Thank you all for your kind advice!
The problem (one of many) with false nails is that they need to be quite thick to have integrity, when very short you notice how thick they are and it does look quite unsightly, not something my work would find acceptable and many technicians won’t do it. I don’t wear them very long by a non-harpers standard, 3 – 5mm over the finger tip, but realise that’s much too long for harp, fiddle, or any other instruments that I’m drawn to. My fruitless search for an alternative protection for my crippled nails continues *sigh*
I’ve got some really good places to continue searching, which is great because I had been getting myself turned around in circles with all of the info out there in the wild.
I’m based in Jersey and there are no harp shops here and not many who play, so visiting shops etc will require flights and holidays so that’ll slow me down a bit… Looks like Andrew Lawrence-King is from our neighbour island Guernsey though and it’s easy to get there, so here’s hoping he still lives there!
Thanks again all 🙂