Bailey Krauss ‘25 shares her greatest accomplishments as a student and running her own nail business, “Nails By Bailey”.
By: Olivia Gonzalez
Many students around the Redwood Campus have taken on side hustles and made it a job. These students are very passionate about their work and have decided to extend their services to peers.
Bailey Krauss ‘25 is a junior here at Redwood who has taken on her own business starting in 2020 during the pandemic. Everyone has a passion and a reason behind the start.
Krauss says, “My mom is a manicurist so I just really looked up to her when she used to do my nails on the side, I thought it was really cool so I started doing it with my friends and it just became a thing.”
Making an interest become a reality is one of the most rewarding things an owner can do. A nail business especially rewards you with a space to explore a creative side.
For Krauss the creativity scale ranges.“It just really depends on what the person wants on their nails and their design. Honestly, people just give me pictures and we brainstorm different ideas so it ends up being really different from the picture,” says Krauss.
She says, “I love painting nails like that is my favorite part. I don’t really like doing acrylic or shaping, I just do it for painting.”
Running a part-time business and being a full-time student comes with its obstacles. One of those is time management. She says, “Usually I do two appointments a day but I do volleyball as well so I only do one a day. On the weekends I can go up to four people a day.”
“I TA for the sixth period so I always make sure I get all my homework done then so I don’t have to worry about it after school,” says Krauss.
Other than the management between life and business there are obstacles within the artwork. Learning how to do nails is a complex process. Krauss says, “In the beginning acrylic was really hard for me just because there needs to be a certain temperature and ratio. But I don’t feel like there are any challenges as of now.”
With opening up a business to others it brings the many joys of a customer owner relationship. Getting nails done can often bring awkwardness of meeting with someone new and sitting there hours on end, but for Krauss it wasn’t that case. Payton Short ‘25 a longtime customer says, “She makes conversations with all her clients and makes time for them in her schedule.”
Ava Mendez ‘25 says, “Something I enjoy that Bailey does it always makes me feel comfortable and we also get time to chit chat but also get nails done.”
As a student run business most of the clientele comes from peers that also attend Redwood. Kennedy Cutler ‘24 says, “Bailey and I have also become really good friends this year and she is so creative and her nails always come out so good. I would much rather go to my friend to get my nails done rather than go to a salon.”
“I wanted to get my nails done by Bailey because she is a ray of sunshine and such a good friend and I wanted to support her.”
Ava Mendez ’25
Olivia Gonzalez
Olivia Gonzalez '24 is a third year writer for the Redwood Gigantea. She is interested in looking deeper into the lives of students at Redwood. Outside of Gigantea, she is apart of the Law and Justice academy and CSF here at Redwood Highschool. You can reach her by email at olivi.go4371@vusd.us
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