[ Instrument buzzing ]
Maybe we can, like,
draw like a little saxophone
or something fun.
Maybe we could settle for a trumpet.
What would a trumpet maybe be easier?
So I'm in a random
hotel room right now.
It's quite nice because it's in Los Angeles.
I've made it...to Los Angeles
from New York,
where we haven't really
been able to do many more
one star reviews
because quite frankly,
everyone seems to hate me there.
Don't act like a nerd.
♪♪
I hate this guy. He's such a dick.
These videos are not for everyone.
♪♪
[ Blows ]
So what I'm noticing a lot
about Los Angeles
is that everyone is super glam,
and I guess you could say
I'm feeling, you know,
a little underdone,
you know,
these basic nails, no flair.
So, you know,
I'm thinking
I should probably go get
my nails done.
All right, so I just came across
Beverly Hills Nail Design.
Oh, my.
It's the McDonald's of nail salons.
They want you in and out
and they put no effort in their work.
They did such a rush job,
they couldn't get me out
of the chair fast enough.
Part factory, part nail Shop.
They must be in a race to see
who could do the quickest manicure.
Wow. So I guess I'm seeing
a recurring theme
of being rushed at this place,
which I guess
is probably not what you want
when it comes to your nails.
Every time I go in,
the owner, Lisa, is there
and she bitches and Vietnamese
to her employees.
Lisa is by far one of the rudest
and fake business owners ever.
I tried to get a refund
and the manager screamed at me
and called the owner
and they both proceeded
to tell me it was my fault
for the poor manicure.
The most unprofessional,
terrible nail salon.
So I'm hearing a lot about the
owner or manager
or I guess just, you know.
top dogs there in general,
and they're apparently not so friendly.
All the workers
speak Vietnamese loudly.
It really make feel uncomfortable.
They gossip
and they say rude
things about their customers
and Vietnamese
and laugh and point at them.
The women
doing my service talked the entire time
to the other manicurist next to her.
Ugh. No, thanks.
So I'm now even seeing
some accusations
of shit talking in different languages.
Just many of these reviews
are just not incredibly positive.
"Horrible gel manicure."
"Yikes!"
"Trash."
Well, either way, I'm super excited.
I'm ready for the next
chapter in my life
when it comes to my nails.
So sign me up
because I'm in Los Angeles,
the city of broken dreams and
alleged broken nails.
♪♪
-Hello. I'm Taji. -Hey, how are you?
-Are you Lisa? -Yeah.
So nice to meet you.
Thank you so much for having us.
♪♪
Been here for 27 years,
and doing well.
I'm doing good in Beverly Hills.
-Nice. -Yeah.
Do you have any advice for me?
Because I haven't,
you know, done the nails before.
Is there anything I should keep in mind?
Or even like maybe my nails?
Like, what do you think of them?
Your nail is short and clean, you know?
It's a decent nail?
Yeah, very decent nails.
-Thank you. -And healthy.
-Healthy. -Thank you.
But today, what do you like to do today?
Something trendy, even, you know,
like with jazz hands is, you know.
I'm kind of like a jazz hands kind of guy.
So I was thinking maybe
even like, you know,
a little saxophone or, you know,
some sort of design that kind of, you know,
is very jazzy,
something fun like that maybe.
Umm...
I could tell Lisa was concerned
by my jazz- inspired nails.
So to stay true to the nature of jazz,
we would just have to improvise
and hope for the best.
Thankfully, I was given not one,
but two nail technicians
to help make my nail dreams
come true.
Maybe we can, like, draw like
a little saxophone
or something fun, something that's really,
you know, like kind of like a jazz
kind of set up,
something that really, you know,
makes a statement,
like something bold.
♪♪
Little did I know,
[ Instrument buzzing ]
Is it normal for a
little bit of burning sometimes?
It's normal, a little bit of burning?
