I agree with Karmen. I've gotten salon mani-pedis on a regular basis for over 30 years. I still hide it from family and most friends. I've been caught, and I hated it. In public other than friends and family I'm totally comfortable. Judging by the number of men I see in nail salons it's becoming more and more mainstream. I anxious to see this summer if I see more men than usual with their toes done. I get aggravated with myself that it's something I don't just "own" around friends and family. I've owned the fact that I shave my legs for my whole life. When I had long hair I had no choice but to own it. Waxed and tinted brows, long manicured nails... things that are impossible to hide, I've always just been "out there" about those things. No choice, except to not do them. In most cases, though, I've chickened out about nail polish. Especially in the past several years, though, I've seen very ordinary looking guys wearing nail polish, particularly on their toes. Grandpas, macho guys, businessmen, athletes, young boys, you name it. They don't hide it, but I do. Makes no sense. It's been some months ago on this board that I said I was going to start wearing nail polish around my GF's family. She is absolutely fine with me doing that. The one with the hangup is me. I'm going to do it... soon. Maybe.

It's not very often that I fully dress anymore, although I've had a recent flurry of it. My baseline, though, my kind of "If I had to give it all up but a few things, what would I keep?" definitely includes nail polish. That's one of the things I feel most compelled to do even in male mode. In no particular order of importance... Shave legs/everywhere, wax/thread/tint eyebrows, get my nails done/wear polish publicly, carry a purse. Bugs me that I can't just be out about it when I've seen grandpa at Bass Pro Shops with (apparently) shaved legs and red toes in flip flops out with the family.