Nail Art Is Much Older Than You Think

If you live in London, getting an elaborate manicure in Wembley for your nails is simply a matter of popping into a local nail bar, relaxing with a glass of bubbly and feeling your problems melt away as you have a relaxing makeover.

Thanks to a dizzying array of nail polish colours and shellac, nails have in recent years become a canvas for self-expression, but the idea of painting your nails for art is much older than you might think.

How old is it? Two of the earliest civilisations in human history had nail art traditions dating back to roughly the same time, both for very different reasons.

In Ancient Egypt, the birthplace of many artistic traditions, women would commonly use henna to paint and dye their nails, typically as a sign of social status in a civilisation with a strong caste system.

Lower-class women would wear pastel and neutral shades, largely because the raw materials needed to make them were so much cheaper and easier to find, whilst upper-class women wore the bright and deep shades a lot of Egyptian art is famous for.

An even more fascinating example is found with the warriors of Babylonia. Before going into battle, men would spend hours preparing their hair, their face paint and their nails, with the colours once again symbolising social status.

Common soldiers wore green nails whilst the nobility used black kohl to signify their standing in Babylonian society before and after the battle.

With nearly every civilisation since there has been some form of nail art, with Ancient China developing the first ever nail polishes complete with gold and silver dust, whilst in the Ming Dynasty nails could get so long that elaborate jewel-encrusted nail guards were needed.

The Inca Empire of South America (1438-1533) even painted eagles onto their nails, which is the first use of nail art as we define it today.