yellow dot represents a beauty salon)

Source: Statistics Canada, 2006. Map by Joe Mucci

In addition to visiting these various neighbourhoods for interviews with Vietnamese nail salon workers, I approached customers as they walked out of several salons and asked if they were willing to meet with me to do an interview about their experience in the

Vietnamese nail salon. The interviews were not recorded, as all participants in this study

4 Vietnamese nail salons are located both downtown and in suburban areas. Given the small sample size, comparing downtown to the suburbs was not a feature of this research. The overall impression, however, was similarity rather than difference between uptown and downtown.

23 were not comfortable with me using a voice recorder. Instead, the interviews were hand written as word-for-word notes.

Another source of data was local newspapers in the US and Toronto that have reported on

Vietnamese nail salon services. Furthermore, I searched several beauty salon blogs, particularly those dedicated to Vietnamese nail salon workers and customers.51 expanded my sources of data by also considering similar situations, programs and publications available in popular culture and the media. Doing so allowed me to fully grasp the popularity and significance of the beauty salon and specifically the Vietnamese nail salon space.

Interview Process

Participants in this study were required to sign a consent form that stated that any participation or involvement in the study was voluntary and that they could withdraw from the interview at any time. Interviews took approximately two to three hours and covered a variety of topics tailored to each of the following three groups: nail salon owners, nail salon workers and customers. The nail salon owners were all Vietnamese, both men and women although only five owners agreed to participate in this study. The nail salon owners answered questions surrounding the history of the establishment, their

5 The blogs I visited included: Viet Salon Voice (http://blogs.nailsmag.com/vietvoice/), beautytech.info (http://beautytechinfo.wordpress.com/), The Purple Pinkie Nail Salon (http://thepurplepinkienailsalon.blogspot.ca/), The Nail Spa Blog (http://www.dienailspablog.com/) and I Love Nail Polish (http ://www.ilovenailpolish.ca/).

24 relationship with their employees and barriers and achievements owning their own business (see Appendix A).

Discussions with nail salon workers included inquiries about their skills and experience, their workspace and environment and their relationship to their customers and coworkers.

They also expressed their shyness when it came to their English language speaking skills; however, they were able to maintain conversations with me and with their customers.

Customers were also asked questions surrounding the nail salon environment, as well as their beauty service consumption habits. The questions and topics acted as a guide for me as the interviewer to follow; however, participants were encouraged to share other information or anecdotes about their experiences that I could then ask follow-up questions about.

I became a participant observer of this workplace (Crang, 1994) because my research draws on experiences I was having as a customer. I observed a workplace from the perspective of someone receiving a service. In fact, some participants in this study agreed to partake in this study only if I was a customer having a service performed such as a manicure or pedicure. This agreement allowed me to fully experience the nail salon space from the perspective of the customer, which is an important group in this study. In one instance, I asked if I could get a job working in the nail salon, but language proved to be

25 a barrier, as speaking Vietnamese is required to work in these particular salons.6 As a customer and researcher I was able to converse with the nail technician or nail salon owners in a comfortable environment; however, in some instances I brought a

Vietnamese translator, who was also a friend, to assist with overcoming any language barriers. The translator was beneficial in one interview with a Vietnamese nail technician; however, some participants were very suspicious of the translator and stated that they were worried that she owned a nail salon and was stealing their customers and/or their ideas.

Suspicion o f the Researcher

Securing interviews was a difficult task because many nail salon owners were suspicious that I was working for the government, either as a tax collector or as an inspector from the Toronto Public Health Department. It is well known in the United States that

Vietnamese nail salons often go out of business because of claims that these salons practice poor hygiene. Some local newspapers, blogs and televised reports from local news stations mention how professionally trained nail technicians, particularly the Asian salon workers, tend to neglect sterilizing cutting tools, brushes or towels, which increases the risk of contracting infections on the hands and feet. The image below is an example of a local news station reporting on the health risks of visiting a Vietnamese nail salon.

6 Chapters 3 and 4 further explain the barriers and challenges for the three groups, including the researcher, in the nail salon space.

26 Image taken from: http://www. voutube.com/watch?v=XsS 1 LfHJZxA Accessed 11/23/11

In Toronto, salons can be shut down if customers complain to health officials about their hygiene practices. Participants made it clear to me that they were aware of these reports.

For instance, Vietnamese nail salon owners often asked me if I was a Public Health

Inspector working for the City of Toronto. It was not uncommon for salon owners to give me a tour of their back room, showing me the cleaning supplies they used and how they used them. One salon owner said, “See we use hospital sanitizers to clean the pedicure tubs.” I reassured the participants that I was a student trying to understand the

Vietnamese nail salon space and not a covert health inspector.

27 Literature Review

In this section, I lay out the literature framing this research. I explain from a geographical perspective how geographers have described micro-spaces such as restaurants, beauty salons and nightclubs, and many others. From a geographical research perspective, “the idea that space is socially produced, or constructed, has become one of the foundations of contemporary social and cultural geography” (Unwin, 2000: 11). For years, geographers and academics from various disciplines have been studying the way that social constructions of spaces are formed and what these spaces represent. Burr suggests that the social construction of space happens “though daily interactions between people in the course of social life” (Burr, 2003: 4). More specifically, geographers have been concerned with social construction of micro-spaces or mundane spaces.

Some more specific examples of geographers studying mundane spaces include Lugosi

(2008), who drew on themes such as hospitality and the varieties of hospitable encounters that can occur in spaces such as restaurants and hotels. McDowell (2007) also investigated how hotel workers of different nationalities were represented in the workplace and the micro-politics involved in such a place. Crang (1994) similarly explored the geographies of display in a restaurant. Specifically, he studied how the interactions between the service providers and customers contributed to the unique space of a restaurant called Smoky Joe’s. In a similar vein, Willet (2000) considered the space of a hair salon and its political and historical features.

28 Regardless of the place, whether it be a hotel, restaurant or beauty salon, these mundane spaces “correspond to a specific use of that space, and hence to a spatial practice that they express and constitute” (Lefebvre, 1991: 16). According to Lefebvre, the spatial practice refers to the production and reproduction of spatial relations. These relations involve continuity and some level of cohesion which “implies a guaranteed level of competence and specific level of performance” (Lefebvre, 1991: 33). The social construction of these mundane spaces is about familiarity because it is commonly understood when we speak of the restaurant, hotel and beauty salon and, more specifically, as Lefebvre puts it,

“Everyone knows what is meant when we speak of a ‘room’ in an apartment the ‘comer’ of the street a ‘marketplace’ a shopping or cultural ‘center’ a public ‘place’ and so on.

These terms of everyday discourse serve to distinguish, but not to isolate, particular spaces, and in general describe a social space” (Lefebvre, 1991:16). This review serves to describe the construction of social micro-spaces and the various components that contribute to each space’s unique character. For instance, the people that make up the space, the encounters and interactions associated to spaces, the political components of particular spaces, and so on. Furthermore, this review serves to build a foundation for understanding what is involved in micro and mundane spaces. Some of the themes that have emerged in the cases presented consist of embodiment, performance, the geographies of display and non-display, to name a few.

29 Geographies of Performance, Interaction and Display/Nondisplay

In the Presentation o f Self in Everyday Life,Goffinan considers the way individuals in everyday work situations present themselves and the activities in which they engage.

Goffinan analyzes the performances that individuals ‘stage’ in different situations, or in other words, how they control, impress and guide themselves in sustaining their particular behaviour in different environments and situations. Several concepts frame his perspective. For instance, his work is concerned with the theatrical performance, “the principles derived are dramaturgical ones” (Goffinan, xi: 1959). It is the dramaturgical representations that develop Goffinan’s spatial ideas such as the ‘settings’, ‘stage’, ‘ front stage,’ and ‘backstage.’ For example, ‘settings’ are on the stage and involve the physical layout of the stage such as background items, props, furniture and decor. The ‘stage,’ for instance, has an important role to play in Goffinan’s ideas surrounding spatial representations, since it is the stage that provides the space on which individuals are able to present their performance. The term ‘performance’ according to Goffinan, “refers to all the activity of an individual which occurs during a period marked by his continuous presence before a particular set of observers and which has some influence on the observers” (Goffinan,1959: 22).

The ‘ front stage’ are actions and behaviours that are visible to the audience and part of the individual’s performance. The presentations in these spaces are performances and displays, which are referred to as expressive behaviour. In other words, there are behavioural styles and codings that characterize the way individuals present themselves

30 in various social settings (Goffinan, 1959). Much of what has to do with expressive behaviour is face-to-face interaction. Interactions include “all the interactions which occur throughout any one occasion when a given set of individuals are in one another’s continuous presence” (Goffinan, 15: 1959). The ‘backstage,’ on the other hand, is behaviour that occurs when there is no audience present. Essentially it is where an individual would rehearse their performance before they appear on the ‘ front stage.’ For example, when an individual displays actions from their ‘backstage’ preparations into their ‘ front stage’ performance, this can disrupt one’s self-image and possibly cause their audience to feel uncomfortable.

Goffinan approached performance differently than Judith Butler, unconcerned with gender or other social characteristics. Butler uses performativity in her ideas of gender precisely as a performative act. For Butler, gender is not simply masculine or feminine, but is better understood as being performative (Butler, 1990). She suggests that acts and gestures similar to the kind Goffinan mentions are performative because they encompass

“essence or identity that they otherwise purport to express the fabrications manufactured and sustained through corporeal signs and other discursive means” (Butler, 1990: 136).

For Butler, gender becomes a performance that is a regular routine and practice.

However, Butler’s work on gendered performances has often been criticized for only focusing on gendered performances and not any other identity formations and geographers have often mentioned that more needs to be included in Butler’s notions of

31 performativity such as spatial practices within her complex dialogue (Gregson and Rose,

2000 ).

To summarize Goffinan’s approach, dramaturgical representations are about managing image through th e 4 front stage’ and ‘backstage’, settings, face-to-face interactions and performances. Goffinan concentrates on developing understandings of timings and

spacings of bodies in social settings (Malbon, 1999). Yet Goffinan has been criticized for

overlooking features of social identity such as race, gender, ethnicity, culture, and

sexuality (Malbon, 1997; Braverman, 1999). Regardless of Goffinan’s shortcomings, his

ideas provide a practical approach for framing discussions around the social construction

of spaces as it relates to individuals consuming, producing and interacting in various

social settings.

Many scholars have utilized these theories to describe the spaces of their research. For

example, Crang (1994) examined a restaurant called Smoky Joe’s. He argued that the

restaurant was a stage where employees had to follow a particular script in order to

perform service work such as waiting tables. Managerial surveillance played a big role in

Crang’s study since it was management that guided and attempted to control the overall

performance of employees by giving them a script of what to say and how to interact with

customers. Crang states that working at Smoky Joe’s requires more than just this staged

performance. The employees must also perform and practice signs of display but also

non-display, meaning that in an interactional setting like Smoky Joe’s, work experiences

32 are about relationships to consumers and carefully displaying the product and production process as the managers intended (Crang, 1994). Crang’s study builds on Goffinan’s theories by showing how the geographies of display in Smoky Joe’s are ‘sociospatial relations of consumption’ since consumers are consuming the actual product (the food) at

Smoky Joe’s restaurant, but also the relations that are built with employees (Crang,

1999). For instance, Crang discusses how getting tips at Smoky Joe’s is based on the connection the server is able to build while waiting tables. If the customers get service they are satisfied with, then they are more likely to tip and become returning customers.

The ‘sociospatial relations of consumption’ aid in explaining that some means of

employment are different than others as service work, for instance, is continuously interpersonal and interactive.

Peter Lugosi suggests that the restaurant is a space where hospitality is important, and

argues that “hospitality by frontline staff for customers may involve a degree of

entertainment, and some foodservice organizations place jocularity and informal

interaction at the centre of the service encounter” (Lugosi, 2008:140). Lugosi notes that

in any hospitality environment, guest interaction and entertainment is an essential part of

the experience, “whether it is in the form of a passive gazing of the male or female body,

convivial interaction or through more outlandish, spectacular identity performances”

(Lugosi, 2008: 140). These interactions are required in particular hospitable environments

and are managed encounters as suggested by Crang’s managerial surveillance

33 observations. It is the way these encounters are produced that makes them so fascinating and that depends on the micro-space in which they occur (Lugosi, 2008).

The nightclub, like the restaurant, is also a place where displays and non-displays occur.

For instance, Ben Malbon’s (1999) study of youth cultures in the nightclub demonstrates how ‘clubbers’ perform in the social settings of the nightclub to impress and fit in with the majority of the clubbing crowd. These interactions in the settings of the nightclub are what clubbers are consuming. Malbon states, “[t]his interactional order and the practices and spaces of sociality through which it is formed, reformed and navigated, is at the core of the consuming geographies” (Mablon,1999: 22). In other words, the interactions are a form of consumption, since clubbers do not take away anything tangible but rather consume the experience of clubbing. Malbon is concerned with the club as a specific place, but the social construction of this space provides insight into “the intensity in the clubbing crowd which a sharing of space is possible, and socially so powerful” (Malbon,

1999: 57). The clubbing experience is also about identity, in particular, youth identity.

Identities such as race, gender and youth become an important aspect to spaces like nightclubs.

