If you buy through links on this page, we may earn a small commission. The easiest way to care for them is to soak your hand or foot in soapy, warm water for around 10 minutes every few days. This helps soften the cuticle and keeps your nails clean. You can also apply cuticle oil and a massage cream.
Moisturize your cuticles regularly to prevent dryness and cracking. Research about the safety of cutting cuticles is mixed. This includes cutting them at home or in a nail salon. Cuticles protect both your nails and the skin surrounding them from infection. This can lead to an infection. Most nail salons continue to cut cuticles, despite these guidelines.
They argue that it helps polish go on better and stay on longer. Instead of having them cut at your next manicure, ask your technician to just push back the cuticle and trim loose skin and hangnails. You can do this by soaking your nails in warm water. Taking a bath or shower can also help soften them. Using a cuticle pusher, carefully push back the cuticle along the nail bed. Trim excess skin and hangnails but never cut off the entire cuticle. The idea is to remove excess skin and hangnails only.
Cuticle pushers are made from various materials. You can purchase them at most beauty supply stores or online. The area around the nail bed is very delicate. You can use cuticle oil or moisturizer to hydrate them. You can also apply Vaseline overnight to soothe damaged cuticles. Avoid picking at your cuticle. If you have a hangnail, carefully remove it with tweezers or clippers, instead of ripping it out or biting it off.
Also limit your use of harsh nail polishes and removers. Use an acetone-free formula for a nail polish remover. The eponychium should slide back, exposing the cuticle.
Repeat these steps on other nails. If you are using a pusher, make sure that you dull any rough or sharp edges with a nail file before pushing the cuticle. Now that the cuticle is exposed, you can remove the non-living tissue from the nail plate. To properly remove the cuticle, Schoon recommends using a curette, a flat scraper blade or an orangewood stick.
Do not use nippers or an electric file to remove the cuticle. The electric file causes friction that can burn through the nail plate. And nippers should only be used to cut off a dead skin tag, which is a little bit of dead skin sticking up around the nails.
Note: To properly remove a dead skin tag, use nippers with a sharp blade and cut the dead skin above the level of living skin. You would obviously never intentionally cut a client, but sometimes it accidentally happens. In the unlikely event that you cut a client with your tools, follow these extremely important steps:. Stop the service immediately. Schoon advises that you take the universal precaution of assuming that client has an infectious disease and treat your station as such.
Any implements that were used on the client should be set aside. Before using them again, thoroughly scrub them to remove any debris, and then properly disinfect them. Take care of your client. Send your client to wash her hands thoroughly. Cover any cuts with a Band-Aid to protect the wound from further exposure. But never push too hard or too harshly [source: Buffalo ].
Next, be careful about your daily habits so that you don't damage your cuticles. In other words, cutting, biting or picking at them is not a good idea. Although carefully and routinely pushing the cuticle back is fine, pushing them back with too much pressure can cause damage.
You can also cause damage by unconsciously playing with or digging into the cuticle with your fingers [source: Samman ]. Never tear a hangnail off -- carefully cut it with clippers or cuticle scissors [source: Mayo Clinic ].
If your hands will be wet for a long time, or if you are using detergents and chemicals, use rubber gloves to protect your cuticles [source: New York Times ]. Thirdly, it's best to try and keep the cuticles and the nails strong. Frequently put lotion on your cuticles -- they need moisturizing just like your skin does [source: Mayo Clinic ].
Use sharp clippers or scissors to regularly trim your nails. To keep your nails strong, cut them straight across with a gently rounded tip -- filing your nails into a point weakens them [source: AAD ]. If you use a nail hardener, make sure it does not have toluene sulfonamide or formaldehyde on the ingredient list -- these can irritate the skin and sometimes turn it red [source: Mayo Clinic ]. Taking care of your cuticles is important for maintaining a healthy appearance and avoiding infections.
For more information on nail care, visit the links on the next page. Nails grow very slowly -- about 0. Toenails grow a little slower than fingernails. Regrowing a full fingernail can take between four and six months, so any damage that is done near the base can affect your nails' appearance for a long time [source: Mayo Clinic ]. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close.
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Getty Images. Cuticle Infections In caring for your cuticles, you need to protect against infection. Using Cuticle Scissors So, your cuticles are looking long and ragged. Chemical Solutions and Tough as
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