Whether you’re the type of person who cares about your nails and keep them clean and paints regularly or someone who’s biting their nail cuticles, we all know the importance of healthy, perfectly manicured nails. Well-groomed nails make you look instantly polished and can even make hands appear more youthful.
To lessen the effects of overhand-washing and skipped salon visits, what you should do for your nails? But before this, you will have to understand “Are your nails healthy or not?” Here’s what to look for.
Healthy Nails:
- Nail plates look pinkish-white in color
- Cuticles are existent (so don’t cut them)
- Nails and white tips are even lengths
- Prominent half-moon-shaped white section “lanula” at nail base
Unhealthy Nails:
- Tiny white spots usually mean biting or painting them often
- Peeling or splitting nails mean vitamin deficiency and dryness
- Red, swollen skin around nails could be from removing or biting cuticles
- Iron deficient nails, spoon-shaped nails
Tips to Get Strong and Healthy Nails
- Keep your hands very clean
Wash your hands, and remove all traces of polish with an acetone-free remover, they don’t dry out your nails. Gently scrub your nails with the help of a toothbrush to remove dirt and exfoliate dead skin.
- Be Gentle on Your Nails
Nails are very delicate, so gently treat them. Avoid using metal tools under nails, too much digging can cause the nail plate to separate from the skin. Washing dishes with the naked hand can also weaken nails. So, always wear gloves made with rubber, vinyl, or plastic to protect your nails from harmful chemicals.
- Clip your nails regularly
Trimming is very important to your nails just like your hair, it can make your nails less prone to breakage and snags. So try to clip your nails at least in two weeks, you can also adjust the clipping frequency “how your nails respond”?
- Think about your nail health over length
Most of the girls or women like long nails, they look elegant, but if you are someone who has struggled with hangnails or breakage, you should keep your nails short. Short nails with rounded edges look neat and classy, and easy to manage. When your nails look uniform in shape and look equal, you can add length to your nails.
- Keeps a nail file always handy
Keep your nail filer handy, so that you can buff any rough edges. It will give your nails the smoothest finish. If you use a glass nail file, it will be great for you because they are the best and can be easily used on the weakest, brittle, and damaged nails.
- Take Care Of Your nail tools, too.
To avoid bacteria or any type of infection, always keep your nail tools clean. Disinfect your nail tools, and keep your nails infection-free. For this, washing metal tools with soap and water and then wiping down with rubbing alcohol.
- Leave Your Cuticles Alone
When you cut or remove the cuticle, you should be more careful. The cuticle has a very important role in our nails. It seals the area at the base of the nail. Cutting or removing nail cuticles in the wrong way, can break that seal of protection, and leave your nails prone to bacteria and the possibility of infection. Proper care of your cuticles minimizes dreaded hangnails. So, once in a week after you shower using a wooden stick and massage cuticles and nails with a cuticle oil or treatment. You can also try nail strengtheners to manage your cuticles.
- Moisturize your hands and nails regularly
Don’t forget to moisturize your hands and nails just like your face daily. For this, you can use almond oil or olive oil to moisturize your nails and cuticles. You can also use a lip balm to moisturize your nails.
- Protect Your nails with a base coat
When you apply nail paint on your nails, don’t skip the base coat. Applying a base coat helps in avoiding being your nails stained by polish and helps the color look more saturated and opaque with just one coat. Nail strengtheners leave a shiny hard coating on nails and making them appear thicker, which can protect against damage.
- Use a top coat to prevent nail chips
The topcoat is very important to seal the polish’s color and adds a more radiant gloss finish. So, add a top coat layer every three days to decrease chipping, so your nail color lasts long.
- Give Your nails a Break
Don’t apply bold color, nail art, and lots of pigment on the nails always, do it on weekend, and during the rest of the week, give your nails time to rest and repair with a clear gloss. If you don’t give a break to your nails and add apply one strong polish color to another without giving nails a break can dry them out, turn them yellow, and over time, even weaken the structure of the nail.
Nail polish removers could also be the reason your nails are weak. So, give your nails a break to rejuvenate and refresh.
These are some tips that will help you to strengthen and make your nails healthy.
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