Similarly, in spaces such as a school, Veninga (2009) considers how students from different racial backgrounds dealt with the multiracial environments at their schools.

More specifically, Veninga explored how students’ racial identities are worked through embodied practices as they attempt to fit into different social environments. Students’ identities were concerned with the idea that “the social and spatial is reflected in the

34 process of racialization wherein categories of racial difference are created and consolidated through the production of place and vice versa” (Veninga, 2009:113). Just as embodied practices of race are in the spaces of the school, so is the beauty salon constructed on these notions.

Willett’s study of the All-American beauty shop looks at how the beauty salon is constructed on the basis of race and gender. She considers how women had their own spaces for hairdressing where they could earn a living and not compromise the responsibilities of their domestic duties in the home (Willett, 2000). Yet the white

European hairdressers had a much different history than that o f the African American hairdressers. For example, Willett points out that, from a financial standpoint, the black beauty shop was insignificant compared to the Euro-American hairdressing industry, mainly because of the racial and political segregation that existed between these two communities (Willett, 2000). However, for both groups of women, black and white, the beauty salon was a place that women could gather and define the professionalism of beauty work. They had a sense of place and belonging in their communities and the salon was a space for building their workplace and gendered identities. These senses of place and belonging are also important concepts for immigrants creating ethnic enclaves.

Ethnic enclaves are a “social system of families, neighbors, friends and acquaintances that engage in ethnic employment and consumption ... food, dress, language, religion, physiology, demeanor and consumer goods common to the group become cultural

35 symbols” (Greve and Salaff, 2005:9). Ethnic enclaves help to explain the cycle of ethnic entrepreneurship. “Ethnic entrepreneurship is defined simply as business ownership among immigrants, ethnic-group members, or both” (Valdez, 2008: 956). Firstly, the enclave urges the craving to become self-employed especially when the mainstream economy refuses the opportunity to work in large firms (Greve and Salaff, 2005).

Secondly, relying on their co-ethnic networks is easier when starting up ventures since economic support is usually readily available. Thirdly, the economic enclave employers hire co-ethnic workers. Employers look for workers that they have symbolic ties with because it creates and promotes trust.

In ethnic entrepreneurship, space is socially produced or constructed in environments that result in economic success especially for ethnic groups engaging in self-employment.

Ethnic-group differences in entrepreneurship can be analyzed by considering social capital stemming from kinship ties, which generates economic resources such as unpaid family labour, financial capital, and business information which encourages the successful expansion of ethnic entrepreneurship (Valdez, 2008). Social capital is thus an important feature for the economic success of ethnic entrepreneurship. According to

Valdez (2008: 961), “ [sjocial capital represents the ability to access information or generate resources based on group membership”. For example, family-owned businesses, which are a form of kinship-based ethnic resource, provide their ethnic community with the opportunity to learn about training and gather business information and ideas. Ethnic entrepreneurship is an economic act: when family members attempt to acquire this social

36 capital, their economic resources are pulled together. For example, “intra-family loans are a vital source of funds for the launching of new businesses” (Chand and Ghorbani, 2011:

596). Stronger ties are the result of higher trust, at times resulting in more sacrifices from family members and close friends while at other times benefiting all family members. For example, returning to the idea of the intra-family loans, the family is the first choice for newcomers when it comes to raising startup funds for self-employment (Chand and

Ghorani, 2011). Furthermore, Lee (1992) also mentions that the incorporation of family members as an important component of the labour process in ethnic entrepreneurship.

The family and social ethnic ties also becomes a version of social capital since family members trust each other and express mutual obligations. In ethnic businesses there are advantages besides trust to hiring family members or involving their participation in ethnic establishments. Shared language, culture and values are also advantageous to operating and working in ethnic businesses and are features of the informal labour process.

Lee argues that, within the ethnic economy, “immigrants provide an important source of labor for the expansion of the informalized work processes. This expansion generates niches for the growth of small firms” (Lee, 1992: 259). Lee argues that ethnicity is commodified in the process of developing ethnic entrepreneurship (Lee, 1992). Self- employment for immigrants is an alternative means to overcoming barriers in the workforce and developing economic advancement. Creating a niche in the market is where most immigrant businesses find success. For instance, offering a service or selling

37 products that are hard to find in mainstream businesses attracts the clientele, whether they are from the same ethnicity or not. Lee’s study of Korean entrepreneurs considers some of the barriers that self-employed Koreans in the medical industry face, one of which includes the language barrier. For instance, Koreans carved a niche in the medical supply industry in some parts of the United States and experienced the challenges of language barriers when Korean entrepreneurs served non-Korean customers. The language barrier was also a challenge when Koreans in medical firms employed non-Koreans such as

Hispanic and Anglo-American workers. Language barriers on the production and consumption side of the operation were challenging, yet Korean companies in the medical supply industry managed to succeed and stay in business.

Social capital is actually embedded in social networks. Social network theory considers economic and social relations “as flows of resources between people, firms, or other agents” (Greve and Salaff, 2005: 10). For instance, in social networks people can create opportunities by combining resources of their connections with others. Bourdieu argues that social capital is the set of people’s connections that can help them find employment

(Bourdieu, 1986). Yet Chand and Ghorbani state that “social capital alone does not increase entrepreneurial opportunities, but social capital combined with individuals of particular type and with the right kind of social relationships can improve the possibility of new venture creation” (Chand and Ghorbani, 2011: 596). New venture creations are also generated by the ability to recognize a need for a particular service or product.

38 People who consume ethnic services are also important to consider. In her 2009 study, Lo looked at how ethnicity interacts with accessibility in the geography of consumption and uses the case study of grocery shopping amongst Chinese and non-Chinese consumers in

Toronto. Lo examined how urban consumers chose to shop at businesses that are ethnically owned and operated and how the role of ethnicity and culture form the geography of consumption. Lo argued that geography of consumption involves multiple meanings such as proximity or convenience, which was the case for her grocery example.

Secondly, geography consists of meanings that consumers attach to particular places of consumption (Lo, 2009). Ultimately, the purpose of investigating the role of ethnicity in the geography of consumption highlights the importance of ethnic economies, consumer consumption practices and behaviour (Lo, 2009). For instance Lo states that in her study

Chinese consumers identified the Chinese grocery store as a nostalgic place that is

“imbued with cultural values and practices” (Lo, 2009: 410). The grocery store for

Chinese customers is a place where feelings are important and therefore, places consumption with emotional ties.

The interesting aspects of the restaurant, the nightclub, the school and beauty salon are the emotions experienced in such intense spaces, and these emotions are affected by how individuals perform in the space. The micro-spaces mentioned above all involve the process of communication, interaction and also embodiment and emotions. According to

McDowell, “embodiment is fluid and changeable. As individuals move between different social arenas, their habitus may change as they acquire new sets of skills and social

39 dispositions over their lifetime” (McDowell, 2009: 67). McDowell also states that social actions, similar to the social actions that Goffinan considers, are “embodied just as embodiment is socially constructed” (McDowell, 2009: 67).

For example, in the case of merchant bankers, McDowell and Court (1994) consider how women bankers “are embodied and/or represented as ‘woman’ in the workplace, comparing women’s sense of themselves and their everyday workplace experiences with those of men doing the same job” (McDowell and Court, 1994: 727). The idea is that in the service sector economy, selling oneself as part of the product is an important part of the job. For instance, in the same way as salon workers and fast food servers, bankers are chosen, judged, and rewarded on the basis of their embodied characteristics like race, gender, economic status, education and so on (McDowell, 2009). In other words, the embodied attributes of workers are part of offering the banking service. The service is highly interactive but the transaction is also an “emotional one in which the tastes, predilections and attitudes of both parties to the exchange are part of what is going in service employment” (McDowell, 2009: 9). McDowell argues that embodiment is about capturing bodily emotions and feelings, which is central to understanding the example of service employment (McDowell, 2009).

Hochschild’s well-known study,The Managed Heart (1983), introduces emotional labour as it applies to the workplace and more specifically the service economy. Her case study of flight attendants demonstrates how they manage their emotions to perform their job.

40 Hochschild points out that employees must “suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others” (Hochschild,

1983: 7). While Hochschild develops a definition for emotional labour for work that involves care like the flight attendant case, Kang suggests that Hochschild’s definition of caring and emotional labour “has become a widely generalized definition, rather than being regarded as on particular form of emotional labour performed by mostly white, middle-class women largely for the benefit of white, middle-and upper-class men”

(Kang, 2003: 823). In addition to defining emotional labour, Hochschild emphasizes how employees in her study are required to “manage and shape their own feelings to create, in their interaction with others, displays that affect others in desired ways” (Steinberg and

Figart, 1999: 10).

While emotional labour focuses on shaping and managing feelings, emotional

geographies help to explain emotions at a range of spatial scales (Davidson and Milligan,

2005). In fact, “emotions are understandable ... only in the context of particular places”

(Davidson and Milligan, 2005: 524). In other words, emotions are place-based and there

are several areas of study that have used emotional geographies to describe different

types of spaces where emotions are involved. Some of these studies include the

traditional beauty salon. For example, Ursula Sharma and Paula Black’s study of beauty

therapists suggests that there is emotional work being done in the spaces of the beauty

salon. Sharma and Black note that “the more intimate the contact with the body, the more

the sensitive handling of emotions is likely to be a consideration” (Sharma and Black,

41 2001: 925). In their study, beauty therapists noted awareness of touch as an indicator of intimacy. In some cases, the clients found intimacy difficult to handle and the therapist had to find ways to comfort them. When the intimacy of touch was welcome, touch unleashed communication on other levels. In those situations, the therapist had to handle his/her feelings differently since those feelings were unrelated to the body being dealt with in that space (Sharma and Black, 2001).

The discussion above illustrates what is involved in understanding the social construction of spaces as evident in the scholarly literature. The scholars I have drawn on have shown that micro-spaces are complex and involve the workings of bodies and feelings. Service labour is performed, embodied, and emotional. In this thesis I consider the Vietnamese nail salon as a micro-space like Crang’s restaurant, Malbon’s nightclub or Sharma and

Black’s beauty salon, which is socially constructed. This social construction takes place through Goffinan’s ideas of the staged performance, display and interaction. In what follows, I examine the Vietnamese nail salon from the perspective of the three groups the nail salon owners, nail technicians and nail salon customers, who construct it through their social practices.

42 Chapter 3 - The Vietnamese Nail Salon Owners

Introduction: Creating a Unique Space

Not speaking the language or having any marketable skills, they [Vietnamese immigrants] tended to cluster together once they arrived in North America, not unlike other ethnic groups in similar circumstances. Italians in construction, for instance. Koreans in convenience stores. Filipinas in nursing and child care... Joe Schlesinger, special to CBC News

In the first chapter I provided an overview of the history of nail salons. I showed how the popularity of the Vietnamese salon has changed the way people consume services offered by beauty providers. In particular, I outlined the ways Vietnamese entrepreneurs have created a niche for themselves in the beauty industry, and specifically how they have professionalized the nail salon business with industry publications and print media. In this chapter I explore the experiences nail salon owners have in the nail salon space, and how they came to construct this specific space in the first place. This will shed light on how the Vietnamese salons developed such a distinctive work environment, since it is the owners who manage and control the space through constant monitoring of their workers

(the nail technicians) and even the customers. My interviews with nail salon owners helped me gain a deeper understanding of what motivated them to start up their own businesses, as well as their aspirations and distinctive challenges to remain viable in a competitive market. As I will illustrate through these interviews, the owners often view the nail salon space as ‘home,’ and associate it with feelings of hard work and a profession that is a ‘Vietnamese thing’.

43 “We are a family business. This is our home.”

The home is a significant concept in the Vietnamese nail salon because many salon owners employ their family members. Salon owners rely on their family members to help operate the salon and serve customers on a daily basis. For example, Angie, a 50-year-old nail salon owner, has worked in Canada for many years and explains her transition from working in the manufacturing industry to operating her own nail salon. Angie considers her workspace her home because she is always in the presence of her family members who are also her employees. Angie later explains her experiences.

As I walked towards Pretty Nails, a nail salon located in a non-descript strip mall plaza in a Toronto suburb, I could not help but notice the fluorescent flashing lights screaming

“nails’, ‘waxing’ and ‘eye lash extensions.’ I wondered who works inside, how they got to this particular space, and how their work affects their daily lives. Upon my arrived at

Pretty Nails, I was greeted by a woman who gestured for me to sit in the waiting area of the salon. The woman pointing to me, instructing me where to be in the space is Angie,7 the salon’s owner. Angie was expecting me, and immediately shared a concern. “I am very shy about my English,” she explains, and asks me to speak slowly and explain myself clearly when I ask her questions.8 She then delves into her back-story.

7 Vietnamese salon owners and nail technicians provided me with their English names and not their Vietnamese names. In this study I changed their English names to different English names. The names of the salons were not changed. 8 Please see Appendix A for questions that were asked to the nail salon owners. Topics included entry into the industry, history of the establishment, barriers and support into the industry and management of the nail salon.

