While I never worked as a manicurist I did work in retail and I know all about that EWWW feeling. It never had anything to do with someone being transgendered, there are people, for whatever reason we don’t like, whether they are male, female, or transgendered. I believe we have all met someone that we took an instant dislike to maybe even before any words were exchanged, and conversely there are people we instantly hit off with.

I don’t see that calling ahead guarantees a good experience on several accounts. How do you know that the person you talk to on the phone is the same person who will be performing the manicure? The last salon I went to had a full time receptionist who answered the phone and greeted p0eople when they walked in and the manicures pedicures were done by someone else. I’ve talked with people on phone only to find that I didn’t much like them when I met them in person.

You think the manicurist doesn’t have EWWW thoughts with some of the GG clients? I had regular customers who always asked for me and I wished they would allow someone else to wait on them, or better yet go somewhere else, but I smiled, listened to they wanted, advised them on what to purchase, and the store happily accepted their money. I suppose I could have done a lousy job and they would have gone elsewhere but that is not in my nature, I just sucked it up and served them the best I could and with a smile on my face; they left happy and I got my paycheck on the First and Fifteenth.

People who work in the public service industry get quite adept at concealing those EWWW moments. If you could be a fly on the wall in the break room you might be quite surprised at some of the conversations, “I had a couple of girls who combined didn’t have the IQ of a half-wit”, “I had a man and I’ll swear he hasn’t had a bath in a month, I almost gagged”, Did you see that woman in brown mini-skirt, she must have in her sixties and I’ve seen better legs on a chicken”, “I know you saw Nancy, that good looking attorney in the gorgeous blue skirt suit with the white silk blouse, well use to wait on her a few years ago when she was Bob”, “OMG, I had this one customer . . .”