Metro

The USA’s first nail salon opened in NYC in 1878

There are nearly 1,300 nail salons in New York City — no surprise, given that the first one in the United States was founded on West 23rd Street, a new book reveals.

Mary Cobb, one of our first female entrepreneurs, opened her salon — Mrs. Cobb’s Manicure Parlors — in 1878, charging $1.25 for a manicure. Within a decade, her business was thriving, her clientele ranging from socialites to showgirls to prostitutes.

“She branded herself the originator of the manicure arts,” says Suzanne E. Shapiro, author of the new history “Nails: the Story of the Modern Manicure” (Prestel).

“She focused on the gentility of elegant hands, and hers was not unlike a simple manicure of today.”

That would be the basic $12 job available at any ­Korean spa: soak, cuticle cutting, filing, buffing, polish. Up through the late 20th century, “getting a manicure would have been an elite pastime and grooming ritual,” says Shapiro.

But with the influx of ­Korean immigrants to New York City in the 1970s, manicures became far more accessible and affordable. “Enough can’t be said about Asian entrepreneurs in urban areas,” Shapiro says. “They took something that was once a luxury and drove the price down.”

Then there is the mainstreaming of nail art. It began in the 1970s but exploded with the 1981 invention of Calgel, which preserves polish for at least two weeks.

Today, intricate nail art crosses all demographics, with Nails magazine reporting it the most in-demand manicure from 2012-13.

Shapiro has a couple of theories as to why.

“The economic downturn created this climate where you have to give up some of the greater luxuries, but you could still have hot-looking nails,” she says.

“And Internet culture ushered in this visual obsession with everyone’s style. Nail art is not just going to last the two weeks you have it” — because it lives online forever.

As for why New York women have been devotees of the manicure for more than 130 years, Shapiro says that the city itself is responsible.

“Life here is so public,” she says. “We don’t necessarily show people our homes or our cars, but so much of how we express ourselves is through physical presentation.”