Hard As Nails didn’t invent the idea of men painting their nails, and a week with colourful fingers isn’t going to fix everything that’s broken.

Men have been painting their nails for decades — as rebellion, solidarity, self-expression, and joy. From David Bowie to ASAP Rocky, from the Polished Man campaign standing against violence to Celta Vigo’s fans turning up in their thousands against homophobic abuse. Queer communities have challenged gender norms through nail art and self-expression long before Hard As Nails existed, often at real personal cost. Black women are largely responsible for modern acrylic nail culture. Black men in pop culture — from Travis Scott to Bad Bunny — helped make men’s nail art mainstream. Vietnamese nail artists pioneered nail creativity while battling stereotypes. Indie and queer-run salons have been welcoming everyone — regardless of gender — as part of their daily reality for years.

One of our own participants — a straight man connected to the nail art world through his partner’s salon — put it plainly: “One of the biggest red flags would be… there has to be some acknowledgement in here that we’re standing on the foundations of what a lot of the queer community has already done previously.” He was right. And he’s not the only one who said it.

We’re not here to claim ownership of something that was never ours to begin with. We’re here because the research shows that when a specific group of men — midlife, often straight, often stuck inside the man box — do this one bold thing, something measurable shifts. We want to add to the conversation, not replace the voices that started it.