When it comes to maintaining healthy nails, cuticles are often overlooked but play a crucial role. The skin that lines the underside of your fingernails is called the cuticle. They act as a protective barrier, keeping dirt and debris from penetrating the skin and hiding under the nails. Hangnails are actually pieces of the cuticle that have dried and separated from the remainder of the cuticle, and boy does that ever hurt! The pain is emanating from anywhere on your body you have hangnails. Hangnails are painful because they put pressure on the nerve endings and blood vessels in the nail. Using a nail scissor you can control these.
Avoiding Hangnails is Entirely Possible
If you’re like us, you might not put much stock in the idea that you can stop yourself from getting hangnails. Even as we write this essay, we are meeting with skepticism, which is to be expected as even experts like us have to deal with doubters. However, better judgment and more logical thinking always win out in the end, and we sheepishly accept that we may have ignored nail & cuticle upkeep at some point.
The prevention of hangnails begins with proper cuticle maintenance. What follows is some guidance.
Don’t let your nails dry out. Dryness is the primary source of cuticle problems, including the dreaded hangnails. Simply massaging cuticle oil or a hand cream containing moisturizing ingredients into the cuticles on a daily basis can do the trick. Apply it with a light massage instead of slathering it on. Hangnails are easily avoidable if this habit is incorporated into your regular nail care practice.
If you apply lacquers to your nails more often than once a week, you may hasten the drying of your cuticles. If your cuticles continue to show signs of dryness, it is essential to be aware of this risk and to give them the rest they require.
Using the Nail Scissor
Putting down the nail scissor is a good start. Although we know you probably don’t partake in such an activity, we felt the need to warn you just in case. The skin around the fingers will dry out and peel if they are mistreated in any way, including by biting, nervously picking at, or otherwise abusing them. This will leave the fingers more susceptible to infection.
Nail cuticles should be kept clean. You may acquire a high-quality instruments i.e. nail scissor and a set of razor-sharp cuticle scissors from market, and use them to push your nails back and get rid of any dead skin that has built up there. Another way to save your grooming time is to soften the cuticles before applying any treatments. Massage the cuticles with a mixture of two drops of jojoba oil and two drops of eucalyptus oil softener, or try pressing a little warm olive oil into the cuticles. Either one will make taking care of your cuticles much less of a hassle.
Don’t let yourself get infected. An allergic reaction to the nail treatment you are applying or the chemical cleaning agents that come into contact with your fingers might cause your cuticles to become red, swollen, itchy, and irritated. Wearing gloves while cleaning the house can help, but it’s better to figure out what’s causing the problem and eliminate it entirely.
We recommend seeing a dermatologist if you notice any signs of severe inflammation or infection in your cuticles. An infected cuticle cannot be ignored if one wishes to avoid unpleasant and potentially dangerous consequences.
- If a hangnail ever forms, you can fix it by following these steps.
- To begin and end, remember that you should never, ever pull or bite off a hangnail. Besides the obvious agony, this will almost certainly result in additional skin peeling, which could eventually lead to infection.
- The injured hand should be soaked in warm, soapy water for ten minutes. After drying your hand, use a high-quality, sharp nail clipper to cut the hangnail as near to the skin as possible (without damaging any other skin).
- Hangnails can be safely and quickly pried off with the help of these guidelines. The next step is to treat the wound with an antibiotic lotion or ointment.
- Please don’t try to cut the hangnail with the clippers.
- If you don’t have access to a clean, high-quality nail clipper, wrap the finger and hangnail in a bandage until you can find one.
It’s comforting to know that hangnails most commonly affect the fingers rather than the toes. Please read the above sentence and follow the steps very carefully if you ever find yourself in need of removing hangnails.
