Shape and length
Fingernails can follow the curve of the fingertip, left with a sliver of white. Toenails are the ones that must be cut straight across and never down into the corners, because a corner trimmed too short is how the nail edge grows into the skin. Cut in several small bites rather than one large one, which can crack the nail. Then file in a single direction, from the side toward the center, with a fine-grit file. Sawing back and forth frays the layers and leads to peeling.
Fingernails grow about a tenth of an inch a month and toenails roughly a third as fast. That sets the schedule: fingers every week or two, toes every four to six weeks. It also explains why a damaged fingernail takes about six months to grow out and a big toenail takes a year or longer.
Cuticles and hangnails
The cuticle is a seal that keeps water and bacteria out of the nail root. Cutting it breaks the seal and invites a painful infection along the nail fold. After a shower, nudge it back gently with a wooden stick or a towel, and leave it. Clip a hangnail at its base with clean clippers instead of tearing it, since tearing strips live skin. Rub hand cream or plain ointment into the cuticles at night.
Clean under the nails with a soft brush and soap. Digging with a metal point separates the nail from its bed and gives dirt a deeper place to collect.
At a salon
Reusable metal tools should come out of a sealed sterilization pouch, and files and buffers should be new or your own. Decline cuticle cutting and any blade used on calluses. Do not shave your legs in the day before a pedicure, because tiny nicks let bacteria from the foot bath in. Gel polish should be soaked off; peeling it takes layers of nail with it.
When a nail needs a doctor
- A thick, yellow, crumbling nail is usually fungus, and drugstore treatments rarely clear it.
- A dark stripe running the length of a nail with no injury behind it should be seen by a dermatologist promptly.
- An ingrown nail with pus or spreading redness needs care, and anyone with diabetes should skip home surgery entirely.
Tip Wipe clipper blades with rubbing alcohol after each use and do not share them, since nail fungus and warts travel between people on tools.