44 I used to work in the manufacturing industry. I was 30 years old I went to school offered by IBM in Toronto. That company was sold to Celestica, so I moved to the Don Mills area for 10 years. There I worked for four days for twelve hours a day. On my day off, I worked at a spa to make extra money and I loved the spa because I could work with customers and I did not need to talk too much English to them. The IBM job I did, I did not see customers it was different. In 1992, I convinced my husband to stay here [Toronto] for good and not go back to Vietnam we just go to visit. My husband and son help me with the salon. We are a family business, this is our home. [Angie spreads her arms around the room to emphasize that the nail salon is her home. I asked her why she thought the nail salon was her home.] It’s my home because I am always here and always see the same people all the time (October 27, 2008).

Angie’s transition into the nail salon business is underpinned by her workplace experiences when she first came to Canada. She started by doing work that involved little interaction with customers in the manufacturing industry. She preferred to work with customers, yet she emphasized that she did not like speaking to her customers when doing their nails. She preferred the quiet interaction the nail salon environment offered.

Angie also mentioned that she spent Monday to Saturday in the salon from 1 lam to 7pm and sometimes had Sunday off. She mentioned that her son would take over managing the salon when she needed a day off.

For Angie, the nail salon is also a ‘home’ because she saw her family members in the workplace as she would in the home. She therefore sees her workplace and home as having the same functions. This demonstrates that the workplace, like the home, "is rich territory indeed for understanding the social and the spatial" (Domosh, 1998:

281). Working with her family members enabled Angie to learn more about her community and her own family. "Because we are a family business we spend time

45 together and make money while working together. We can see people, make friends in the community. It helps us to connect to the neighbourhood and bring more customers and business in the salon."

Many aspects of owning a nail salon business appeal to Angie. She particularly enjoys being her own boss:

I try not to take too many customers myself, because I like to walk around and make sure all the other nail techs are doing a good job. I can tell them in Vietnamese what to do because all my workers are Vietnamese. These are the best things about being your own boss (October 27, 2008).

Two other major factors drew Angie into the nail salon industry. In addition to being her own boss, she also enjoys working with her family and speaking Vietnamese with her workers. However, these benefits are not without their challenges:

It’s easy to open a nail salon, there no regulations from the government that you need to follow. But it’s hard because of competition. Everywhere in Toronto there are lots of Vietnamese nail salons. When I came to this plaza I didn’t know how many nail salons would be here. Do you see there’s seven Vietnamese salons in the big plaza alone! Thank God I offer other services like laser (October 27,2008).

For Angie, offering other services allowed her to overcome some of the challenges of being in the nail salon business and to stay competitive. It appeared that offering services other than manicures and pedicures was a big trend. Vietnamese salons also had signs for male services like back and chest waxing, eyebrow shaping, and massage. In Angie’s neighbourhood, there was an unusual concentration of Vietnamese-owned nail salons and throughout my study I did not encounter other neighbourhoods with this concentration.

Angie mentioned that there were so many nail salons because when the plaza was first

46 built, many ethnic businesses decided to open up and business owners were not aware of the type of businesses that were opening.

“Nail Salon work is a Vietnamese thing”

Many nail salon owners such as Mary consider the nail salon to be a Vietnamese specialty. The assumption that Vietnamese people choose careers in Vietnamese-owned nail salons is a common theme for the salon owners in this study. Mary explains the influences she had in operating her own nail salon but also how the Vietnamese community carved a niche in the nail salon industry by mentioning that nail salons are a

‘Vietnamese thing.’

Mary went to school to become a skilled beauty technician, but her niche was doing manicures and pedicures. She worked in New York City, where she gained years of valuable experience:

I got a job in Manhattan and loved it because there were a lot of rich people there who come in for the manicure and pedicure. They would give really good tips but I came back to Toronto to be with my family. I knew I always wanted to be my own boss so moving back to Toronto allowed me to open up my own business with my family members. My parents and sisters help out a lot in the salon and you know it’s hard to own your own business because you always have to be here. But it’s good when the family is here together we can work and spend time together (February 4, 2009).

The same sense of belonging as a family member in the nail salon is an important factor for starting up the establishment. This allows each family member to be involved in the

47 organization and contribute to building income while staying close to family. Mary also enjoys learning together with her family:

I learned everything when I went to makeup school but I also learn from Vietnamese nail salon suppliers. The supplier would come in the shop and show us how to use the latest tools and equipment. It’s really good we learn together and to have everyone in my family doing nails, it’s just a Vietnamese thing. Doing nails, any kind of nail work is a Vietnamese thing. But people in my culture have bad habits. For example, all my workers are Vietnamese because I think they are the only people who know and have the skills for doing perfect manicures, but Vietnamese people are always late for work and as the boss, I have to be on top of them and keep reminding and threatening their jobs if they don’t come to work on time. Vietnamese people know what they are doing when it comes to nails, but they think I can’t be their boss and I just want them to be on time and clean. I can’t have people who work here be late. We have lots of customers to serve and that’s one of the reasons why we function as a family business. I’d rather hire my family and be their boss. Plus when customers see Vietnamese people doing nails they have a level of trust that we are going to do a good job. Nail service we provide, like artificial nails, is typical of Vietnamese salons. I tried to hire people from other cultures but they just don’t know what they are doing, that’s why it’s important to have only Vietnamese people working here, our clients trust we will do a great job (February 4,2009).

Mary’s preference for hiring Vietnamese nail technicians and her own family members demonstrates that she was fascinated with the idea that somehow doing nails is quintessentially Vietnamese. She believes that these individuals are the only people who would know how to perform manicures and pedicures. Her frustrations stem from a stereotype of a poor work ethic. For instance, Mary believes that Vietnamese people are always late, and that she has to be on ‘top’ of her employees in order to ensure that they will arrive to work on time and follow the rules of the salon. She has instilled a level of control in the salon to manage her employees, yet Mary has also been comfortable hiring her own family members since she felt like she can manage them better. For instance,

48 Mary was able to trust her family members with completing everyday tasks in the salons with little supervision and instruction. She also liked the fact that her family members were often on time for work. Mary also emphasized that hiring family members and

Vietnamese people in general is simply a part of their cultural identity, and that clients trust their level of skill since she believes they automatically associate nails with

Vietnamese people. Mary expressed her concern as a nail salon owner for training her employees to be a certain way:

I also have to train a lot of the ladies that come in here to teach them how I like manicures and pedicure done. There’s only one nail school in Toronto and it’s taught in Vietnamese by a Vietnamese woman. The school sucks so I thought of starting my own nail school [but] it’s just a lot of work. If I leave the salon it would affect my clientele. My customers have a great concern for cleanliness in the salon because you know; they see things in media about Asian salons being dirty. So I have to let my sister teach my workers how to be cleaner in the salon. My customers [each] have their own supply box because of the cleanliness concern (February 4,2009).

Mary was also aware of the media attention Vietnamese nail salons have received regarding hygiene concerns. This concern affects the nail salon space in the sense that she is required to teach and be extra careful when it comes to hygiene around the salon. The atmosphere and environment in Mary’s salon could almost pass for a scientific lab or hospital room with the sterilization equipment visible to the customers, and cleaning products on every manicure table. When I asked why cleanliness was important, Mary stated:

It’s so important it creates loyal customers when they see that you practice being clean in the salon. Nail techs touch, massage, cut and file people’s nails all day, so just that fact alone means germs can be passed. We want loyal customers and being clean is going to get us that. Plus me and my

49 sister are the only ones in the salon that can speak proper English so we know what we are doing (February 4,2009).

According to Mary and other owners, the nail salon is a space concerned with hygiene.

The above example shows how being clean is explicitly associated with attracting loyal customers in the intimate space. Mary also mentioned that as an owner it is her responsibility to ensure the salon is clean because the City of Toronto will inspect salons if there are complaints from customers who see unhygienic practices in the salon. To avoid being inspected, Mary’s strategy was to emphasize to her customers the cleanliness in the salon. The nail salon is also a family-oriented space. It is a space that is controlled, managed and clean as seen by the above examples. This is also true for nail salon owner

Albert and his father, David.

“You don’t need English to start your own salon”

English language skills in the Vietnamese nail salon are a common challenge for salon workers. However, a benefit of owning a nail salon is that owners can hire Vietnamese­ speaking employees and work with Vietnamese-speaking suppliers. Albert, a 24-year-old student, and his dad, David, own and operate a salon called Top Queen Nails. David has little knowledge of the English language but Albert explains how the main benefit of owning their own nail salon is that they do not need to speak English. Albert further explains how they operate their family business using the Vietnamese language as their main form of communication.

50 Albert’s mom Vivian helps to manage the salon when David and Albert are not around.

They, too, are a family business, and emphasize cleanliness in their salon. David and

Vivian speak little English, but that is not a problem in the nail salon business. As Albert explains:

We were inspired to open up our nail salon from my uncle who lives in Virginia. He started his business with no experience and it was harder for him because there are more government regulations there. We saw we could start up the salon after visiting him and realized that all the suppliers we purchase our equipment from are Vietnamese. My parents are very comfortable in this business because they only speak Vietnamese to their workers, the suppliers and even our accountant. We learned everything from the nail salon supplier who pretty much taught us how to do manicures. My mom and dad are very talented at it too. They read books, they have lots of ideas and aren’t afraid to try them. For example, when we opened this salon my parents looked around and saw that there was no other salon in the neighbourhood. We knew we would be successful here because of that (November 24,2008).

For Albert and his parents, being involved in the nail salon community allowed them to start their own business and learn how to use nail salon equipment from other Vietnamese immigrants, which they mentioned was an advantage for them operating the salon. The above is also an example of ethnic networks working in the ethnic economy where shared language and culture contribute to the success of ethnic entrepreneurship. Similar to

Mary’s experience learning how to do nails from the nail salon supplier who is also

Vietnamese, this makes starting the business more accessible for people like Albert and his parents who say they are shy about their English:

We were new to this business. When we looked for employees we looked for employees who already have a background in doing nails. We needed some help and didn’t want to train new people; we always look for experienced, Vietnamese workers, it’s easier for my parents especially to communicate with the workers (November 24,2008).

51 Albert’s parents were more comfortable speaking Vietnamese since English is their second language. The Vietnamese language and being Vietnamese are a big part of what constructs the space:

Nail salons are Vietnamese because of the language barrier. This is the easiest job for someone who can’t speak English. You don’t need to speak English to start your own salon. Nail salons are a Vietnamese thing because our culture started it and we do better than other cultures believe me, we tried to hire non-Vietnamese people and it just doesn’t work (November 24, 2008).

Speaking English in the spaces of the salon is something that clearly is not a requirement.

For the nail salon owners, everything they need to help them start up the establishment can happen in Vietnamese. This proves to be the biggest advantage of being in the nail business.

MThe only thing I have to do to train my employees is teach them how to talk to customers”

Salon owners like Bonnie, of Venus Nails, overcome the challenges of communicating in

English by teaching her employees basic conversation skills in English. Nail technicians that work in Bonnie’s salon are taught a script of basic phrases or conversation starters to communicate with their clients. Bonnie explains how her family owned business helps

Vietnamese-speaking nail technicians further their careers with this kind of training.

Bonnie had been in business for four years. She explains how she trains her staff to communicate with salon customers. Bonnie goes on to explain that Venus Nails is a family-owned business:

52 We have been in business for four years and we established ourselves as a family business. We are a family business because each family member takes care of something for the salon. Like my sister Natalie, she takes care of the paper work and legal stuff since she speaks better English than I do. My brother and dad take care of the repairs that the salon needs and my mom helps me hire nail technicians. My mom’s good at that, she is a good judge of character. We only look for experienced, certified Vietnamese workers (November 25, 2008).

Each of Bonnie’s family members has a specific job in the salon. Like those of the nail salon owners mentioned above, the nail salon was family-owned and family participation in the salon was an important part of the space. When it came to hiring employees such as other nail technicians, Bonnie had a specific strategy for hiring and training her employees:

When I hire employees, they have to show me that they have experience. They have to know what they are doing. This is a requirement and they have to be certified and have some form of certification saying they know something about nails. The only thing that I have to do to train my employees is teach them how to talk to customers. I teach them how to interact, say basic things like ‘how’s the weather.’ I teach the nail techs basic skills like English. For the nail technicians making conversation with the customers is important because it shows that we can make our customers feel like this is a family business (November 25, 2008).

Bonnie explained to me that she hires Vietnamese workers because it is easier for the entire family and other workers to communicate since they are all Vietnamese-speaking.

Bonnie further explained why being a family-owned business was so important to the success of the establishment:

Being a family-owned business is important because customers can see that we take care of the salon and that they can trust us as a nail salon because we practice being clean all the time. Our customers are loyal now because they see we are clean and family-owned. We have loyal customers and provide all the services to them and people enjoy their time here. They see we are so fast always ahead of schedule, we make them feel comfortable and that’s why they come back (November 25,2008).

53 Providing comfort for customers is an important part of the Vietnamese salon experience.

The space is about comfort and control. For example, Bonnie’s style of management deals with her being able to train her employees and provide them with a script of what to say and how to interact. Essentially she is teaching them about the geographies of display. She is showing them how to perform in order to create an environment that she thinks will make her clients comfortable, satisfied and likely to return. She feels that will help her employees build skills such as customer service and language. And in this sense, comfort thus means predictability and ease of interaction for the customer, ensuring that what the customer expects is provided.

