Fingernails and your health Fingernails are made up of multiple layers of a hard protein called keratin. The condition of your fingernails is a good sign of your overall health.
Nails that are healthy should be smooth and firm, with no dents or grooves, and uniform color. If your nails aren’t growing as quickly as they should be, there are a few home cures and grooming procedures that can assist.
Your nails are an indication of how well you’re doing overall. If you want strong, fast-growing, healthy nails, you should eat a nutritious diet. This entails consuming a well-balanced diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein sources, enough carbohydrates, and healthy fats.
However, nails occasionally require some assistance in order to become healthier and stronger. This is where home cures come in handy. Remember that you can’t make your nails grow faster on their own. However, if you look after them, they will become stronger and last longer, making them less likely to shatter.
What are the Home Remedies for Nail Growth?
There is no scientifically established method for making nails grow quicker than using home treatments. However, taking care of your body through the correct diet and implementing the following nail-strengthening strategies over time can help your nails grow strong and long.
Take biotin
Take biotin, for example. Biotin is a B vitamin that helps the body convert food into energy. It’s also widely suggested as a supplement for improving hair and nail strength.
Taking a biotin pill on a daily basis has been shown in several human studies to help strengthen nails. According to some studies, a daily intake of 2.5 milligrams of biotin can increase nail strength in as little as a few weeks. Brewer’s yeast, boiled eggs, sardines, nuts and nut butter, whole grains, soy and other legumes, cauliflower, bananas, and mushrooms are all-natural sources of biotin.
Use nail hardeners
Use nail hardeners sparingly since soft nails are more prone to breaking, necessitating more nail regrowth. Nail hardeners are commonly recommended by specialists to prevent nails from breaking. These are polish-like chemicals that are painted on nails and then removed with nail polish remover.
In the near term, this helps to strengthen nails and avoid breakage. However, according to specialists, using nail hardeners for an extended period of time might make nails weaker and more prone to breakage.
Avoid glue-on nails and toxic polishes
Avoid glue-on artificial nails and hazardous polishes, according to researchers. Regular usage of glue-on artificial nails has been shown to weaken actual nails and make them more prone to breaking. The preferable option is to use nail polishes that contain little or no harmful chemicals, such as toluene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). Look for toxin-free water-based formulations. Acquarella and Suncoat are two popular nontoxic nail polish brands.
Practice good grooming
Regular nail grooming can also assist in improving the strength of your nails by stimulating growth and decreasing breakage. Keeping your nails dry and clean prevents bacteria from growing beneath them. Use sharp manicure scissors or clippers to trim your nails straight across and then round the tips of your nails into a soft curve by moisturizing your hands and nails with a lotion, making sure to rub it into your fingernails, especially at the base.
What are the Ways to Make Your Nails Grow Faster?
Growing your nails can be a time-consuming process that tests your patience. Nails take a long time to grow. A fingernail takes roughly six months to regrow, while a huge toenail takes a year to regrow. Thankfully, the following expert-approved suggestions will assist in expediting the process.
Eat a balanced diet
It’s difficult to accelerate nail development above the natural pace of roughly 3 millimeters each month as long as a person is healthy and eating a well-balanced diet. However, the most important thing you can do to ensure steady progress is to eat meals high in the nutrients listed below, which all support healthy nail growth.
- Cysteine: chicken, turkey, yogurt, legumes
- Folate: spinach, asparagus, romaine lettuce, avocado, green peas
- Biotin: egg yolks, salmon, nuts, seeds, spinach, broccoli
- Zinc: oysters, beef, crab, beans, nuts, seeds, fortified cereal
- Vitamin A: sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, mangoes
- Vitamin C: bell peppers, citrus fruits, strawberries, Brussels sprouts, kiwifruit
Stop pushing, picking, and biting
Chronic cuticle manipulation, such as pushing or cutting, causes nail growth to be stunted. Stress-induced biting and plucking could potentially be part of the manipulation.
The best course of action is to just avoid biting your nails in the first place, but this is easier said than done. If you find yourself mindlessly biting, it can help to understand your triggers—for example, when you’re late for work—and try to prevent them. Applying a hand moisturizer or cuticle balm to your nails and surrounding skin on a regular basis will also assist because there will be fewer dry places to pick at.