I'm kind of feeling a little bit --
Yeah, nothing too crazy,
but definitely like, you know,
a little bit of --
maybe I have like a cut there or something.
I don't know.
So that's why it's a little bit of burning.
So it's my fault
probably, not your fault.
Yeah. [ Laughs ]
Oh, wow, the filing --
I haven't done this really ever.
The filing is kind of almost like --
It's an interesting feeling.
It's almost like nails on a chalkboard.
I haven't done the filing before.
It's kind of an interesting
sensation.
I'm not used to--
I haven't done the filing before.
Sometimes the filing, I'm just not used to it.
I feel like the filing is like -- it's okay,
but that's, you know, the one that really
gets me.
It's all right, though.
♪♪
So they're putting on the first nail,
the first nail in the coffin,
if you will.
They're hammering it in
and gluing it on, basically.
It's a nail joke.
♪♪
Is this normally done with two people
or is it like a special
kind of thing for me?
-I'm special? -Yeah.
It's like a VIP nail
kind of treatment, it seems.
Thank you. And very efficient.
We already have almost
all of the nails on this hand.
So everything definitely
functions quite fast-paced here,
but it does seem efficient
at the same time.
Also, I notice
you're connected to the parking lot.
Yeah.
Can you enter through the parking lot?
Yeah.
Nice. It's almost like a drive-thru
kind of nail salon in a way.
In and out.
-Now we do the... -Thank you.
So now is the fun part.
So now this is where the fun begins.
-The sample of color. -Thank you.
♪♪
-How is this color? -This one's pretty cool.
I like the silver. I like the green one.
How about down here? There's another...
Yeah, I really like the sparkles.
This one looks really cool. Maybe?
And this even. Oh, that one's nice.
Maybe this one as well.
It's similar,
but is that the same one?
Every one is different one.
Corinne and Kathy were both really nice,
but based on the reviews,
Lisa was the one to fear.
-How are you feeling? -I feel good.
I think it's really nice
that there's two different people
right now.
It's like I feel, you know,
almost like this is like
a VIP kind of session here.
We have a lot of men coming in.
They just want quick
and then they go back to their office
and get a meeting.
It's almost like a lunch-break
mani-pedi...
-That's right. -...kind of setup here.
-Yeah. -Nice.
Would you say that?
Yes. Mani-pedi,
your lunch break for everyone.
I like that.
You guys can have that one for free.
The -- the -- the,
you know, the advertisement
slogan.
Oh, thank you. Thank you.
Well, to me, Lisa seemed lovely.
Thank you. I let you enjoy.
Thank you.
With the color operation
in full swing,
I thought that this would be the
perfect moment
to bring up the salon's low reviews.
I notice, you know, before I came in,
I was looking online,
you know, at some of the reviews.
Are you familiar with any of those?
♪♪
Oh, sorry. Sorry.
I guess the review talk had to wait
because we had bigger fish
to fry.
You've never done the
musical note before?
-This is the first? -Yeah.
This is like a new look over here, huh?
Awesome.
[ Conversing in Vietnamese ]
With the language barrier between
me and the nail techs,
I was starting to wonder
if they were making fun of me
right in front of my own eyes.
[ Distorted voices and laughter ]
Maybe it was just a projection
of my low self-esteem.
So far Corinne and Kathy
were doing a hell of a job,
but there was one final
test to complete.
So just like very basic,
you know, not like details.
Yeah, just like a rough
little outline of a saxophone.
Can we just try just like a
very basic one, like nothing crazy,
like just, you know,
like the outline?
[ Laughs ]
I'm sorry.
I believe in you, though.
I think you can do it.
♪♪
Maybe we could settle for a trumpet.
Would a trumpet maybe be easier?
So I'm being quite demanding
and kind of insisting
on getting the saxophone.
So she's going to go
check with Lisa, I guess.
But apparently the saxophone
is not something that's normally done.
Luckily for me, though,
the customer is always right,
and today was going to be
no exception.
