Polished: How Nail Salons Saved Vietnamese-Americans

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, during a campaign for the repatriation of 130,000 refugees in the United States, actress Tippi Hedren, known best for her role in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963), connected Vietnamese immigrants to the art of the manicure. Her long, decorated nails made an impression on a visit to Hope Village, so Hedren had her personal stylist flown in to teach a class to twenty women. From this meager handful grew a revolution. Now, Vietnamese-Americans own most of the market share in nail salons, an industry valued by a conservative estimate at around $7 billion.

In Polished, Bi Ayers, owner of ProNails Spa, writes of this journey through space and time from a personal perspective. Himself a Vietnamese immigrant who moved west in search of success, Ayers weaves a tale of tragedy, empathy, and triumph that begins with the loss of everything and ends with the American dream. Part memoir, part business book, Polished shares deep insight into the history of the Vietnamese-owned nail salon, told straight from the heart.