By the same token, comfort for Bonnie also means keeping the salon clean. She emphasized to me how clean the salon was and the practices that they follow for being clean. Bonnie trains her employees to make cleaning an obvious part of the space - employees are trained to display in their daily work place performance that they are cleaning, sanitizing and sterilizing tools. This is clearly a universal concern among nail salon owners. In Bonnie’s salon bodily comfort is interpreted and understood when customers are communicating in some way that they value a ‘clean’ salon, likely because of the media reports about unsanitary salons. Bonnie mentioned that she caters to clients by making them feel comfortable through the display of cleaning in front of customers.

Bonnie factors details such as these into her careful management style:

54 I manage this salon at a high level. I manage the staffing schedule, training, and all other customer concerns like booking appointments. In this salon I make sure the nail techs are adapting to the clients needs. I take care of the day-to-day operations. Internally, I am always advising the nail techs how to improve their skills so that the customer is constantly satisfied with their performance in doing manicures and pedicures. I make sure they are showing in some way that they are cleaning, wiping, sanitizing and sterilizing the equipment. I teach the nail techs how to make this obvious for the client so that they will be loyal clients. See, we use hospital sanitizers to clean the pedicure tubs [Bonnie points to the cleaning supplies near the pedicure tubs]. Health and being clean is important. We don’t want to risk any legal issues or health issues for ourselves and the clients. I believe that the Vietnamese women that come to work in my salon are advancing themselves because I can teach them different things like customer service and English. They learn a lot from me and are able to advance in their career (November 25,2008).

Bonnie has a clear strategy for how she wants her salon to operate. She focuses on training the nail techs not in a practical or technical sense like how to do manicures and pedicures, but in a way that is tailored to each nail tech’s individuality. She attempts to shape their personality and skills by teaching them how to act. She is essentially creating a script that they can follow in the salon, even if they eventually use it to move on elsewhere. For example, Bonnie explained to me that a lot of the nail techs she has trained came to her salon and did not know a word of English. After working with her, they have learned English skills and started their own salon. The script that Bonnie taught her employees were what she referred to as “basic English skills” and teaching them conversation starters like ‘how’s the weather?’ and ‘do you have kids?’ “Customer service” and “English” meant the same thing for Bonnie. For instance, when I asked her what kinds of customer service skills that she teaches, Bonnie replied “I teach things like

English and how to make simple conversation.” Bonnie believes this is important in

55 helping the Vietnamese community, as she explains later. She also discusses the feedback she gets from her customers:

We receive compliments. They [customers] love the decorations in the salon, they love die cleanliness. People feel comfortable here because they trust us because we are clean. The environment and the atmosphere that I try to make in this salon is friendly and relaxing. We are able to maintain our Vietnamese language in a way that makes our clients feel comfortable because all the ladies are nice. Once a woman came here with her husband and they had pedicures done. The husband had so much fear coming into the salon because they are all women here but they saw we were nice and he felt so comfortable that he came back another time by himself without his wife! (November 25, 2008).

Bonnie decorated her salon with a European theme inspired by her travels to Italy. She associated her decor with cleanliness to help customers feel relaxed in the space. Because

Bonnie’s salon decor got compliments from her customers, she felt this meant they were enjoying the space and feeling comfortable and trusted that it was a clean space. Bonnie and her workers are also able to maintain the Vietnamese language in the space by speaking Vietnamese in the presence of their customers. Bonnie suggested that speaking the language makes it easy for them to work with each other especially when she has to give them instructions on what to do. However, she suggests that they speak Vietnamese in front of customers in a way that makes customers feel comfortable enough to keep returning to the salon. Her examples of her experience attempting to make customers feel comfortable in the space also show they are trying to diversify the nail salon space. For instance, Bonnie mentioned how the nail technicians were nice and able to make a man feel comfortable in a space that is assumed to be typically a woman’s space based on the traditional model of the beauty salon discussed in Chapter 1. Bonnie is also proud of what the Vietnamese accomplished in the industry:

56 I am proud of our Vietnamese community because the Vietnamese have skills and we show this in the nail salon industry. Vietnamese people know how to operate services and keep the Vietnamese culture alive like in the US. In California, there are Vietnamese there that I am very proud of. Once I saw on this TV show a Vietnamese guy opened up this million dollar nail salon and they charge an average price. The decor and everything was so nice they knew how to make people feel comfortable and that’s what it’s all about (November 25,2008).

Nail salon owner Michael is also proud of the Vietnamese influence on the nail industry.

“Everything in this salon is Vietnamese”

Vietnamese memorabilia, Vietnamese flags and signage can make a space have a sense of

Vietnamese-ness. Salon owner Michael believes that everything in his salon is

Vietnamese and explains that speaking in Vietnamese is one of the main factors for this.

Furthermore, Michael explained to me that where he came from in Vietnam, there were no nail salons. He said that doing nails is unique to the Vietnamese culture in North

America:

There are no salons in Vietnam. But Vietnamese people still know how to do nails. It is very popular to do nails here because everyone sees the movie stars do it. I think Vietnamese culture is so good at picking up the latest thing in society we Vietnamese people can take any idea and turn it into a multi-million dollar industry like doing nails. I once knew this Vietnamese guy and he moved to California to start a salon and he invested everything in the salon and now Jennifer Lopez even goes there. It’s amazing. Nail salons are Vietnamese. Everything in this salon is Vietnamese because we all speak Vietnamese (January 22, 2009).

Michael’s employees did not speak English. The nail technicians in the salon would speak Vietnamese, so Michael could give them instructions in Vietnamese and then translated to the customers in English what he asked the technician to do:

57 Ninety percent of my customers are mixed. The other ten percent are Italian, and we get no Vietnamese coming here unless they want a job to work here. People know when they walk into my salon that everything is Vietnamese because we are Vietnamese, this is part of our culture and the customers like that because they know Vietnamese people can do nails (January 22, 2009).

Michael assumes that customers go to his salon knowing that the salon is Vietnamese and associates nail salons with Vietnamese-ness. The space was filled with Vietnamese souvenirs and memorabilia. Maps of Vietnam and calendars were also plastered on the wall, displaying pride in the familiar cultural identity.

Although most salon owners did not display Vietnamese memorabilia or souvenirs like

Michael did, a common and noticeable feature was the outside of the salons that had fluorescent signage that often read ‘waxing,’ or ‘nails’ and ‘spa’. The photos below are a couple of examples of salons that had fluorescent signage.

58 t x 4 ^ ‘ WAX\N

(Mucci, 2012)

(Mucci, 2012) Conclusion

The nail salon is thus constructed as a Vietnamese space, since Vietnamese owners hire only Vietnamese workers. Because of this homogeneity, similar locations and names of the salons, owners try to create relationships based on predictability of cleanliness of the

service. The issue of cleanliness of the salon is a front stage practice because owners taught their workers how to make it obvious that they were cleaning their equipment to

gain the trust and loyalty of customers. Nail salon owners tend to micro-manage in a

micro-space by hiring Vietnamese workers. Owners exert a level of control over the workers showing them how they want the work to be done. Essentially, the salon owners

are using managerial surveillance to watch their workers to ensure they are providing the

level of service they expect in the salon. They did this by giving instructions to the nail

technicians mainly in Vietnamese. They are constantly watching what the other nail

technicians do and how they are working so that they could be efficient, effective and

fast. The main idea is to serve as many customers as they can. This is part of the owner’s

strategy that sets them a part from higher-end beauty salons.

Additionally, communicating in Vietnamese makes it easier for them to explain their

demands such as how to clean, when to show up for work, what to charge different

customers, to name a few. The salon owners explain the script and train their employees

to follow this script when communicating with the customers. The script was part of the

backstage practices and training of the salon. The script tended to contain general

questions that nail technicians could ask customers like ‘how’s the weather?’ or ‘Are you

60 going to a special occasion?’ The script that salon owners provided their workers with was also similar from salon to salon that I visited. For example, all owners mentioned that they train their employees to say simple phrases and ask customers simple questions such as ‘how’s the weather?’ This is also similar to Crang’s study of Smokey Joe’s where workers were given a script to follow of questions to ask for example, when waiting tables and interacting with their customers.

At the same time, comfort and control of the salon mean that owners can hire their family members and experienced Vietnamese-speaking nail technicians. The nail salon space for the nail salon owner is considered a home since most salon owners hire their family members and they are able to spend time with them while working in the salon, often

seven days a week. The Vietnamese language is a big part of the nail salon space because

it is a convenient way for the salon owners to operate in Vietnamese with their

Vietnamese-speaking workers. Salon owners like Michael and Bonnie feel that making

their Vietnamese-ness known in the salon makes customers feel comfortable and

welcomed in their space. They can trust the nail salon workers because it is assumed that

“doing nails is a Vietnamese thing.” On the other hand, Michael and Bonnie also

rationalize that speaking Vietnamese is ‘proving’ that they are Vietnamese to a clientele

they assume are visiting their salon for that reason.

61 Chapter 4 - The Vietnamese Nail Technicians

Introduction: The Production Side of the Vietnamese Nail Salon Space

The next time you walk into a room full o f people, just listen to them talking! They ’re all communicating through conversation. Conversation is our main way o f expressing ideas, opinions, goals and feelings to those we come in contact with. It is also the primary means of beginning and establishing friendships and relationships.” Dan Gabor, How to Start a Conversation and Make Friends(2001).

...service employment involves social interactions in spaces where the service provider and service purchaser are co-present... McDowell, 2009: 8

The only problem is there isn’t a place for Vietnamese nail techs to talk comfortably about issues affecting the Vietnamese nail community in English or Vietnamese, and Vietnamese nail techs rarely try to speak up, keeping worries internal. There is also a language (and cultural) barrier that separates Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese nail techs. Kimberly Pham, Associate Editor,VietSalon, May 2011 Issue.

In the last chapter I provided an overview of how individuals typically start up their nail salon establishments. In this chapter, I introduce the Vietnamese nail technicians who contribute to the social construction of the nail salon space in a much different way. A common theme that emerged from these interviews was the nail technicians’ concerns with communication and language barriers that exist in the space. Furthermore, the interviews shed light on the type of interactive embodied work that requires the intimacy of touch yet lacks verbal interaction.

“Nail work is better than hotel work”

Nail salon work has benefits that most nail technicians prefer over other kinds of work in the service sector economy such as hotel work. For instance, nail salon technician Lily has lived in Toronto for the last 25 years and describes her experience working in the

62 service sector economy. She explains how working in the nail salon involves little

English language skills, in contrast to hotel work, where English is a requirement, as is working long night hours. Lily provided some insight into the benefits of being a nail technician and working for a Vietnamese family-owned business:

I like my job. I used to work in the hotel business and that was hard work. You have to work all hours of the night that was hard because I have kids. Who is going to watch them? And you need to speak English and that was hard because I don’t speak English very good. Hotel work you have no control over your job it’s very hard labour, people always watch what you do and you never get a break. Then this one day, my friend said she knew a neighbour who was hiring nail technicians but I didn’t know how to do nails, so the family trained me and sent me for a diploma in the Jane and Finch area. There is a lady there who teaches people how to do nails she speaks in Vietnamese so its good for me because my English is not that good. I don’t remember the name of the school. Nail work is better than hotel work because I don’t have to work in the middle of the night and I can speak Vietnamese and not worry about my English. It’s easy, you know, it’s not like office work. Office work is hard you get less money than doing nails (February 11,2009).

One of the key benefits of working as a nail technician for Lily is speaking Vietnamese.

She explained to me several times that she was not comfortable speaking English because she thought people would make fun of her accent. During my visit with Lily, the manager would talk to Lily in Vietnamese, telling her what she needed to be doing. Lily’s work experience consisted of working in a hotel, which she described as “hard work.” Hotel service work was a difficult experience for Lily because she did not enjoy doing tasks such as cleaning toilets and cleaning up after guests who would party for long hours. She felt that working in the nail industry was better suited for her. She could get home at a decent hour and make a lot of money, particularly from tips from customers.

63 Although there were benefits of working in the nail salon, Lily also expressed some disadvantages:

Sometimes my boss is strict. He doesn’t let me take time off if my kids are sick and he tells us what to say and how to act in the salon. But that’s ok because it is part of the job. I get tired sometimes because I am always touching people all day and that is the hardest part of this job, touching people I don’t know (February 11,2009).

Lily says the salon has many rules, and that her manager always tells the nail technicians exactly what to do - right down to a script of what to say to customers.9 The scripts are mainly questions to ask the customers while nail technicians are working on their nails.

Lily admits that she gets tired of always touching people, remembering what to say to customers and the forced intimacy between herself and clients that the constant physical contact creates. Discussion with owners emphasized a spoken script and assumed that nail technicians would know how to bodily interact with customers. Their script included questions such as “How are you” “How’s the weather?” and “Do you have kids?” These questions were part of the script that nail technicians had to follow and interviews with the owners and majority of nail technicians mentioned these phrases. During my many site visits, I frequently observed nail technicians keeping their heads down, working as quickly as they could to care for the customer’s hands and feet. They rarely speak to the customer because of the language and cultural barrier, as Lily had suggested. That is why, to the customer they are touching, they are provided a script of what to say and how to act to help ease the tensions involved in this type of service work.

9 Nail technicians would not disclose their average annual salary or hourly wage. However, nail technicians did mention they get ‘good tips.’ In all cases, any questions regarding salary were avoided, there were no comparative figures indicating that one job was better than the other.

