Nail Care

Unlike the feet or toenails, which can be occasionally covered with designer shoes, your hands are seen on a regular basis while interacting with people. Thus, it is essential to give equal attention and care to your fingernails just as the way you are particular about your hairstyles and garment selection. A little time spent in fingernail care on a regular basis can reflect a huge difference in your overall appearance and always work positively for you, be it at work or social gatherings.

One of the simplest ways to fingernail care is through a well-planned and balanced diet. The right kind of foods added in your regular diet can easily bring a healthy glow to you fingernails and enhance your overall appearance. However, it is important to remember that nails are made of keratin (a hard protein), which enables the nails to protect your fingers and toes from injuries. Similar to hair and skin, negligence and poor diet may reflect in weak and brittle nails, leading to ugly looking hands.

Fingernail care can be a simple process once you start considering the following tips and take adequate measures to implement them in your daily routine.

* Increase the intake of calcium, iron, potassium and Vitamin B by adding seafood, soy, celery and dairy products in your regular diet. You may also add a multi-vitamin to your regular diet to ensure the intake of other necessary vitamins.
* Never forget to pamper your fingernails by applying moisturizer and sunscreen lotions after swimming or while moving around in the sun. Both chlorine and sun tend to make the nails brittle.
* Often the reason behind splitting nails is traced back to low water intake and thus, it is essential to drink plenty of water regularly to maintain proper hydration levels.
* Never forget your gloves to protect your fingernails from dust and strong chemicals while cleaning dishes or other household objects and gardening.
* Spare your nails from the jobs of scraping off surfaces or opening boxes or lids of the containers. You have specific tools for all these jobs. Moreover, it not only affects the texture of the nails, but it also makes you look disgraceful.
* Try to avoid excessive use of perfumed lotions containing alcohol, especially if you have brittle nails.
* Maintain regular gaps between applying nail polish allowing the nails to breathe and reducing the possibilities of drying and chipping.
* To prevent your nails from getting unhealthy and ugly to look at avoid biting them. Moreover, the habit of biting nails represents a poor picture of your personality.
* Washing and cleaning with soaps tend to make your hands and nails dry and thus it is always good to use a moisturizer or cream to hydrate them. You may also use non-drying nail lotions to moisturize your fingernails once daily.
* Trim your nails regularly to avoid breaking off. You may find that the pointed tip of your fingernail tends to break off mostly and so, while trimming, cut your fingernails in a squared or rounded shape.
* Use specific cuticle creams to soften them. Trim cuticles at least once in a week using a cuticle clipper.
* Increase your Vitamin B intake if you develop ridges along the nail beds and rub a lemon after squeezing its juice off if you have weak nails.

Nail growth problems

Nail growth problems are directly related to lack of adequate nutrition and negligence in taking proper care of the nails. Some of the essential nutrients that affect the growth and appearance of the nails include calcium, Vitamin-B, Vitamin-C or folic acid, protein, fat and iron. Alternatively, too much exposure to harmful chemicals can lead to chronic deformities and radical changes in the growth and appearance of the nails.

Chronic nail growth problems can have multiple factors working together to cause various nail infections and deformities which might even need surgical treatments. Though apparently non-functional and non-organic, nails play an important role in protecting the toes and fingertips and thus nail growth problems can affect both our overall health as well the appearance of our hands and toes.

Ingrown nails are one of the most common ailments related to nail growth. Ingrown nails mostly affect the big toe of your feet and can sometimes be extremely painful to cope with. You can identify an ingrown toenail when you find the sharp edges of your toenail digging painfully inside the flesh around the nail. Usually, the toenails tend to grow straight out although at times due to specific reasons the sides of the nails curve inside the nail grooves. Ingrown nails are mostly caused due to improper ways of trimming, trauma and wearing ill-fitting shoes. To protect your nails from the pain of ingrown nails it is necessary to avoid trimming them in a rounded shape and instead always trim them straight across. It is equally important to wear shoes that fit well and allow enough breathing space to your toenails. Remember, lack of proper care and treatment of ingrown nails may even need surgical approaches.

Other ailments related to nail growth include splitting of the nails, hang nails and spoon nails. While lack of nutrition and protein leads to the split nails, hang nails are typically caused due to the tearing out of the cuticles or the nail folds. The cuticles tend to remain attached to the nail plates, which at times causes too much of stretching and tearing out as and when the nails grow.

Lack of iron or overall nutrition is reflected in the development of spoon nails. Alternatively, spoon nails can also be the effect of trauma caused to the nails. The growing of curled up edges of the nail plate can be identified as spoon nails, leading to a lot of pain and discomfort.

Sufficient intake of all the necessary nutrients can eliminate nail growth problems, further making them strong and healthy. The body needs adequate amount of all the elements that help in building keratin of which nails are made of. Thus, in order to avoid all sorts of nail problems just do the following:

* Cuticles protect the nails from bacteria and fungi. Do not trim them.
* Always use gloves to protect your fingernails from getting dry and exposed to harmful chemicals while doing household chores. * Keep short nails to prevent them from breaking off and soak them before trimming to avoid splitting. * Drink a cup of tea made of horsetail, nettle or oat straw to ensure healthy nail growth. Have lots of Vitamin C and E including Biotin, Vitamin B and mixed amino acid complex, containing sulfur, which also promotes nail growth.