Saxophone nail, here we come.
Kathy worked with such laser focus
that all my nail doubts are put at ease,
and the other nail techs
were helping out, too,
switching out when
one of them would get tired
of holding the phone.
They were a well-oiled jazz-painting
nail machine.
It's a nail miracle -- a "nailacle."
It's a nailacle.
A nail miracle.
A "nairacle."
It's a nairacle. A nail miracle.
Seriously, this is awesome.
Thank you again.
Now, I felt like a true LA celeb.
-Thank you. -Okay.
Thank you.
You guys are so nice.
Thank you.
It seemed like I was finally starting
to fit in around here.
How old's your son?
No way!
[ Twinkle! ]
-What do you think? -Nice.
Has anyone ever made
their hands this jazzy here?
Not yet. You the first one.
Even though my experience
here was amazing,
I still had to ask Lisa about her low reviews.
So we stepped out
in the parking lot for a quick chat.
Thank you.
I just wanted to ask you
a couple of questions
at the end, you know, before we head out.
So I'm super stoked
on my nails. They're awesome.
But before coming in,
you know, I looked online a little bit.
You know, I read some reviews
and, you know, I saw maybe,
you know,
some people weren't so happy,
that there's been some negative reviews.
Have you seen any of these?
I see all them,
especially my name, pop up a lot.
-Lisa? -Yeah, Lisa.
You cannot make everyone happy.
Do the best we can, the best we can,
and this place is not for sit down and relax.
Our price are the lowest in Beverly Hills.
Some people, they want quality,
they want the best, they want everything.
We try the best,
and they don't want to pay that much.
-We cannot do that. -Sure.
And then, I guess -- I saw a few -- I mean,
everyone was super nice to me in there,
but I saw, I guess
a few people had mentioned,
like, they had felt the staff were rude.
And then even that,
you know, the management,
even you in particular had been rude to them.
How would you...?
The voice,
when we speak Vietnamese language,
we raise voice up and down,
and people don't understand that.
So they think, oh, we're rude.
Each culture is different.
They try to communicate,
and customers don't understand that.
They think we're rude, but we're not.
And they are human,
okay? They are not a slave.
Honestly, people walk in here,
the nail salon, they think,
"Hey, they're Vietnamese.
They are Asian."
And the more people have money,
the more they demand.
I really appreciate you
speaking on behalf of all this
because now it kind of
makes more sense to me now,
hearing from you, you know,
like there's a language barrier.
Some of these people, I guess,
are like overreacting, you know,
or kind of taking things the wrong way
when they should kind of just...
They don't run the business.
In 27 years --
I've been 28 years in Beverly Hills.
I have a lot of customers
supporting me.
They bring their children.
So the reviews aren't
enough to, you know,
tarnish your business.
You're still going strong.
-We're happy. -For sure. I can tell.
♪♪
With my journey to
Los Angeles has come the desire
to express myself
in new, glamorous ways.
So I was extremely
excited to try the services
at Beverly Hills Nail Design.
However, I was well aware
that becoming glamorous
in this town is no easy task,
especially after reading the reviews
on this particular salon.
From the get-go,
I could really tell I'd be testing
their design limits to the full extent
due to my relentless request
for jazz-related nail art.
This is a Beverly Hills male-design first,
which is a saxophone.
Their flexibility and cool attitude
was extremely impressive
as they executed
my tedious requests impeccably.
On the way out,
I was able to discuss the negative reviews
with the owner, Lisa,
and she gave me a whole
new perspective on things.
What really resonated with
me is the fact
that people seem to misunderstand
people's motives
due to language barriers.
Language barriers might
be confusing for some,
but to me it's just another thing
that makes this world
a beautiful place to live in
and that we should take more time
to understand people better.
♪♪
-I have special nails? -Yeah.
How so?
It's a special nail, kind of?
How is it a special nail?