How to Strengthen Finger Nails

Healthy and strong finger nails reflect how well we take care of our nails and hands. Weak and brittle fingernails are most often due to neglect. By protecting fingernails from environmental damage and taking time to moisturize nails, anyone can have stronger fingernails.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Wear gloves while washing the dishes, cleaning the floors and doing other chores where your nails are exposed to water and harsh cleaning agents. Water dries out and weakens your nails.
2. Use tools to accomplish tasks where you would normally use your finger nails out of habit. Finger nails aren't scissors, pliers or toothpicks.
3. Try touching up your nail polish more often instead of entirely removing your polish every time you want to fix a nail. Nail polish remover dries out your nails leaving them brittle and weak.
4. Provide your nails with lots of extra moisture. No matter how careful you are, your nails will get dried out during the course of daily life. Try messaging cuticle or olive oil into your nails and cuticles. For extra dry nails, put moisturizer on hands at night, concentrating on the finger nail area. Then put on cotton gloves over the moisturizer. Remove in the morning and enjoy softer hands and stronger nails.
5. Try using a nail hardener. This is a product you apply like a nail polish that is supposed to help protect and strengthen your nails.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to use nail polish remover only twice per month.
• Eat healthy food. Although it has been shown that eating large amounts of protein doesn't affect the health of your nails, a balanced diet ensures that you're getting the correct amount of vitamins and nutrients, which in turn promotes healthy nails.
• Cut or trim brittle nails after a bath or soaking fingers in bath oil. This helps prevent breakage and nail damage while trimming. Remember to moisturize afterward!
• Avoid nail hardeners containing formaldehyde or toluene sulfonamide. Some people experience reddening and irritation due to these chemicals.
• Don't pull off hangnails. Cut them off using nail clippers or manicure scissors.