64 “People come here because they know we are Vietnamese”

The physical space of the nail salon is often viewed as a Vietnamese space. There is a general assumption amongst salon workers in this study that customers are attracted to nail salons because they are Vietnamese-operated. Nail technician Nita had ideas similar to those of salon owner Michael, who also assumed that their customers visit their salon because they are Vietnamese. Nita explains her reasons for feeling this way and how her

Vietnamese-ness assumes that she can do nails.

Nita has lived in Toronto for over 25 years and studied at an esthetician school, which operated in Vietnamese. During her teen years, she lived in California and worked as a receptionist in a nail salon. Her experience working in the salon taught her some English, but she mostly communicates in Vietnamese:

When I work in the salon, I don’t need to speak too much English. I say simple things like ‘how are you?’ ‘What’s your name?’ My boss tells me what I should be saying in English. I don’t need to know too much because I can talk Vietnamese to the boss and other workers that work here. We talk about which customer to serve, how much tip certain customers leave us and what price we think we should charge for certain customers. If customers are not good customers then we can talk in Vietnamese and we can decide what the price will be and we can talk Vietnamese to the owner’s kids. He likes that a lot because we can teach his kids Vietnamese (December 3,2008).

Nita described to me that good customers are customers that do not complain about the service they just received. Often the younger customers tend to mess their nails right after they are painted, and understandably Nita did not enjoy re-painting nails. The Vietnamese language is almost always heard in nail salons that are Vietnamese operated. Speaking in

Vietnamese is thus a strategy for workers to cope with and respond to problematic

65 customers without the latter’s knowledge. However, Nita also mentioned that when speaking Vietnamese with other nail technicians, she had to be careful because even non-

Vietnamese people could speak Vietnamese:

We [nail technicians] discuss workplace things in Vietnamese to each other. But you have to be careful because this one time this man and his wife came in for a pedicure and me and the other nail technician were making jokes about the husband’s feet and the man knew everything we were saying because he could speak Vietnamese and he was white! We were so surprised and so embarrassed (December 3,2008).

In the salon Nita works in, it was assumed that their diverse customer base did not know

Vietnamese. Thus Nita was surprised to learn that even non-Vietnamese people may know the Vietnamese language, so now when talking about their customers she is cautious not to offend them in any way.

Nita also mentioned that she thinks people come to the salon because they know they are

Vietnamese-speaking:

The manager doesn’t focus on advertising. We don’t need to advertise the salon. People come in here because of word of mouth and because they know we are Vietnamese. We are trained to practice being clean and fast. They know we are Vietnamese because they see the Vietnamese calendar at the front door and the lanterns that we leave up all year round. Some people think the lanterns are for Chinese New Year but they don’t realize that Vietnamese people use the same lanterns. Plus we all look and speak Vietnamese and this is important because our customers will trust the work we do (December 8, 2008).

For Nita, there is something uniquely Vietnamese about the space. The nail salon space is a cultured space that Nita recognizes as something that is a part of her everyday workplace environment because she believes that customers only visit their nail salon since they display their Vietnamese-ness. The Vietnamese nail salon is also a racialized

66 space. There is a division between the Vietnamese workers and the non-Vietnamese customers. Workers like Nita assume that the salon has customers because of their

Vietnamese-ness, whereas for customers this is not a factor in the decision to get their nails done at that particular location.10 From my observation, customers of the

Vietnamese nail salon were mainly non-East Asian. There were not many customers who appeared to be Korean, Chinese or Vietnamese, for example. In addition, salon owners all mentioned that their customers were from a variety of cultures. Owners from the previous chapter and nail technicians such as Nita assume that customers visit the nail salon because they realize that it is Vietnamese-owned. Owners and nail technicians also translate this into trust. Nita thinks customers believe that since she is Vietnamese, she can do nails.

“Speaking English is not part of the job, but touching people is”

Nail salon work can be considered a kind of emotional labour because it requires physically being in contact with the customer to perform the job. For example, Jessica from Desire Nails expressed her concern for the emotional aspects of touching customers and not speaking English.

Jessica used to work as an accountant when she lived in Australia 20 years ago. She was bom in Vietnam, moved to Australia, and then came to Toronto. She was working in the nail industry because it was the only job she said she could do without having to upgrade

101 discuss the customers’ perspective more fully in Chapter 5.

67 her degree to the Canadian standards. Jessica mentioned that speaking English is not part of the job, but emphasized that touching customers’ hands and feet is a must:

I came to Canada to be with my husband now and I love it here but I wish I could be an accountant again. I would have to do schooling all over again and it costs too much. So nails for someone like me who has a language barrier is the best thing to do. Speaking English is not part of the job but touching people is. You need to be able to be comfortable touching people’s hands and feet. This one time, a lady came in and it looked like she had fungus and I was so worried to give her a manicure because what if she had something that I can get? My boss told me that I had to still work on her hands and it’s hard because you can’t wear gloves when you do manicures I put on my mask and took a chance. Thanks to God nothing happened to me. I didn’t get no fungus and I threw out the tools I used on the lady I didn’t even tell my boss (January 29, 2009).

The above example illustrates some of the risks involved in being in a profession that requires the intimacy of touch. The health of the customers and the nail technicians is crucial in the nail salon space. Jessica mentioned to me that she gets training on how to protect herself from customers who may have health problems, while at the same time demonstrating that she is being clean and protected:

Working in a nail salon is like working in the science lab like I did in high school. We are trained to use chemicals for cleaning pedicure chairs and tools and sterilizing equipment. It is important because we are giving customers the image of being in a clean place this is how we gain trust of clients because they hear reports about Vietnamese people having dirty salons. My boss trains me and the other nail techs to work like we are a medical spa, you know, they try to show how like they are doctors or something (January 29,2009).

A common theme in the nail salon space is that nail technicians are taught to show that they can be trusted by being clean, and simply by being Vietnamese, which they demonstrate by speaking Vietnamese. For example, nail technicians are taught to make it

obvious to the customer that they are cleaning and using tools that have been sterilized.

68 Their uniform, which looks very similar to a lab coat, along with the mask and gloves they wear, contributes to making the nail salon space seem like a medical lab or, as

Jessica pointed out, like a high school science class. The uniform that nail technician

Jessica has to wear certainly conveys the typical white lab coat look. Along with her institutional uniform, Jessica is equipped with almost robotic talking points to draw on during her client interactions:

If it is really busy in the salon I don’t talk to the customer at all. We have to work very quickly. Sometimes we just say ‘how do you like it?’ or ‘what else would you like?’ and move onto to the next person. But if it is slow in the salon, then the boss tells us to say things like ‘how’s the weather?’ ‘you have a special occasion?’ And we have to sell things too, like ‘do you want a design?’ or ‘buy this new product.’ Some of the ladies here have worse English than me and that’s all they know how to say so it works out for us. Being trained in what to say to customers is a good thing. It gives us encouragement to work with different people. Other nail technicians learned so many things from the owner they go and open their own salon (January 29,2009).

In other words, this type of interactive embodied work is carefully scripted and rehearsed.

Nail technician, Christine, from Happy Nails, also experienced similar situations when it

came to the salon conversations.

“We don’t want to scare our customers with our Vietnamese”

Providing comfort in a space is a service that nail salon workers consider to be part of the

nail salon experience. However, exposing a backstage practice such as communicating in

Vietnamese can make customers fear the space, as nail salon technician Christine

describes.

69 Christine worked at Happy Nails, a salon that her parents owned and operated. Christine was bom in Vietnam and came to Toronto when she was an infant. Her family has been in Canada for over 25 years and since she was here her whole life, her parents had her take care of all things in the salon that required English, such as teaching the other nail technicians customer service skills. She explains her role in her parents’ salon and how she trains employees of the salon:

I help my parents a lot when it comes to training nail techs. I train them and teach them customer service skills. Most nail techs don’t speak much English so my parents hire them based on their experience and skills, and then I can help them say simple things so it’s not so awkward when we are doing nails and all you hear are workers speaking Vietnamese. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just that we don’t want to scare our customers with our Vietnamese. We try to limit speaking Vietnamese around customers. It affects some people if we speak our language. We get all kinds of customers and we don’t want to discriminate anyone or make them feel uncomfortable in our salon. My parents couldn’t understand at first but I had to educate them. They understand what I mean because they see every day different people from different cultures come into the salon (February 6, 2009).

Even as a nail technician, Christine plays a big role in her parents’ nail salon. She is responsible for teaching the nail technicians basic conversation skills so that they can build relationships and communicate with customers. When salon owners teach their nail technicians these different skills, they are attempting to create a space that is similar to that of the traditional beauty salon: a space where men and women can go to their service provider and build a relationship, friendship, see the same nail technician every visit and spend hours talking while getting their nails done. Furthermore, Christine and her family are aware when they are making their customers uncomfortable by speaking Vietnamese and the whole idea of limiting their Vietnamese speaking around customers is to make

70 their experience more comfortable and similar to that of the traditional beauty salon.

Christine went on to describe the salon’s professional, formal atmosphere:

This salon is one where we mainly just work. When it is slow and there is some free time, we are cleaning making sure the work space is in order. We don’t do any social events here because this is just a job not a place to hang out. I would say we are a formal business like there’s no time for outside things. We are too busy to organize things amongst us and we work long hours so we just want to go home at the end of the day (February 6,2009).

The nail salon space is a formal space in the sense that there are no after-work social activities amongst the nail technicians and the owners of Happy Nails. While sitting with

Christine in the salon, other nail technicians were working as quickly as they could. The space was fast-paced. When one customer walked in, ten minutes later she would leave, and another customer would be in the same chair and the cycle would start all over. Nail technician Karen, from First Choice Nails, also commented on the fast-paced environment of the Vietnamese nail salon.

“Some of the nail techs don’t want to talk and they can come across as being cold”

The lack of conversation in the nail salon space can make the salon appear unwelcoming for customers. Nail technicians often communicate in Vietnamese to each other and tend to ignore their customers as Karen, mentions below.

Karen has been living in Canada for the last 15 years. She came into the nail salon industry after she needed money to pay for her education. She explains how working quickly is a requirement being a nail technician and feels that communicating with customers is less of a requirement for the job. Karen has been involved in the nail

71 industry ever since she moved to Toronto from Vietnam and describes her experience working in the Vietnamese nail salon:

When I came to Toronto, I was not used to working in this type of environment. You have to be quick to serve a lot of people. Customers don’t want to stay here and talk to the nail techs; they want their nails done and go to do the next thing. People don’t know how to relax (February 13,2009).

When I asked Karen why she thought customers did not want to spend time in the nail salons, she explained:

It’s just the way it is. People don’t want to speak to someone who can barely speak English. Some of the nail techs here don’t want to talk and they can come across as being cold. And that’s ok, I think people don’t mind that. I think the people in this neighbourhood come to this salon because we are fast and we know how to do nails. We don’t get any Vietnamese people here unless it’s our own family members. I think Vietnamese people don’t get nails done; they just do nails (February 13, 2009).

Karen suggests that in this type of interactive service work, there is little interaction in terms of verbal interaction between the service provider and customers. Yet the irony is that the nail salon is a highly interactive job, which requires the intimacy of touch, because caring and grooming someone’s hands and feet is an incredibly personal task.

However, for someone like Karen and some of the other participants in this study, being a nail technician is just a job:

Doing nails is just a job. If I could speak English better, I would want to work in the courts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good job I make a lot of money working here, but it’s not easy always doing nails, you get tired of it and you get tired of seeing the same people. It’s the same thing all the time (February 13,2009).

Nail salon work is routine work. Nail technicians want to serve as many customers as quickly as possible. If Karen could ‘speak English better’ she would be doing another

72 job. The routinized work and language barrier affects Karen’s interaction with her clients, adding to the sense that the nail salon is the factory line of intimate service.

Conclusion

In the ways discussed above, technicians demonstrate that they do interactive embodied service work. They are also working as quickly as they can to groom the hands and/or feet of every customer. Even though the job of the nail technician requires intimate body work and is a highly personal form of work, the nail technicians have manage to say as little as they can to their customers, primarily because the Vietnamese nail salon space consists of cultural and language barriers. Most nail technicians do not have the English skills to keep up a conversation with a client like one would find in the traditional beauty salon.

The participants in this study have varied work experience, and expressed that they enjoyed the benefits of working in the nail salon, such as the decent income it provides and the fact that English language skills are not a requirement. In fact, when they experience difficulty attempting to converse with their customers, their managers or salon owners will provide them with a quick script of what to say. Speaking English is their ffontstage script performance while speaking Vietnamese is the nail salon workers’ backstage script. Yet the nail technicians manage to leak their backstage script into their ffontstage performance, which I will discuss in the next Chapter 5. The demands of the salon owners even go as far as teaching the nail technicians how to make it obvious that

73 they are cleaning or sterilizing the tools they are using. This is another form of showing the customers that the nail technicians can be trusted when performing manicures and pedicures. These types of scripts and routines have proven to be helpful for the nail technicians I interviewed. They are able to perform their work with confidence knowing that they can do their job even with limited English.

