se fait faire

Question

pourquoi on ditJe me suis fait faire les
ongles la semaine dernière.I had my nails done last week.Mais  pour "I had my hair brushed."On dit "Je me suis fait brosser les cheveux," et pas "Je me suis fait faire brosser les cheveux." ?  merci· ·

Maarten Kamp · Accepted Answer

Laura, this structure with a ‘ doubling up’ as  ‘ se ( fait ) faire ‘ only arises when the reflexive verb is ‘ se faire ‘. 
Note that the ‘ causative ‘ faire’ is the conjugated verb form ‘ fait ‘, so when the reflexive verb is, for example, ‘ se brosser ‘, the result is se (fait) brosser ‘ but when the reflexive verb is se faire, the result is ‘ se ( fait) faire ‘.
The link below is to a previous response to a different but related question and may help.
 https://french.kwiziq.com/questions/view/faire-de-nouvelles-sandales-1

Laura Copland · Answer

okay thanks: the brushing is itself the action, so no need to add a "faire" but you need faire with the nails because the nails are not the action, DOING the nails is the action. Thanks for your help.

Laura Copland · Answer

okay, me again: (sorry to be so stupid about this!!)

so the brushing is the action so don't need "fait faire", but the nails aren't the action, DOING the nails is the action, so do need fait faire. BUT in the example below, the "makeup" isn't the action, DOING the make up is the action, so why isn't it se fait faire maquiller?

Il ________ .He's having his make-up done.(HINT: maquiller quelqu'un = to do someone's make-up)se fait maquillerse fait faire maquiller

Laura Copland · Answer

okay, me again: (sorry to be so stupid about this!!)

so the brushing is the action so don't need "fait faire", but the nails aren't the action, DOING the nails is the action, so do need fait faire. BUT in the example below, the "makeup" isn't the action, DOING the make up is the action, so why isn't it se fait faire maquiller?

Il ________ .He's having his make-up done.(HINT: maquiller quelqu'un = to do someone's make-up)se fait maquillerse fait faire maquiller