For Father’s Day I took my dad for his first pedicure.

It was actually the Friday before Father’s Day, because we were leaving for vacation on Father’s Day proper. My dad expressed concern that this was not something men do. I assured him that some men do get their nails done. Including straight men who are in their 60s. He went along with it, which I was glad about because he’s hard to shop for. He has everything and professes to want nothing. He loves books and music but sometimes it’s hard to feed someone else’s addiction.

So I took him to the nail salon I’ve been going to for years and signed us up for manicures and pedicures. I had my eyebrows done too, but I didn’t insist that he join me for that. It would have been too much. While I was getting my brows done the woman who was doing it bluntly asked “Who’s he?” and I explained he was my father.

We sat next to each other while they were doing our feet and chatted about politics, current events, and family stuff. The women smiled at us. The woman doing his feet asked if he wanted hot paraffin wax. He looked at me. I said “sure, why not?” so she encased his feet in plastic baggies filled with pink wax. She did not, as my mother wanted to know afterward, make any comments about the condition of my father’s toenails. Before this experience his toenails were, to put it diplomatically, not especially well-groomed. My dad particularly enjoyed the foot and leg massage part of the pedicure, which is my favorite part as well. Afterward he said several times his feet felt springy.

He had a manicure as well, which was not his first. He had been taken by my mom to get manicures prior to my and my sister’s weddings, which was a good thing. His fingernails are typically not especially well-groomed either.

He said he enjoyed the whole thing and did not feel too girly, but rather energized and relaxed. I was pleased. Father-daughter manicure/pedicure seems like a good tradition to me. For a man who doesn’t play golf or use power tools, it’s nice to find a new way to celebrate Father’s Day.