“How often are your fingers and toes that close together?” one survey respondent asked. It’s a good question. When you’re in happy baby pose? When you’re high-fiving your foot?

Still, people have strong opinions on whether your manicure color should match your pedicure color. Often, they break down along generational lines. “When I was young,” editor Colleen Loggins recalled, “my aunt, after seeing my red toenails and pink fingernails, declared that I was making a huge fashion faux pas. She said your finger- and toenails simply cannot be different colors.” Later, Colleen decided this was an “old-fashioned rule.”

It’s at least a minority opinion, according to our data. We polled editorial employees and our Facebook followers, and here’s how the just-shy-of-100 responses broke down:

The most popular opinion: no

As Facebook user Christine N. put it, “No! I like to keep people guessing when they go to look at my feet! Ha!”

Facebook user Vivian E-L put a more nostalgic spin on the same response: “Back in the day, everything was coordinated, but in this day and age nothing has to match anymore.”

Mostly, though, the people in this camp seemed happy and relaxed, with a penchant for employing the sunglasses emoji.

The second-most popular opinion: no, but they should go together

These people used words like “mesh,” “coexist,” and “complement.” Overall, they were of the opinion that manicures and pedicures shouldn’t clash, but some finer distinctions developed among the commenters.

Many people noted that in the winter (especially, as Terrie S. pointed out, Wisconsin winter), coordination matters less—your toes aren’t on display unless you’ve invented thermal sandals. Complementary colors may work best, however, at more formal summer events like weddings. In other words, the importance of matching is situational.

The contrarians: yes

Even with their emphatic “yes!” responses, the people advocating for matching mani-pedis have the minority opinion. But we can at least learn from their style. It’s direct, upbeat—and may we all one day use such confident exclamation points!

Top image by Kelly MacDowell, Groupon

Check out some related reads:

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