Moreover, the lack of English is not considered to undermine the service on offer, since the nail technicians and owners believe the clients are specifically choosing salons that are Vietnamese-owned. They also assume that their displays of cleaning engender trust in the salon. These assumptions are crucial for shaping the nail salon space, since the goal for the salon workers is to make customers feel comfortable in the space regardless of the language barriers. These assumptions are further explored in the next chapter, which examine the customers of the Vietnamese nail salons

74 Chapter 5 - Nail Salon Customers

Introduction: Changing the way Beauty Services are Consumed

Fast forward a bunch o f years. A nail salon appears at my local Chicago mall. The mall wasn’t fancy so I wondered about the salon. Wow, the manicures were affordable. I had one. Then I even plunged ahead and paid for a pedicure. Some o f the folks who did the manicure/pedicure work had limited English; they were “some sort” o f Asian immigrants, and in my opinion, their work was really good, much better than my own attempts. So what if the conversation is limited. Diane Taylor,Living Las Vegas Business Magazine, June 4, 2010

In the last chapter, I explored how the social construction of the Vietnamese nail salon space was partially comprised of the salon’s primary workers, the nail technicians. These participants provided some insight into the type of training they received, the encounters they had with customers and the cultural and language barriers associated with the job.

Furthermore, their interactive embodied labour consists of a scripted performance, in that management tells them exactly what to say to make conversation with customers.

Management also trains the employees to make it glaringly obvious that they are cleaning the tools being used in the salon. These interviews provided insight into the production side of the space. In this chapter, the customers who participated in this study shed some light on how they feel about the Vietnamese nail salon space, and why they choose to visit the space and ultimately contribute to the social construction and consumption of the nail salon space.

75 “I automatically associate nail salons with Asians”

The feelings of comfort and security are often felt when there is a sense of familiarity about a space. For example, Rosa, a 25-year-old of Italian descent, explained how she chooses to visit Vietnamese nail salons knowing that they are ‘Asians’ because she believed that ‘Asians’ are talented at doing nails and this provided her with a sense of comfort in the nail salon.11

I met Rosa outside of Dream Nails. Rosa mentioned that she never visited the same nail

salon twice because she preferred to try different salons since there were so many in her neighbourhood. She had decided to visit Dream Nails because they seemed to offer

different services that she had never seen before:

I don’t visit the same salon. I found this nail salon because I saw there were so many nail salons in this plaza, but I chose this one because I saw that it was the only one offering eyelash extensions. It looked more special to me (October 25, 2008).

The Vietnamese nail salon is an informal space. Some customers, like Rosa, never

request the same nail technician, which means they meet a different service provider each

time they get a manicure. Although Rosa has a different technician each time, she finds

comfort in the space knowing that the person working on her nails is ‘Asian:’

I never request the same nail technician because I don’t go that often and I when I do go, I go to the Asian salons because I trust they know what they are doing and that fact alone makes me feel comfortable when someone is working on my hands. The Asians are just known for being talented in this profession (October 25,2008).

11 Customers’ names are unchanged. I have identified the customers only by their first name.

76 This sentiment is an important aspect in the Vietnamese nail salon space. For Rosa, knowing that the service provider is ‘Asian’ makes her comfortable in the space. Rosa’s comment about Asians being talented in the profession suggests that that Vietnamese nail salons have a good reputation and that customers know what kind of service and experience to expect. Furthermore, Rosa also acknowledged the language barriers that exist:

I had a friend-ish conversation with the nail technician. We talked about the weather and we joked trying to choose a nail polish colour that my boyfriend would like. I would say that the conversations in nail salons are so superficial and it’s mainly because the men and women that work there have language barriers (October 25,2008).

The language barrier affected Rosa’s opportunity to build a relationship with the nail technician, and this caused Rosa to believe that conversations in the nail salons are

‘superficial.’ I asked Rosa why she thought that the Vietnamese nail technicians had language barriers:

They have language barriers because they don’t need to learn English. The whole community speaks their language and so they don’t need to bother to learn how to communicate in English with their customers (October 25, 2008).

In the previous chapter, some of the participants admitted that they were embarrassed about their English language skills, which would explain why they do not take the time to get to know their customers as a service provider would in a traditional beauty salon. For

Vietnamese workers, having a close connection to other members of their ethnic networks (whether salon owners, salon suppliers or other Vietnamese nail technicians) makes it easier for them to work in the salon without having to worry that they need to learn English language skills. The language barrier did not affect Rosa’s impression of

77 Dream Nails. She mentioned that there were cultural aspects of the salon that she did notice:

This particular salon didn’t seem Vietnamese to me except I did notice they were collecting money for a Vietnamese children’s charity and they had advertisements for a Vietnamese concert on the wall and obviously the people that work there are Vietnamese. I automatically associate nail salons with Asians but I never realized that nail salons were different Asian cultures. I just thought that’s what Asian people did. I didn’t know that the majority of people that work in nail salons in Toronto are Vietnamese but I can see the difference between Asian groups now that I’m talking to you. I went to one salon and I am realizing now they could have been Korean. Not that this matters but it’s nice to know there are a variety of cultures in my neighbourhood (October 25, 2008).

Rosa has a racialized service expectation of the nail salon because she associates nail salons with Asians and will only get her nails done if Asian people are working in the salon. Rosa was also unaware of the different type of Asian cultures that exist within her own community. For most of the customers, as I will discuss later, that nail salon workers were ‘Asian’ was important to them. However, Rosa had no idea that the woman doing her nails was Vietnamese or that she was in a space with predominately Vietnamese workers. Joy, on the other hand, knew she was in a Vietnamese nail salon when she visited Hollywood Nails and felt like this made the space more exclusive

“Sometimes I feel like an outsider when they speak Vietnamese the whole time”

Customers in this study recognize how the backstage practice of speaking Vietnamese can make them feel uncomfortable and make the salon an exclusionary space. Yet there is a sense of comfort and trust when the Vietnamese workers leak through another backstage practice to their ffontstage performance, which is cleaning their supplies.

78 These contradictory features of the nail salon keep customers like Joy, a 30-year-old graduate student of Chinese descent, visiting Vietnamese nail salons.

Joy visited different nail salons every time she wanted a manicure or pedicure. I met Joy at Hollywood Nails, and she explained to me how Hollywood Nails was different from other Vietnamese nail salons she had visited in the past:

I don’t visit the same nail salon every time. I just go to the ones in the plazas that I happen to be in, and thankfully they are all Vietnamese because the Vietnamese ladies really know how to do a great job when it comes to nails. I liked the salon I just went to in particular because I can tell they were clean, there were no bad smells, or odours coming from the salon and they were sanitized with the tools they were using. I would say this is important to me because it makes me feel more comfortable in the salon (November 11,2008).

Joy was focused on feeling comfortable in the nail salon. The salon needed to meet several requirements to attract Joy as a customer. First, the salon had to be in a convenient location. She mentioned that she visits salons in the plazas she happens to be in at the time. Second, the salon had to be Vietnamese, since Joy feels that Vietnamese people do nails well. Last, the salon had to be clean because if the salon was clean she would be able to trust the technician providing the service. These three factors affected

Joy’s comfort in the space. She also mentioned how the women working in the salon tried to make conversation with her:

They made an effort to speak to you even though it wasn’t much of a conversation they still asked how I was doing. I didn’t just sit there and stare at my nails; there was some conversation so that was nice for a change. Most times when I visit the salon the ladies never speak to me. They just talk to each other in Vietnamese the whole time I’m there and sometimes I feel like an outsider when they speak Vietnamese (November 11,2008).

79 Joy’s comments show how exclusionary the Vietnamese nail technicians can make the space feel by speaking Vietnamese. Joy felt like an outsider in Vietnamese nail salons because she could not communicate in the language she heard, but also because there was limited conversation with her in English. Joy acknowledged that in the salon she visited there was a difference in her experience became it was not typical like the other salons she was used to. Although the nail technicians in this salon made the space feel different and more comfortable for Joy compared to other Vietnamese salons she has been to, she also pointed out some other advantages of this particular salon compared to her experiences in other Vietnamese nail salons:

This salon was nice. The Vietnamese ladies gave me my own toolbox so I know that the tools they were using were new and only used on me. They tried to make you feel included since they give you your own toolbox. There is a sense of ownership by them giving your own box. It’s yours and it helps with their sanitary practice. Even though they don’t speak much because of the language barrier, just the fact that they give you your own box and they call you my your name and not just ‘hey you’, that’s what happened to me last time, it shows they are trying to make customers feel comfortable and they are trying to build some sort of customer-nail technician relationship and trying to build customers’ trust in the salon (November 11, 2008).

Joy was impressed with Hollywood Nails because she liked the idea of having her own toolbox for hygiene purposes in the nail salon space. She mentioned that she would visit the salon again because she liked how the nail technicians made an effort to learn her name by writing it on her toolbox, which contributed to the feelings of comfort that she experienced in the space:

On the toolbox, I like that they put your name on it because it shows the nail ladies are being personable with you. That was a nice touch. Their service at this salon was good. It wasn’t amazing. I thought that compared to other Vietnamese nail salons, they knew what they were doing; you

80 didn’t have to sit there for long while they did your nails. I didn’t tell the ladies about what I thought about the service because it wasn’t exceptional in terms of what else could be done. I noticed I didn’t make any connections with this nail tech because I could tell there was a language barrier. But I did leave her a tip and that’s how I verbalized what I felt about the service (November 11,2008).

Joy emphasized that in the nail salon space there was limited conversation between herself and the nail technician. The irony is that she did not try to make conversation by letting the nail technicians know how she felt about the service; instead, she ‘verbalized’ her opinion by providing a tip. Joy felt that the nail salons are all the same. Comments below suggest that her experiences are consistent in every Vietnamese nail salon she visits:

I don’t get my nails done often, mainly for special occasions and mainly if it is convenient with my schedule and where I am at the time. Nowadays, salons are everywhere so there’s no problem finding one that would do your nails right away without an appointment. If I found the right nail tech, I would request her every time, but they are all the same to me (November 11,2008).

Joy also considers her relationship with the nail technician as one that is a ‘customer- worker’ type of relationship because the environment of the nail salon does not foster friendships, as often occurs at traditional salons. The language barrier certainly contributes to this, as Joy recognizes:

I tend to make a customer-worker relationship with the nail techs. It’s not a friend-type situation where I feel comfortable talking to them about my life story. You just don’t do that in nail salons. It’s not the place or right environment because salons are loud and so busy plus it’s difficult to speak with the language barrier (November 11,2008).

The language barrier between Joy and the nail technician also causes her to feel that the conversation that she does have is superficial:

81 The conversation that I do have is things like ‘where you from’ ‘how’s the weather’. It’s nothing in-depth. It’s the same relationship you would have with a mailman or mailwoman. It’s superficial, no depth to the conversation (November 11,2008).

Joy does not know that some of the Vietnamese nail technicians are trained by the owners or salon managers to say certain things like ‘how’s the weather’ as part of their embodied performance. Conversing in this manner, or having conversations that are not in-depth, suggests that there is some effort on the part of the salon workers to acknowledge their customers and create a different type of environment that does not just focus on working quickly and serving a lot of customers, but rather on developing some form of a relationship. Joy also mentioned how the Vietnamese nail salon is a place that can cater to high demands:

This salon was really good I thought because they were quick and were able to cater to the North American demands where there’s the ‘I want it now and I’ll get it now’ attitude. This salon is high standard, there are no smells. I just feel bad for some of the ladies that probably have not been in Toronto for many years because they really have had to adapt to this pace and attitude in order to create the environment that caters to our North American standards when it comes to service. I’m sure it’s not the same in Vietnam, really (November 11,2008).

Joy’s comments she suggests that the nail salon is a fast-paced environment and that

Vietnamese salons are able to create environments that meet the needs of the customers.

Although there are limited conversations between the nail technicians and customers, and

Joy felt like ‘an outsider’ in the space when she heard workers speaking to each other in

Vietnamese, the Vietnamese nail salon has been able to cater to the needs of customers.

Customers like Joy and Rosa consume these spaces because they trust that Vietnamese nail technicians are the best at their professions, and this belief contributes to their

82 feelings of comfort. In the next interview Cherri demonstrates how the language barriers in the salon affect how (un)comfortable she feels in the space.

“I know speaking in Vietnamese is part of the culture, even if it makes me feel uncomfortable at times”

Being acknowledged in a space is important for customers receiving a service in the service sector economy. Customers accept the features of the nail salon such as speaking

Vietnamese, even if it means receiving a service of the traditional manicure and pedicure in a different way. For example, Cherri, a 23-year-old student who had just graduated from university, only had her nails done for special occasions. She described how she sometimes felt uncomfortable getting a manicure at Vietnamese salons because the workers would often speak Vietnamese to each other. She explained some of her reasons for having a manicure at Sunshine Nails and Spa:

I pass this nail salon every day and it’s always busy so I decided to try it since I have an occasion to attend this evening. I liked the customer service in the salon because today the nail technician was making an effort to speak to me and trying to make me laugh this rarely happens in the nail salon. Usually the ladies and men work away and don’t say a word; they just talk to each other like you don’t exist (February 17,2009).

Cherri was bothered by her previous experiences in Vietnamese salons because the workers would not acknowledge her presence. However, she felt that the service in

Vietnamese nail salons is consistent and that was her reason for not visiting the same nail salon:

I never go to the same nail salon because it usually depends where I am and I don’t feel like I need to go to the same place. The service is pretty consistent in every Vietnamese salon. Like up the street they are different

83 Vietnamese owners and from here and the environment and everything is the exact same. You see the ladies and men working away talking to each other in Vietnamese and totally ignoring the customer but they know what they are doing when it comes to nails (February 17,2009).

