Nail Salon 'Legend' of Newbury Street Moves to MiniLuxe

Watching Mia Kang paint a fingernail is like watching a skilled artist. Her stokes are smooth, her hand steady, her technique perfected. And as the very first nail technician on Newbury Street, it's no surprise.

"When I see the nails, all I think is 'I want to make this nail beautiful," Kang said. 

From to - where Kang recently moved to in February after closing up her own shop - you can find a nail salon on pretty much every block of Newbury Street. But Kang was the first when she opened her business Mia's Nails, in 1992.

"Mia was like a legend," said Donna Charloff, the director of service operations at MiniLuxe, who used to be a nail technician herself. "[At the time] I never met her, but she was someone you always heard about."

Hair salons didn't want to dedicate a space soley for nail technicians because it wasn't a big money maker, so Kang inevitably became a trendsetter as the service expanded.

"You didn't hear about people doing just nails," Charloff said. "She was the only shop in town that was just nails for a long time. She would kind of incubate young nail technicians and give them their starts." 

Kang estimates she's trained at least 30 people over the years.

A lucky start

Did she anticipate nail services becoming the next big thing?

Not so much.

Her husband wanted to open a dry cleaners, but they didn't have the overhead.

"I said I'll start a business to make money," she said. 

The plan was she would make enough for him to get started, and then stop and raise the kids. But her business took off.

Did she anticipate Newbury Street would become the high-end shopping artery it is today?

Not so much.

Kang drove through Boston from her home in Arlington, writing down the phone numbers of all the empty storefronts. Renting 400-square-feet on the second floor of 168 Newbury Street just happened to work out.

Once her business was up and running, it spread through word-of-mouth. She posted flyers on cars, got exposure throgh help from the , and made connections with hotels like the , and who would send their guests her way.

Like a family

Over time, her business grew into something bigger than she ever could have imagined. The 50-plus Christmas cards she receives every year are a testement to the many lives she's touched.

"My clients remember my daughter when she was five-years-old, and now she's getting married," Kang said. "Over time, clients become more like family."

As a one-woman show, Kang's salon was an intimate, inviting environment - where people didn't hold back.

"In my own place is was very open. And almost like therepy."

And the relationship went both ways.

When one of her clients was in the hospital, Kang would make regular trips to Mass General to do her nails. Another client had lung cancer, and Kang brought her services to her house.

By the same token, when her husband got sick many of her clients came through with financial assistance and rides to the hospital. She even remembers one day when she left the waiting room and a client had a car service waiting for her.

"I learn through my clients," she said. "They give me so much love, and I want to do the same."

While some of her clients have followed her, the busier setting at Minilux is ... different, Kang said, and there's no guarentee she'll be able to do their nails. However, she enjoys the company of the other technicians (and has a reputation for being chatty).

"I'm sad because I miss my clients, but like working here," Kang said. "The people are very nice."

And they're happy to have her. MiniLuxe  reached out and offered her a job when they first opened. At the time Kang was happy in her own shop, but over the winter when she decided she wanted to scale back, she called them up and the offer still stood.

Where do you get you nails done in the Back Bay?