Accidents to nails happen from time to time, but if you suffer from chronically brittle nails, you may want to pay attention.
Are you getting enough iron? Concave or depressed nails like the shape inside of a spoon can be caused by low iron levels or anaemia, which will lead to Heart issues.
Cut your cuticles? Back away from the cuticle snippers. These bits of skin at the base of the nail are essentially protective grout between your nail and skin, shielding your nail from water, bacteria, and anything else you touch.
Lack of B vitamins: You might think beauty supplements are bunk, but there’s evidence behind biotin, a B vitamin that’s widely lauded as a hair and nail strengthened.
Typing or texting too much? You know that clickety clack sound your nails make when you’re firing off emails and texts? Well, you’re damaging more than just the patience of the people around you. If your nail is making contact with your keyboard or smartphone screen over and over, it could cause it to split, fracture, or fray at the edges.
Not enough moisture? Time for a dose of reality. Re-apply hand lotion every time you wash your hands. The water dries your skin out, and if the skin at and below your cuticles is dry, then the underlying nail matrix is too. That means the nail it forms will be prone to splitting, breaking, and cracking.
Too much nail polish? All nail polishes contain drying ingredients that sap moisture from the nail plate and weaken it, and that drying effect doesn’t stop once the polish has hardened. Even five-free nail polishes, which skip the solvent toluene and the plasticiser dibutyl phthalate, along with other potentially irritating ingredients that can still leave nails high and dry.
Exposure to harsh chemicals? From this point forward, consider nail polish remover the enemy. Polish remover is really a solvent as it’s strong, almost like a paint thinner that really dries out the nail.
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