If all else fails, apply a bitter nail paint (which will actually taste bad) on your nails or wrap a bandage around a nail you can’t leave alone.
Dampen, then file
Even if you want your nails to grow long, you should file them regularly to avoid snags that can cause splitting. Soak your nails first to soften the structure and make it malleable, so your filling isn’t too harsh.
Avoid harsh soaps and cleaners
Or, at the very least, wear gloves when using them. Exposing your hands to harsh cleansers, cleaning agents, solvents, and abrasive labor exacerbates the condition by removing natural oil from your nails and damaging the nail keratin protein. At first, your nails become brittle and ‘fray’ on the edges.
Moisturize like you mean it
Apply oils to your hands and nails on a regular basis to lock in moisture, protect the cuticle seal, and strengthen the nail. Natural oils like jojoba oil, avocado oil, and shea butter are among her favorites.
Assess your regular manicure
They may appear to be lovely, but there could be a lot of harm going on beneath your manicures, especially if you have an unidentified allergy. Allergy to a nail product will show up as peeling, breaking nails. It’s usually caused by the presence of tosylamide or formaldehyde resin, which may be found in numerous nail polishes and hardeners, according to her.
Gel manicures, unfortunately, may not be any better. Gel manicures can be hard on nails, causing brittleness, peeling, and breaking, adding that frequent exposure to UV light in these settings may increase the risk of skin cancer and premature aging of the hands.
Pop a supplement
While certain vitamins and supplements can aid in healthy nail growth they should be used in addition to, not in place of, a balanced diet.
Is it worth investigating? Biotin, a B vitamin, has been demonstrated to increase nail thickness by roughly 25% in brittle nail patients and may improve nail smoothness and prevent nail breaking, allowing for faster growth.
You might also want to take a multivitamin that has a combination of the elements listed above. If you think you might be lacking in a vitamin or mineral, talk to your doctor about having your levels checked.
Consult a dermatologist
If you’ve tried everything and still have brittle nails and breakage, it’s possible that you’ll need to seek expert help. Contact a dermatologist who specializes in nail health in such circumstances. To stimulate growth, we occasionally prescribe an oral antifungal medicine but only if symptoms are severe.
What Causes Unhealthy Nails?
Nails might grow unnaturally as a result of poor health. The following are some of the most prevalent nail-growth issues:
- changes in color
- changes in thickness or shape
- separation of the nail from the surrounding skin
- bleeding
- swelling or pain around the nails
- slow-growing nails
Slower nail growth is a natural part of becoming older, but it can also be an indication of sickness or nutritional inadequacy. Some drugs may even be to blame.
Hormones are also involved in nail growth. Younger people’s nails grow faster than older people’s nails, and men’s and pregnant women’s nails grow faster than other people’s nails. The average monthly growth of a healthy adult’s fingernail is roughly 3.5 millimeters. The thickness of a ballpoint pen cap is roughly the thickness of Trusted Source.
Does Vaseline Help your Nails Grow?
Vaseline, often known as petroleum jelly, is a multi-purpose home staple that many people overlook. While it is most typically used to moisturize the skin, it has many other applications. It works as a moisturizer in all weather situations because of its thick, gooey texture, which not only locks in moisture but also makes your skin glow instead of cracking and drying. Vaseline can be used on your hair as well.
How to Whiten Nails Using Toothpaste?
Deep-colored pedicures and manicures are quite fashionable, but they can discolor or dull your nails. Rather than returning to the nail salon to cover up your colored fingers and toes, go to your medicine cabinet for a quick repair with a common solution.
Are you looking for a simple way to whiten your nails at home? Look no further than the toothpaste tube next to you. Toothpaste, indeed! When used correctly, whitening toothpaste can lighten and brighten your nails in only a few minutes.
White Toothpaste can also be used to cure surface nail discoloration. Hydrated silica is a whitening agent commonly found in toothpaste, and its qualities can also help you get the required whitening results on your nails.
