How to Care for Your Fingernails

The easiest route to healthy nails is through a well-planned regimen of diet and grooming. Eat the correct foods and protect your hands from environmental stress for strong nails.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Washcloths
• Cuticle Creams
• Manicure Kits
• Manicure Scissors
• Multivitamins
• Nail Brushes
• Nail Buffers
• Nail Cleaners
• Nail Clippers
• Nail Files
• Nail Polish Remover
• Nail Polishes
• Rubber Gloves
• Manicure Scissors
• Rubber Gloves

1. Incorporate the recommended daily allowance of vitamin B, calcium and protein into your diet.

2. 

   Take a daily multivitamin to ensure that you are getting the proper amounts of other vitamins.

3. Wear rubber gloves whenever you use cleaning products, wash dishes or work in your garden to protect your nails from chemicals and dirt.

4. 

   Moisturize nail beds regularly with a nondrying nail lotion. Rub the lotion over the entire nail bed at least once a day.

5. 

   Trim cuticles once each week. Soften cuticles with a specialized cuticle cream, then trim carefully with a cuticle clipper.

6. 

   Clip your nails regularly in a rounded or squared shape. The pointier the tip of your fingernail, the more likely it is to break off.

7. Give your nails a break from polish as often as possible. The more time your nails spend in the nude, the less they will dry and chip.

Tips & Warnings

• Avoid biting your nails. Biting is a surefire way to create unhealthy and unsightly nails.
• If you develop ridges along the base of your nail bed, increase your intake of vitamin B.

on 8/25/2006 If the area above your cuticles is torn, bleeding, or just damaged and flaking, try applying a layer of Neosporin onto it. Wait for it to completely dry then take some Medicated ChapStick® (the light blue skinned one) and apply a thick layer as well. Wait for that to dry if you have a serious problem. If not, then just leave it on for 5-8 minutes.

This is the cheaper method to healing if you can't purchase the $8 balms they have for sale since most households contain Neosporin and Medicated ChapStick® is only 74 cents.

on 8/8/2006 Take 1 multivitamin every day and try to keep your nails warm, clean them continuously by tool, use a special kind of soup which cleans the skin from the black heads.

on 8/8/2006 Grab a lemon or a lime, cut it in half, squeeze all the juices in a cup and rub what's left of the inside of the lemon onto your nails. This makes your nails stronger. I recommend you do this every day until you see that your nails are becoming stronger, then reduce doing it once a week or so. This really works, try it!!

on 8/8/2006 A nice manicure kit would help to stop biting your nails. I bit mine till I was 24, and playing around with them will help you to stop the biting. Now I have nails that family and strangers admire, and I love the attention.

There are 2 products that helped me out a lot, and I still use them when I have a broken nail.
#1 is Loreal "Nail Nutritionist Plus" Growth enhancing serum (works great). #2 is "Jessica" life jacket.
They both work, and I've tried a lot of products over the years, but these are 2 of the best if you want long, healthy nails.

on 6/30/2006 Cut one clove of garlic in half and rub it on your nails once a day. It strengthens paper thin fingernails!