How to Take Care of Your Nails Naturally

Here are some tips on how to naturally take care of your fingernails.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Vitamins and minerals
• Water
• Moisturizer for your nails (I recommend Burt's Bees Cuticle Creme)
• Glass nail file or emery board
• Cuticle pusher

1. Be sure to get all of your minerals. The most important mineral for your nails is Silicon. A good herbal combination for you nails is horsetail, rosemary, hyssop, aloe vera(juice), ginkgo biloba and kelp. Other nutrients that are important for healthy nails are Zinc, vitamin E, C and calcium/magnesium with vitamin D.

2. Drink lots of water. This will keep your hands, cuticles, and fingernails hydrated. Fingernails absorb water 100 time faster than skin, so they lose water just as fast.

3. Find a good moisturizer for your nails. This goes along with keeping your nails hydrated. I like using Burt's Bees Cuticle Creme. Not only does it work on your cuticles, but your nails too.

4. Stop cutting your nails. When you use a fingernail clipper, it causes tiny fracture in your nails that make your fingernails more prone to chipping and peeling. Instead, file your nails down. Filing once a week should keep them down nicely. Of course if your nail tears, cutting it down until there's no tear is needed. However, if you follow these steps, tearing or breaking nails should not be that much of a problem.

5. Cut your nails while they are wet if you must cut them. This will make breakage and damage less of a problem.

6. Use a glass nail file on your nails. A glass nail file is really nice because it doesn't tear up your nails like a regular file or emry board does. This will leave your nails relatively smooth after filing, reduce cracking and chipping of nails, and unless you lose it, the nail file will never have to be replaced.

7. Pay attention to the way you are filing your nails if you can't get your hands on a glass nail file. Your nails have a natural groove to them, like wood. So file inward from the outside, this will cause less damage. Also, try to shape your nails pretty close to their natural shape. This will make upkeep more simple i.e. if your nails tend to be more square keep to that.

8. Never cut your cuticles unless there is a hangnail on them. The only thing you should do is push them back. The best time to do that is after a bath or shower. You could also just soak them in warm water. The Burt's Bees Cuticle Creme helps keep your cuticles looking nice. Apply it after showers, baths, or anytime you wash your hands. Use it at least once a day.

9. Let your nails breathe. If you wear nail polish a lot, it doesn't allow for your nails to breathe. So for a few days a week, get rid of the nail polish. To get shiny nails, you can also buff them. Just don't go overboard.

10. Be aware that even though your nail health will improve with these techniques, you may still get chips and breaks for the first couple of months. It takes a while for your nails to grow out and will therefore take a while for all the damaged nail matter to be filed off.

Tips & Warnings

• You can find a lot of gift and book stores that have the glass files for relatively inexpensive. However, before you buy these, make sure there is a good amount of roughage on it. I had bought one to replace a lost one, and it does not work. The salon files are more expensive, but they are probably higher quality as well.
• Be careful when you are doing things with your hands. Use gloves when washing dishes or using any chemicals. If you type a lot you may want to keep your nails short, otherwise they'll get in the way and you can cause damage by typing a lot.
• If your nails are brittle and breaking, something on the inside is not right. One thing to remember about your overall health is that outside symptoms appear after something on the inside is not well. When you're not getting enough minerals your body will start taking them from hair and nails. However, unhealthy nails can be indication of other problems. When you take care of your internal health, your external health will reflect this.
• Avoid getting fake nails. When they're taking them off, it will strip your nails of it's top layer and that will take a long time to replace that.
• Be patient. You should see your nail health improve with these steps fairly quickly, but it will take at least two months (depending on how long you keep your nails) to get rid off all the damaged nail.
• Some people just naturally have weak nails. If this is the case, keep your nails short. You could also use certain nail enamels that have fortifications to help keep your nails strong.
• Use a nail polish remover with acetone for your natural nails. It is better for your nails(Hard to believe a chemical is good for something) as it for some reason doesn't dry it out.

[eemie]

on 11/23/2009 Wow very detailed article! 5*s and great info on how to take care of your nails naturally!