Wah London

WAH Nails is a London-based nail art boutique that kick-started the trend for fashion forward nail art. WAH began in 2005 in London, as a small fanzine documenting women in hip hop and street culture by founder Sharmadean Reid. In 2006 they started a blog and the international audience grew through its digital fanbase. Soon they were making girlfriends globally who would all stop by London to say hi and hang out with the WAH crew. The idea for the nail salon came in 2008 and was born out of frustration with a lack of creativity in Sharmadean’s usual spots. As the concept developed, she realised it would be a perfect physical space for these digital Downtown Girls Worldwide to congregate. WAH Nails was born in 2009 and since then, has completely changed the face of nail culture by creating fashion forward designs, by girls like us, for us, in an environment that felt like home. After painting nails for clients from Opening Ceremony to Marc Jacobs to the Grand Prix, as far flung as Tokyo, Shanghai and Moscow, they decided to launch our own product range in 2014 with a plan to change the nail industry again with innovative and authentic products made by real women, not a marketing department in an office. Sharmadean’s team live and breathe the brand and are all part of the story. WAH started and grew online, and as a brand they have utilised new media regularly to reach the spaces where their fans live. In November 2016 they opened a brand new salon in the heart of Soho, London and developed a Virtual Reality Nail App to preview nail designs using technology.