Although Cherri felt that she was ignored in the nail salon, she thought that the

Vietnamese were experienced workers. Cherri’s opinion is similar to the other participants in this study about the Vietnamese doing nails: she thought that they were good at their jobs even though they ignored the customer. Yet Cherri did have a conversation with the nail technician that did her nails at Sunshine Nails and Spa:

The kind of conversation we have is a light conversation. Like talking to a waiter or waitress and I only go to this salon because of the cost. Where I go to get my hair done, to get a manicure there is almost triple the price and they don’t do a thorough job like they do at the Vietnamese salons (February 17, 2009).

Cherri and Joy both described the types of conversations they had with the Vietnamese nail technicians to other professions such as the mail man or mail woman and waiter or waitress. Speaking to a waiter or mail woman would be a quick conversation because that is the nature of the service that customers are used to. Talking to the Vietnamese nail technician is also quick and simple even though there is a lot more time spent with the nail technician and it is a more intimate personal service that requires the management of emotions:

It’s hard to tell if a salon is Vietnamese like they don’t put up a Vietnamese flag anywhere. You know how if you go to a Greek restaurant you can’t help but notice the Greek flag everywhere. It’s not like that in the Vietnamese salons but what gives it away is that they only speak to each other in Vietnamese and most of the time, ignore the customer. I know the salon is part of their culture and speaking Vietnamese is part of their culture so I don’t mind even if it makes me feel uncomfortable. If I were in the nail workers’ shoes, I would keep my language and not speak English either especially if I didn’t have to because I could get around and

84 do everything in my language, [why would you feel uncomfortable in the salon? What would cause these feelings?] Because if you don’t know what they are saying, chances are, they are making fan of you or talking about you and you can just sense when someone is saying something about you even if it’s in another language. This one time I nicked my nail by accident and I told the nail tech that I smudged the nail polish. She was saying something in her language to the other nail tech and I knew it was about me. She was so angry and said it was my fault and didn’t want to repaint my nail. But she did it anyway. I know now that if I smudge my nail again, I can’t get it repainted, they get so mad (February 17,2009).

Cherri demonstrated her insecurity about being in the salon since she disliked the fact that she could not express her dissatisfaction with the service if she smudged her own nail.

She was afraid that if she did, the Vietnamese nail technicians would speak badly about her in Vietnamese. On the other hand, nail salon customer Lydia did not have an issue choosing another nail salon if she was not satisfied with the one she visits most often.

“If I don’t like one nail salon, I can easily go to the other”

The popularity of Vietnamese nail salons have made the space accessible to general the population that any man or woman can get their nails done in almost any neighbourhood.

For example, Lydia, a 46-year-old mother of two, was an avid nail salon fanatic.

She worked as a real estate agent and would get a manicure almost every other week. She explained how she loved going to one salon called French Nails because it was close to her home:

I found this nail salon on my way to work one day and I just walked right in with no appointment. The nail techs were happy to serve me and not to mention, the salon is so close to my house so it’s convenient for me to walk there. I originally found this salon by just driving by and it was near the plaza where I live (February 16,2009).

85 Location was a big factor that influenced Lydia’s decision for visiting the nail salons that she did. The salons had to be close to her home for convenience. She also visits the same nail technician for convenience:

I now visit the same nail tech mainly for convenience. She is really good and I don’t even have to say anything to her, she just knows what I want and how to do it. I don’t have much conversation with her because of the language barrier. The nail tech usually speaks to the other girl in Vietnamese and sometimes I feel like they are making fun of my nails in their language because my nails are not in the greatest shape (February 16, 2009).

Lydia was the only participant in this study that visited the same nail technician and she mentioned that the conversation and relationship that she had with her nail technician was no different than Rosa or Joy’s experience:

When I try to speak to the nail tech she mainly says things like ‘how are your kids’, ‘when you going on vacation?’ Simple stuff. And then the other half of the time she is speaking in Vietnamese to other people who work there. I like my nail tech, we have a customer-worker relationship. She accommodates me like once I made an appointment and I was 40 minutes late and she waited for me and still did my nails (February 16, 2009).

Although Lydia saw the same nail technician, she felt uncomfortable when the workers would speak to each other in Vietnamese because she thought they were talking about her nails. Lydia also noticed that in the nail salon, there were no visible features of the salon that gave away its cultural identity (except for the people working there). She believed that it was because the salon wanted to attract customers of diverse cultures:

I like to get my nails done. It’s a regular routine for me. I know most of my friends do it for a special occasion. Nothing in the salon is really Vietnamese except for the staff who speak to each other in Vietnamese, and you should see them they go at it. I get uncomfortable because I

86 always think they are talking about me. They better not be talking about me! [Lydia says this laughing and jokingly]. I think that they try not to make it look Vietnamese or cultured in any way because they want to attract a lot of customers of different cultures (February 16,2009).

For Lydia, the Vietnamese nail salon is a place of convenience where she can get groomed and see the same nail technician who accommodates her every time. Her reasons for choosing to visit the salon have to do with convenience as well because the salon has to be close to her home:

I’m fortunate where I live because there are many nail salons in my area so if I don’t like one nail salon, I can easily go to another. The whole point is to not go out of your way and spend a lot of time getting your nails done. That’s why I visit the Vietnamese salons because they are quick, cheap and the Vietnamese people pay attention to detail so they always do a good job on my nails (February 16, 2009).

Lydia describes what she thinks of the nail salon culture when she states that the whole point of the salon is not spending time getting groomed. The Vietnamese nail salon is a place that thrives on providing quick service no matter what service they are providing, from manicures to waxing. By the same token, Lydia’s interview, which was similar to the participants above, also describes a space that is highly racialized by generalizing that all Vietnamese people are good at doing nails because they pay attention to detail.

“I only visit Vietnamese salons because of convenience”

Convenience is a concept that the Vietnamese have learned to offer. Not only are they located in almost any strip mall plaza as Lydia mentioned previously, but they provide the service that is quick and available all hours of the working day. For instance, Seema, a 28-year-old youth worker of Indian descent, was a manicure fan that loved to get her

87 nails done. She explained that she would only get manicures or pedicures if it was convenient for her and later describes how she behaves for getting consistent service in

Vietnamese salons:

This salon was close by so that’s why I came to it. I’ve had good experiences at this salon. It’s usually been ok, but when the manager does my nails she’s quick, I find she doesn’t pay attention to detail as the regular staff does probably because she’s giving direction in Vietnamese to the staff (January 14,2009).

There is a general belief amongst the participants in this study that Vietnamese nail salon workers are experts at ‘paying attention to detail.’ Seema was not impressed with her manicure because the manager of the salon was focused on giving direction to the other nail technicians instead of doing Seema’s nails the way she liked it. Seema mentioned that in that kind of environment, if you complain or mention that you are not happy with the service, the nail technicians may ruin your nails on the next visit:

One thing about Vietnamese salons in general is that they blame me if you tell them that you are not happy with the service even if it’s their mistake. I only visit Vietnamese salons for convenience. In this case, I tend to not ask for the same nail technician because they are all consistent with the service. They are trained to be a certain way and they probably all went to the same nail school for training (January 14,2009).

Seema’s generalizations about the Vietnamese nail salon show that for regular customers, they can expect the same service and consistency because the environment is similar for every visit they have. Seema’s comments illustrate that the relationships that customers have with their nail technician are not typical of beauty services that require touch, communication and feelings such as doing nails:

I would say that there is no relationship that exists between me and the nail technicians. I never make conversation with the nail technicians. Going to the nail salon is like going to a gas station. You go get what you

88 need and leave. They make the environment that way to accommodate the customers who don’t want to spend time having their nails done. The nail technician today was speaking in Vietnamese so I didn’t really have much interaction with her. I felt really uncomfortable actually and I couldn’t say anything because I was scared she was going screw up my nails (January 14,2009).

Seema’s comments demonstrate that in the nail salon it is crucial to not express dissatisfaction with the service due to the perceived risk of impacting the quality of service received on the current or next visit. In addition to being worried about expressing her dissatisfaction, Seema also expressed discomfort because she did not converse with the nail technician the entire visit. If Seema did have long conversations with the beauty provider, she would not experience the nail salon as similar to a gas station. But it is precisely time and convenience that shape the way the Vietnamese nail salon is today. Seema did mention the advantages of her manicure that day :

I like the look of having a manicure. It just looks nice when you get pampered by someone else. It’s something you can’t do yourself or it just doesn’t come out the way the Vietnamese nail techs do it. In this salon, the only thing besides the workers that are Vietnamese are the neon lights outside the door. Neon flashing lights so give the place away that it’s a Vietnamese nail salon (January 14,2009).

Seema associated fluorescent lights with Vietnamese nail salons. The fluorescent lights are the same kind of lights you would see at a convenience store. The Vietnamese nail salon is similar to the convenience store or gas station designed to minimize the time a customer spends getting what they came to buy, in this case, polished nails. The

Vietnamese nail salon is a one-stop shop beauty service that has set up the space to be a fast-paced environment. Since there is limited conversation, the service can be quick.

89 Conclusion

The client participants in this study suggest that the Vietnamese nail salon is a complex space. There are racialized aspects of the space that make customers feel comfortable and make customers trust (or not) the nail technicians working on their hands and feet because of the hygiene issues and preconceived cultural notions. Client participants have grouped nail salons into one category, namely as ‘Asian nail salons’. Some clients are unable or find it unnecessary to distinguish the nail salons as specifically Vietnamese.

The clients then associate ‘Asian-ness’ with a set of fixed characteristics related to an aptitude to performing nail services in an efficient and hygienic matter, an association which echoes the Orientalism Edward Said (1979) argued was part of the colonial project. Here it results in a customer attitude that sees nail salons as all the same because they consist of the same type of service that is about convenience and lack of conversation between the Vietnamese nail technicians and the customers.

The sense of trust that customers have expressed about the Vietnamese nail salon stems from its Vietnamese-ness (or Asian-ness): “Vietnamese people know how to do nails” because they have in some way said that Vietnamese people know how to do nails. Yet, at the same time, clients expressed their discomfort when Vietnamese nail workers speak to each other in Vietnamese. For instance, some of the customers felt that the nail technicians were making fun of them or talking badly about. Evidence of the nail technicians backstage script performance makes customers feel uncomfortable but is proof that they are being serviced by ‘real Asians.’

90 Customers have also shown that they enjoy the Vietnamese nail salon. They like the fact that it is quick and convenient. Customers can visit any salon without an appointment; they never see the same nail technician and still get the same consistent service on their nails like they would at any other Vietnamese-owned salon. These conveniences make the Vietnamese nail salon an attractive space for customers even though they express feelings of discomfort and in some cases fear that they would not receive the same kind of services if they complained about the service in any way.

91 Chapter 6 — Conclusion

A Vietnamese woman looks up at me as she works furiously under a bright desk lamp. As she forcefully sprays and scrubs her sterile workstation, she yells in Vietnamese to her co-worker as they converse loudly. I cannot help but wonder what they are talking about. When she is done sanitizing, she asks me to sit behind a small white table that is jammed into a long row o f identical stations. The stark white decor and overpowering smell o f cleaning supplies are more reminiscent o f a hospital than a soothing spa or upscale salon. My Vietnamese nail technician quickly launches into a barrage o f innocuous questions, almost as though she is reading from a script. “How’s the weather?” she asks, shortly followed by, “What’s the occasion? Going out with your boyfriend?" This is the same stilted conversation I have heard about over and over again during my months o f research. Now, I realize I am no longer just a researcher in this moment. I am a customer getting the full Vietnamese nail salon experience in Toronto.

The Vietnamese nail salon in Toronto is unquestionably a distinctive space. However, it is not necessarily unique to Toronto alone. The process of getting nails done at a

Vietnamese salon is relatable in major cities across North America, and has even entered the pop culture realm through depictions on popular TV shows such MadTV.as The

Vietnamese nail salon space, in North America in general and Toronto in particular, is a product of the interactions between Vietnamese nail salon owners, nail technicians and clients. In the traditional beauty salon, which still exists today, women and men tend to visit the same beauty service provider each visit. Conversely, at a

Vietnamese salon, clients hardly ever see the same nail technician twice, primarily because the Vietnamese salon caters to the quick and convenient service that their diverse clientele demands.

92 This conclusion is the result of the interactions between the experiences and expectations of Vietnamese nail salon owners, nail technicians and clients. The Vietnamese nail salon is a socially constructed space and these social constructions come out of the experiences that happen between the Vietnamese nail salon owner, nail technician and clients. The

Vietnamese nail salon presents a stark contrast to the traditional beauty salon. The traditional beauty salon is a space where customers build relationships with their beauty providers. The Vietnamese nail salon is an impersonal space. Relationships between the service providers and customers are largely non-existent, and there is a juxtaposition of discomfort and familiarity with the space. Pop culture references such as Anjelah

Johnson’s skit onMadTV illustrate how popular and familiar the salon space is for the audience which can laugh knowingly at the terse conversations with the Vietnamese nail technician she reenacts. Johnson parodied the uncomfortable feeling she had when the

Vietnamese nail technician asked how her mother was doing in between snippets of the conversations she was having with her coworkers in Vietnamese.

