Nail Care Tips: How to Prevent Splitting Nails

Proper Nail Care Helps Prevent Nail Problems
If you want to avoid having split nails, one of the things you can do is to treat your nails gently. Here are a few tips that can help you avoid experiencing splitting nails.

Simple Tips to Prevent Splitting Nails

  • Keep the fingernails dry. Every single day, our hands and fingernails get wet from bathing, washing hands, and doing chores. You should avoid soaking in the bath for too long as this can lead to splitting nails. After bathing, and washing your hands, make sure to dry your fingernails completely. When doing chores that involve water and harsh chemicals, it is best to wear a pair of cotton-lined rubber gloves.
  • Always practice good nail hygiene. Trim your fingernails neatly making sure to round up the tips in a curve. Your fingernails also need some moisturizing loving. Argan oil is an excellent nail and cuticle moisturizer as it contains essential fatty acids, Vitamin E and sterols. These three have potent moisturizing properties. Simply apply a tiny drop of the Argan oil on each fingernail and gently spread the oil up to the cuticle using your finger.
  • Don’t bite your nails and don’t pick on your cuticles. This is an unhealthy habit. Biting your nails make you prone to getting infections. Remember that your hands touch a lot of things in a day and your fingernails may have snatched infectious microbes somewhere along the way. Some biters bite their nails to the point that there is bleeding involved and an opening on the skin makes you prone to getting infections. Care for your nails. They are not tools. Don’t make it a habit to use your fingernails for picking, poking or prying things.
  • Limit your manicures. Every once in a while manicure is good but too often can only weaken your nails making them prone to breakage, cracking, and splitting. It is also best to use nail polishes that are free of toxic chemicals. Ever heard of the toxic trio in nail polishes? They are DBP, Toluene, and Formaldehyde. These three toxic ingredients are commonly found in polishes. So before you buy your bottle of polish, check its label and make sure that none of these ingredients are in your bottle of nail polish. For your polish remover, pick one without acetone as acetone dries out the nails making them vulnerable to breaking, chipping, and splitting.

Foods That Can Help Strengthen Nails

There are certain foods that can help make your nails stronger.
  • Beans – Beans can give you a stronger set of nails. Beans are packed with protein and the nails are made up of keratin, which is a type of protein.
  • Swiss Chard – Biotin is crucial to the health of your nails and Swiss Chard is loaded with it. A deficiency (even a mild one) in this B vitamin can cause slow growth of nails. By including Swiss chard and other biotin-rich food sources in your diet, you can prevent nail breakage and brittle nails.
Other foods great for the nails include nuts, dates, and bananas. Like our Facebook page and share this post to your friends.