Nail Health Regimen

Don't mess around with the surface of your nails. First take care of your blood and internal organs, then guard your nail cuticle barrier, and finally follow your nails' signals to troubleshoot minor problems. It's 10 times more effective than spending thousands to get a nail salon care card.

I used to have my nails extended for more than half a year in order to cover up the light vertical lines on my nails. Every time I removed my nails, the surface of my nails hurt. In the end, my nails were so thin that they could bend into spring blades, and they stung when I touched hot water. I stepped in a hole half a meter deep before I found this practical method. Several friends around me who have thin and soft nails that are easy to split have tried it, and within three months they all said that they were noticeably stiffer.

Let’s talk about the most controversial nail art issue first. Most dermatologists recommend that you do it for a maximum of 3 weeks and then stop for 1 week to let the nails “breathe”. However, many senior manicurists will say that as long as you don’t touch the nail bed when polishing and use qualified glue, there is no problem if you do it continuously. In fact, both sides are not wrong. The core threshold is one: whether the cuticle and matrix of the nail are damaged. The small shop I went to before always cut the skin around the nails cleanly, which looked refreshing, but in fact it was equivalent to removing the "security door" of the nails. Later, I changed to a manicurist, who only pushed up the dead skin without cutting it off, and the nails did not become thinner after two months of continuous treatment. There are also people who always like to cut the sides of their nails very deep and dig out the nail fragments in the nail trench. Don’t do it blindly. My colleague developed paronychia just like this. It was swollen for half a month and he couldn’t even wear shoes. In the end, he went to the hospital to have half of his nail pulled out.

Let’s talk about internal adjustment. If you look at girls who have been dieting to lose weight all year round, eight out of ten will have thin and soft nails with white spots, which can be cut by any express delivery service. My former best friend lost 30 pounds with determination. During that time, her nails were so soft that when she opened a can, it hit her flesh directly. The pain made her shed tears. Later, she listened to the nutritionist's advice and drank a cup of soy milk with peanuts and red coating every day, and ate red meat two or three times a week. Within 3 months, her nails became hard, and two more crescent moons appeared. When it comes to crescents, there is another controversial point. Most old-school Chinese medicine practitioners believe that the more crescents, the fuller they are, the more abundant qi and blood will be. However, Western medicine generally believes that the number of crescents is just a matter of whether the nail matrix grows in the front or back. People who are born with nail matrix growing in the back just don’t have many crescents, so there is no need to worry about it. My own feeling is that if you originally had 6 crescents and suddenly only have 1 left, and you still feel tired all the time and have cold hands and feet, then you really need to adjust your Qi and blood. If you have only had 2 crescents since you were a child and have nothing wrong with your body, don’t torment yourself with supplements.

The small details of daily care are actually more important. I used to not wear gloves when doing housework. I soaked them in dish soap and laundry detergent every day. Barbs appeared on my nails every now and then. Every time they were torn bloody, they always relapsed. Later, I casually placed a pair of thin rubber gloves by the sink and put them on when washing things. Within half a month, the hangnails stopped growing. Some people ask whether to apply nail polish. Those who support it say it can isolate external damage, while those who oppose it say that the solvent in it will corrode the nail surface. In fact, it all depends on your life situation: if you have to touch disinfectant and do manual work every day, applying a layer of qualified water-based nail polish can indeed block a lot of damage. If you sit in the office every day and do not touch anything, it is best to leave your nails bare to breathe without applying anything.

Oh, by the way, there is another point that people tend to be nervous about, which is the vertical lines on the nails. It is really not a sign of "bad liver". Most people will get them as they age, just like wrinkles on the face. There is no need to buy liver-protecting tablets blindly. But if the vertical lines suddenly become thicker and darker, you really need to go to a dermatologist for a check-up immediately to rule out the risk of onychomycosis, and don’t take it seriously.

In fact, different types of maintenance methods can be used together. My grandma always said that if you have nothing to do, rub your fingertips to stimulate the Shixuan point, which can not only supply blood to the nails, but also improve the problem of cold hands in winter. I have tried it myself. When taking the subway, rubbing for two minutes will warm the fingertips for half an hour, which is really comfortable. Modern nutrition also says that if the nails are constantly broken, it is also useful to supplement the biotin appropriately, but be careful not to supplement too much, otherwise it will affect the absorption of other vitamins, and the gain will not be worth the loss.

In fact, there are really not so many bells and whistles about maintaining your nails. You should treat them as a small "barometer" of your body. Don't always think about covering up problems with nail extensions and manicures, and don't worry about them every day. When your body is comfortable, your nails will naturally look smooth, full, and good-looking, right?