This thesis has illustrated how the social construction of the Vietnamese nail salon space is partially a result of the disparity between how the salon owners and workers understand what they are offering compared to how customers perceive it. Vietnamese nail salon workers believe that their Vietnamese-ness and salon cleanliness is what keeps customers coming back. At the same time, the Vietnamese nail technicians attempt to manage the backstage and ffontstage through the script they are taught in order to try to build a relationship with their customers. The backstage performance is speaking the

93 Vietnamese language, training what to say in English and cleaning the salon, which often times is leaked into the frontstage performance. The frontstage is the scripted encounter.

The customers, on the other hand, have indicated that quick, convenient service by

‘Asian’ nail techs is the important factor in their decision to visit a Vietnamese nail salon

- they are not looking for chitchat. The key issues in this thesis are performance, frontstage and backstage, and how these practices are rationalized by nail salon owners, nail technicians and customers.

In Chapter Three, the interviews with the nail salon owners revealed the practices of managerial surveillance and the geographies of display. Salon owners like Bonnie and

Mary supervised nail technicians while they worked on customers to ensure they were emphasizing the salon was clean and following the scripted conversation points while working on a customer’s nails. For instance, Bonnie explained how she taught her employees how to speak and what to say to customers so that they gain confidence in their language skills when working on men and women’s hands and feet. She trained them on their performance, the geography of display and ultimately how to perform in the front stage. This included a script that consisted of basic conversation starters like

“how’s the weather?” and “how are your kids?” Additionally, nail salon owners trained nail technicians to make it clear during the front stage performance that they were cleaning the salon and equipment to debunk myths that nail salons are not clean.

Furthermore, nail salon owners intended to interpret what their customers’ needs were.

The customers should feel the salon is clean, based on the assumption that the cleanliness

94 would inspire customers to have an attachment to that particular salon. The workings of the frontstage and backstage tended to overlap, since cleaning was traditionally a backstage practice. For instance, during the interview process, as a researcher, I was given a tour of the back of the salon to see the kinds of cleaning products salon workers used. Yet cleaning became a front stage practice as well, since exaggerating the act of cleaning was meant to gain the trust of returning customers.

In Chapter Four, the nail technicians who work in the various nail salons explained their type of workplace experience. One recurring theme was that the nail technicians were self-conscious about their English-speaking skills. This affected their relationships with the customers but made their job easier because they could communicate in Vietnamese with fellow nail technicians and the salon owner. The nail technicians had to manage their emotions in the salon through scripted conversation topics that they were trained to say. The job does not require extensive English skills, but it does require touching people’s hands and feet as Jessica demonstrated. Jessica also explained that as long as the nail technician is comfortable touching and grooming customers’ hands and feet, then she is able to perform the work of a nail technician. The interactive embodied labour that is performed by the nail technicians coincided with the delivery of the script that the technicians have been taught. Some nail technicians explained that the job could be very tiring, since it required constant touching and, to a certain extent, acting, since they have to pretend to be interested in the conversation and job.

95 In Chapter Five, the customers explained that convenience was the primary reason they frequented Vietnamese nail salons. Customers like Seema only visited salons that were close to her home. Similarly, Lydia also enjoyed the conveniences of having several

Vietnamese nail salons located in her neighbourhood. She mentioned that if she was not pleased with one nail salon, she could easily find another in her community. Both Seema and Lydia explained how they often felt insecure and uncomfortable when the nail technicians would speak Vietnamese to each other. Additionally, Joy felt like an

‘outsider’ when salon workers conversed in Vietnamese. When the nail techs did address her, Joy felt that the conversations were ‘superficial’. As a result, the superficial conversations did not succeed in making customers feel less like outsiders, since they still felt left out of the backstage Vietnamese conversations.

The nail salon customers also demonstrated that there is a general belief that all nail salons are ‘Asian,’ without much thought given to the diversity of Asian cultures. One customer, Rosa, did not know that there were various Asian cultural communities in her neighbourhood, let alone in nail salons. It was difficult for Rosa to build a relationship with the nail technician because of the language and cultural barrier that existed in the space. The customers have associated Asians with nail salons and automatically assumed that because of the cultural and language barriers there was no opportunity to build relationships with the beauty service provider like the traditional beauty salons.

96 Several conclusions can be drawn from this research. For instance, it is evident that the interactive service work of the Vietnamese nail salon is emotional labour. The

Vietnamese nail salon is an equally emotional space for the customers and salon workers alike. Customers have explained their feelings of discomfort and trust because of the language barrier and perceived hygiene concerns associated with nail salons. Customers have shown that they believe that working in this type of interactive service work entails that salon workers have attributes such as being ‘Asian.’ For instance, customers, Rosa and Joy associate nail salons with ‘Asian’ people not knowing that their culture or the language they were speaking in the salon was Vietnamese. These attributes of being

Vietnamese or ‘Asian’ are embodied and socially constructed as Goffinan and McDowell have demonstrated. What is more, the micro-spaces are complex since they involve the both physical contact and attempts to forge emotional connections.

Furthermore, none of the owners and nail technicians discussed consistency with the service they provided, but all the customers indicated that they believe Vietnamese salons provide a consistent service. For example, customers like Seema and Cherri assumed that the salon workers in the salons they were interviewed about went to the same nail salon school or had the same training. Most clients liked the idea that salon owners talked about making the client feel comfortable but most of the customers describe the nail salon as uncomfortable, especially when they felt that the Vietnamese workers were speaking about them in Vietnamese. The clients also associated a clean salon with the feeling of trust and comfort. Consistency is also apparent in the physical spaces of the nail salons,

97 where the layout and set up is always the same. The manicure tables and pedicure chairs always seemed to be lined up in a row resembling an assembly line.

Owners and nail technicians think they are making their customers comfortable, but the clients feel like ‘outsiders’ because the salon workers speak Vietnamese in the presence of customers. Joy, a customer, mentioned that when the salon workers attempted to speak

English to her, she felt like the conversation was basic and superficial. Similarly, most of the customers used words like ‘basic’ and ‘not in-depth,’ to describe their conversations with the nail salon technicians. There are miscommunications and assumptions made by all three groups in the nail salon. The disconnection between customers and nail salon workers came about when customers like Rosa and Joy, for instance, thought that all salons were just ‘Asian’ and they were not aware that the nail salon they were visiting were Vietnamese-owned.

On the other hand, the Vietnamese workers believe that customers visit their salons because they are Vietnamese and Vietnamese-speaking. For example, salon owner

Bonnie mentioned that she was proud of the Vietnamese culture and the influence that

Vietnamese nail workers had in the nail salon industry. Similarly, Mary thought that the clients visited her salon because they were Vietnamese and that Vietnamese do nails best.

Yet some customers like Joy questioned whether or not nail salons are the same in

Vietnam. My interview with nail technician Karen shed some light on this rather

98 interesting point. While Karen and I were speaking, the topic of nail salons in Vietnam emerged when I asked about her training and education:

Doing nails is a Canadian thing for Vietnamese people. It’s very hard to find nail salons in Vietnam. They are not like here. In this plaza there are three nail salons, it would be hard to find that in Vietnam.

Karen’s comments show that Vietnamese nail salons are unique to Vietnamese-

Canadians. Most customers that were interviewed were not aware that they were getting the service done by a Vietnamese-speaking nail technician. Customers assumed that all nail salons are ‘Asian’ and that ‘Asians’ were good at doing nails.

The Vietnamese nail salon in Toronto is a new social space and is a niche that

Vietnamese-Canadians have carved in the Toronto landscape. It is a micro-space that is

emotionally invested and that is socially constructed on the barriers that exist between the

service providers and the customers.

Although customers visit salons because they believe they are ‘Asian,’ Vietnamese

workers think that the popularity of the nail salon space has emerged because it is owned

and operated by Vietnamese-speaking workers. Vietnamese nail salons in Toronto have

become a fabrication of the greater streetscape and will continue to evolve into a place

that is culturally rich and unique in its own way.

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Images

Image of Vietsalon magazine cover http://www.viet- salon.com/pastIssues/issue.aspx?iid= 17

Image of Tippi Hedren http://peoples- historv.com/art/cinema/actor/tippi hedren/hedren 4.html This image is an example of Vietnamese nail technicians working as if on an assembly line. Image taken from: http://evolvingwellness.com/posts/120/nail-salon-health-risks/

Anjelah Johnson imitating a Vietnamese nail technician doing nails during her skit on MadTV. This skit can be found on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wlsTg2MCHg

Reese Witherspoon from the movie Legally Blonde (2001). Still taken from: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3795490816/tt0250494

Still taken from the original Palmolive commercial: http://www.tvacres.com/admascots madge.htm This episode can also be viewed on Youtube: http://www.voutube.com/watch?v= bEkq7JCbik

Image of news reports: http://www. voutube.com/watch?v=XsS 1 LfHJZxA

102 Appendix A

Interview Question Guidelines for the Nail salon owners, Nail Technicians and Salon Customers

Questions for the Clientele Production and Consumption of the Intimate Service:

1. What service did you receive today? 2. How did you hear about this salon? 3. Why did you choose to come to this salon? 4. Have you had previous manicures and pedicures done some where else? For what reason? 5. What is your overall experience having a manicure or pedicure (or any other service in this salon? 6. What do you like best about this salon? 7. What do you think about the quality of the service you received? 8. Did you tell what you think to the manager/owner of the salon or the employees?

Relationship with the Nail Technician

1. How often do you request or visit the same nail technician? 2. What kind of relationship do you have with the nail technician? 3. What kinds of conversations did you have with the nail technician? For example, what kinds of topics did you talk about while getting your nails done?

Perceptions and Influences of the Nail Salon:

1. Why did you choose to get your nails done at this salon? 2. Was it advertised? 3. Is nail care part of your daily routine? 4. What factors influence your decision to make nail care part of your daily routine? 5. Is there anything in the salon that you think is influenced by Vietnamese culture? What do you think tells you the ethnic origin of this salon?

Questions for the Nail Technicians

Job skills:

1. What training did you have before you decided to become a nail technician? 2. Is this a part time job for you? 3. How did you learn the skill of giving manicures and pedicures?

103 4. What challenges did you face learning this skill? 5. What kinds of training did you have to do in order to work at this location? Did you get any training at this salon? 6. Did you have to get a diploma or any kind of certification to work here? 7. Does the salon owner ask you to do anything specific? 8. Do you have a specific job in the salon that is your responsibility? 9. What would you be doing now if you were not a nail technician?

Work Environment

1. What do you like about your job? 2. What job did you do before this? Why do you like this job better? 3. Can you tell me about your work environment? For example, what typically happens here in a regular day? 4. Would you say there is anything Vietnamese about your workspace? If so what is it? 5. Is there anything you do to attract Vietnamese clients or Vietnamese community? 6. Does everyone have a good relationship with the manager? 7. Are you related to anyone working here? Do you socialize together? What kinds of things do you talk about with your coworkers? For example, what kinds of topics do you discuss?

Relationships with Customers

1. How many customers visit here often and are frequent clients? 2. Do you try to develop a close friendship with your customers so they ask for you the next time they come to the salon? 3. What is your relationship with your customers? 4. Are most of your customers Vietnamese speaking or of Vietnamese background? 5. What kinds of conversations do you have with your customers? For example, what kinds of topics do you discuss with them while working on their hands and feet? 6. Wquld you like to open up your own nail salon? Has any of your colleagues/co- worker ever opened up their own salon? 7. What kinds of customers come into your salon? What kinds of customers are you trying to attract into the salon? 8. Do you get any Vietnamese customers? What do you do for the Vietnamese customers that are different than the non-Vietnamese customers? 9. Do you make it clear that this salon is a Vietnamese salon or owned? How do you advertise that?

104 Questions for the Nail Salon Owner

History of the Establishment

1. What is your role in the nail salon? 2. How long have you been in business? 3. Have you worked in a nail salon before? 4. What kind of experience do you have? 5. How do you pay for your employees? 6. Are the nail technicians paid with a fixed salary? 7. Are they paid by hour? Or by job? 8. Do they have to bring their own supplies or their own equipment?

Entry into the Industry

1. How did you learn about starting your own business? Where were you bom? When did you come to Canada? Did any of your business ideas come from these experiences? 2. How did you decide to open up a nail salon? 3. Did you have any prior experiences? 4. What kind of training do you provide your workers? 5. What kind of training do you have? 6. Who is your clientele? 7. Do customers who speak Vietnamese come to your nail salon? What community is your business involved in? Is your business involved in the Vietnamese community? 8. Do you advertise your business? How do you advertise your business? In what languages? Is Vietnamese one of those languages that you advertise in?

Barriers and Support to Entry into the Small Business

1. What challenges did you encounter when starting up the nail salon? 2. What kind of support did you receive? For example from government, family, friends?

Management of the Nail Salon

1. Can you tell me how you manage the nail salon? 2. What kinds of training do you provide? 3. Do your nail technicians have to get certificates or diplomas to be able to work here? 4. How are jobs assigned in your nail salon? Does anyone have a specific job or responsibility in the salon that they must do on a regular basis?

105 5. Why do you think people come to your salon? What kind of clientele are you trying to attract to your salon and why? 6. What do you think is Vietnamese about your salon? 7. Are there non-Vietnamese workers working for you?

106