In the interest of true confession, I had gel nails applied early this summer, just before our European trip.
It makes sense, I reasoned. For over two weeks, I would not be weeding the garden, shoveling horse manure or washing dishes. It seemed like the perfect time to have temporarily beautiful nails.
Was I ever wrong? Within two days, my nails started cracking and splitting all the way down to the quick. Worse yet, I couldn’t find anyone in Italy who seemed to understand the somewhat complicated process of removing them.
Finally, when we got on the cruise ship, I called the spa. Yes, they could remove them for $20. I burned a speedy trail up there, only to have the nail expert tell me that my nails were seriously damaged.
They cracked and split every single day for nearly three weeks, despite the urgent measures I took as soon as I got home.
Here’s the nail repair strategy that is just now starting to show positive results:
Biotin. Columbia University research shows this member of the B-complex family can greatly improve the appearance of weak dry and splitting nails for two-thirds of subjects within six months. With doses of up to 2.5 mg a day, nails were 25% thicker. It didn’t take that long for me to start to notice the results. Dehydrated nails are easily broken and chipped, so you need to moisturize them like you do your skin, with a heavy greasy moisturizer. For this reason, never used acetone, which sucks moisture out of nails.
Apply a natural fungus fighter. Tea tree oil is as effective in treating nail fungus as the commonly prescribed prescription antifungal, clotrimazole. Just rubbing a little of the Australian-produced oil on your nails twice a day for six months cleared up the yellow and brown fungus in 60% of subjects, which was just as good as the prescription treatment, and without any side effects. Tea tree oil is so powerful it can kill any sort of infectious organism.
Pump up the protein. You need protein to build the keratin you need for stronger nails. Five clinical studies show gelatin is helpful in strengthening nails. Gelatin is a good source of all the amino acids it takes to build strong nails and it also contains cell-strengthening collagen from cows’ hooves. Better yet: Eat high quality protein every day as part of a well-balanced diet and give your nails time to heal. It takes about a year for toenails to re-generate themselves and 6 months for fingernails. Bonus tip: Iron and vitamin A deficiencies lead to nail malformation, so be sure you’re getting enough of these essential nutrients.
In any case, I won’t be trying any type of artificial nails anytime in the future.
