The Ping-Pong Ball Fingernail Repair Guide by Samuel Laroche-Pagé

Samuel Laroche-Pagé posted these excellent photos and guides to repairing your nails using the famous ping-pong ball method for classical guitar. He kindly agreed to let me share the photos and text here. Extra bonus is that it’s in French and English. Before I do, however, please check out Samuel’s other great online content:

All photos and text by Samuel Laroche-Pagé.

Fingernail Ping Pong Method

Avant-tout:
Pour faire ceci, vous devez au préalable avoir un ongle… Ce renforcement est uniquement possible en collant la balle de Ping-Pong en dessous de l’ongle.. De cette façon vous n’endommager pas votre cuticule.

To know before: You need to have a nail to do this operation. This reinforcement will only work if you have a nail. It make it stronger and prevent any damage to your cuticle.

Étape 1: Couper une pièce de la balle de Ping-Pong avec un ciseau de la forme de votre ongle. Bien tailler la courbe pour qu’elle épouse bien votre ongle.

Step 1: Cut a piece of the Ping-Pong ball the shape of your nail and flesh. Be sure it fit’s perfectly.

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Étape 2: Le morceau doit être confortable et être précisément de la forme de votre doigt.

Step 2: The Ping-Pong ball need to fit comfortably and fir precisely your finger.

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Étape 3: Limer le morceau affin qu’il soit lisse et sans imperfections.

Step 3: Buff the piece so it will be thiner and smooth under your nail.

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Étape 4: Coller le morceau avec de la Crazy Glue ou de la colle à ongle de pharmacie.

Step 4: Glue the piece with Crazy Glue or Nail glue.

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Étape 5: Soyez certain que le morceau est collé bien parfaitement. Ajoutez de la colle afin de boucher tout les trous d’air.

Step 5: Be sure the piece is well glued under your nail. And glue in any “air spots”.

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Étape 6: ATTENDRE 10-15 MINUTES ! Ensuite, couper le surplus avec un coupe-ongle.

Step 6: WAIT 10-15 MINUTES ! Next, cut the rest with a nail cutter.

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Étape 7: Limer le surplus restant avec une lime à ongle. Assurez-vous que la surface est lisse et que la “shape” soit à votre gout.

Step 7: Buff the rest off the Ping-Pong pieces. Do the shape that you need.

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Terminé!
Finished!

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La balle de ping-pong va rester en place une semaine environ. Vous pouvez ajouter de la colle dans les coins de temps en temps.

The piece will stay in place for a week or so. You can add some glue on the corners sometimes.


Thank You Samuel!

Big thanks again to Samuel Laroche-Pagé for letting me share the photos and text here. Don’t forget to check him out online!

Website: samuellarochepage.com
Subscribe to him on YouTube: youtube.com/user/samuellarochepage

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Bradford Werner
Bradford Werner

Bradford Werner is a classical guitarist and music publisher from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He originally created this site for his students at the Victoria Conservatory of Music but now shares content worldwide. Curating guitar content helps students absorb the culture, musical ideas, and technique of the classical guitar. Bradford also has a YouTube channel with over 94,000 subscribers and 13 million views. He taught classical guitar at the Victoria Conservatory of Music for 16 years and freelanced in Greater Victoria for 20 years and now dedicates much of his time curating content online and helping connect the classical guitar community. See more at his personal website.

2 Comments

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  1. Merci Bien!
    A great tip, physically and metaphorically! I imagine you can even use it in advance of any damage to your nail, a sort of pre-emptive re-inforcement.
    PT