The Acrylic Life

My beautiful acrylics two weeks in.

You guys know I'll try (almost) anything once, especially in the name of beauty. When I dyed my hair a few weeks ago, I decided on a whim that I would get a set of acrylic nails as well. Let me be entirely honest, this is not the first set of acrylics I've ever had. I had one set in high school for my last home coming, that set turned my nails into an absolute disaster zone. They were so brittle afterwards and split in a million different places. That experience really turned me off of acrylics. I didn't understand how people could have them for weeks and months and years. Was there a healthy way to do it that I was unaware of?
I've done gel nails in the past and they have done great things for my nails. The thickness of the gel polish held my usually brittle nails together so that they could grow out and become strong. maybe acrylics could do the same thing if I did it right! So I sat in Euro Nails while a pleasant Asian man worked magic on my split, jagged, natural nails. He seemed skeptical that I would be able to function with the acrylics. He reminded me several times that I needed to come back if I broke any and he would fix them. He also asked several times if I was sure I wanted them that long, "It hard to text with long nails, more likely to break." Thanks but if I'm doing this, I'm going all out. The result of my patience were 10 beautiful nails that I couldn't atop staring at. Two weeks later, I still have all 10 and have gotten used to texting with them. Now I'm faced with a decision, do I get infills to keep me acrylics or do I let them grow out in hopes that my natural nails below are strong, long, and gorgeous? For now, I think I'll get at least one more set of infills even if it's just out of curiosity to see how it's done.

Do you do acrylics? How do you keep them looking fab?