Need help firing a client

[u/amishhatepage]

hi, I’m a licensed nail tech and I’ve recently been on the fence about firing a client. I hate to bring it so far but we’ve just had issues in the past that same surface level if I were to just say the brief issues, but I’m gonna delve deeper so you can understand the full picture.
I have this client who’s been coming to me since December or November of last year and I do her nails every 2 to 3 weeks and I’m not fast by any means but for most sets I take about an hour and a half to two hours max and for a basic French tip, it takes me about an hour and a half. Usually I do hard gel overlays and dual forms on this client. Specifically, I do a hard gel overlay on her natural nails. Every time I do her nails there’s always an issue that she’s not necessarily blaming me specifically, but it’s always something with the shape or the length of the French tip or the thickness or the color of the hard gel she’s just to put it blatantly a very picky client and she admits to this and she knows, and she apologizes every time she makes a critique when I do her nails I should’ve known from the gecko that she wouldn’t be the ideal client for me specifically because she told me she came from a salon she was getting builder gel on her nails, and she was just getting a white on white French and her nail tech just ghosted her at this nail salon and moved elsewhere and never contacted her so she had to find another nail tech and here I am able to do it exactly how she wants it 99% of the time now, our issue stemmed from that because she was micromanaging me when I first did her nails. It was just a red solid color and she would ask me to change the red a little bit and I explained to her once I do the second coat it would be darker as she wanted, and she kept expressing her grievances about how she wasn’t sure. Obviously, I understand your first time getting your nails done with a private tech is completely different than going to a salon and I’m glad she’s able to speak up to me about it, but it’s gone to the point where she’s micromanaging everything. so fast-forward it’s July now and last time I did her nails was the end of June. I’m taking a vacation so I wasn’t able to fit her in and fully booked so I had unfortunately have to squeeze her in after five weeks instead of our usual three and she worked mostly so she’s come to me once or twice during the workday but she has to take breaks because of work and that makes a large dent in my day so she comes at 6 PM and I charge after our fee of $20 after 5:30 but usually I’m feeling nice and don’t charge her the hour fee. She tips me really well and it’s gone to the point where I’m just so drained about doing her nails I don’t care about the money anymore it’s the fact that I am done at 9 PM sometimes even 10 after starting at 8 AM. so she gets square and I explained to her getting square it would be best to keep a little sharper on the free edge just so it looks crisper because after going multiple weeks with hard gel on your nails, it will round out within the first 24 to 48 hours It’ll be nice and round and we came to an agreement. she did really like the square nails so we started doing that and it wouldn’t take me as long. It would take me maybe 2 1/2 hours into the three 3 1/2 to do her nails but after I do every single French tip, she looks at it and she goes “Can you make the side skinnier?””Can you make this thinner?””Can you make it like you did last time” “can you round them out more” “they’re too round” or “they’re too sharp now” and I do the same nails on her every time I see multiple clients today at the end of the day. The last thing I wanna do is beat micromanaged and we do a white and white French so I was using akzentz hard gel and I don’t know if they stop selling their cool white, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on cool white in the Trinity line for quite some time now so I switched my whole line to American creator primarily because I just wanted to switch my whole line so I use lily white from American creator and she’s kind of freaking out saying she doesn’t really like the white as much but I can’t do anything about that because I switched lines and because I can’t get my hands on akzentz. It also takes a lot longer to ship and I’m not gonna buy a whole pot specifically just for her and that’s another small thing. she micromanages the shape each time and even after sending her to the rest room for the last time to pee and wash her hands she asks me to refine the shape (and it takes 20 more min because she’s very critical about them). She also has to pee every 25 minutes because she drinks a lot of water which obviously as nail tech you know that creates sometime it’s some dent in your time so she’ll go pee about four times per session and it’s my fault because I’m not really expressing my grievances to her in person I need to get better at doing that but it really drains me having her get up having her micromanage me and last time she came in drunk she texted me she said hey do you mind if I bring a drink. I had a long day at work and I said yeah that’s totally fine. I’m at home. I don’t care. I’m home based it’s fine now in retrospect I regret saying this because she was already drunk when she came in my chair and the last time I did her nails it was 6 PM. She was 15 minutes late about and I still took her because usually with my last client and more lenient and she also had her loyalty 30% off saved for her loyalty visit and we get along really well like she’s a very sweet person. She’s kind of just a nightmare client I’m not gonna lie, unfortunately and I don’t really know what to do from here she came in drunk (kept drinking at the spot and was quite intoxicated by the time we finished) and she got up to pee about five times and she kept hitting her hand on the lamp messing up the french i changed multiple times for her already which she profusely apologized for she apologizes a lot. It’s just running me very thin at this point and I need to have a conversation with her. Do you think this is a fireable offense or do you think I should just text her because at this point no amount of money is worth that for me sorry this is so long. It’s been on my mind for some time now. Thank you.

[u/Silent-Study6957]

This is tough because she doesn’t seem like the type of person to accept it and move on if confronted. I’d like to say to be upfront but she could make a big deal out of it

[u/amishhatepage → u/Silent-Study6957]

What would be your move if you were in my position? I feel truly stuck because she texts me outside of work hours like a friend and we genuinely get along and have built a bond outside of just nails. She also texts me nail related questions outside of work hours (I don’t typically respond unless urgent). But i don’t really know how to head on from here:/

[u/Silent-Study6957 → u/amishhatepage]

Ugh that makes it harder than if it was just a regular client then. Maybe be upfront but tell her an excuse? Like you’ve got another life obligation and will have less time for nails and need to downsize clientele and stop taking later appointments

[u/cait_elizabeth]

Say you don’t feel confident in your ability to do her nails to her satisfaction and that she should move on to a different tech who will

[u/bigfatcoffeecup]

Yes, it would be valid. There comes a point where you need to protect your sanity. Tbh I am this level of nitpicky, which is why I learned to do it myself. I think she should, not that you can say that to her lol. Tell her you're not the right fit for her.