A Home Routine for Maintaining Natural Nails

Visiting a nail salon and getting expensive manicures are not necessary to maintain healthy natural nails. It’s because the combination of a well-balanced diet, a thoughtful beauty regimen, and good personal hygiene can give you salon-worthy nails without having to spend a lot and using chemical-based products.

A nail care plan can be simple and inexpensive. In fact, according to dermatologists, being overly aggressive with cleaning and maintaining your nails might put your normally strong nails at risk for yeast or bacterial infections. You don’t really need to undergo frequent manicure sessions to keep your nails good-looking. You can try a simple routine at home to keep your nails healthy and strong. To help you, here are some of the steps that you can try.

Try Biotin

If you notice that you have weak nails, you may benefit from supplemental biotin. It is a B vitamin that has been shown to be helpful for strengthening and growing nails. If you want to try this vitamin, it is better to consult with your doctor first to know if it can also be effective for you.

Take a break from applying nail polish

Your healthy nails can’t be harmed by nail polish. However, you need to give your nails a break on the polish every so often. And when you decide to begin that break as part of your home manicures, ensure that the nail polish remover that you will use is acetone-free. This way, there won’t be any risk of damaging your natural nails when you remove your nail polish.

Moisturize your cuticles

When cleaning your nails, you need to take care of your cuticles. It’s because if you cut them back or push them around too aggressively, you may damage them, leaving your nail bed open to infection. Also, as part of regular nail care to maintain healthy nails, you need to moisturize your cuticles. You can buy cuticle moisturizers that will nourish and soothe your cuticles and as well as keep them strong.

Always keep your nails trimmed

Even though it is quite lovely to have long nails, trimming nails regularly may help you in keeping them healthy. In addition to that, this will also avoid snagging or breaking. The frequency of nail trimming depends on how fast your nails grow. And when you trim your nails, always use a fine file to smoothen out the edges of your nails.

Clean your nails using a nail brush

Many people risk infection with hard cleaning under the nails using tools that are long and pointy. This is practiced both at home and during manicures. Doing this may end up with a kind of gap between the nail and the nail bed, which can open the door to bacterial or fungal infections. To avoid this, you can instead use a nail brush and scrub them gently for healthy nails.

Always wear gloves when doing the dishes and other household chores

Immersing your hands frequently in hot and soapy water when washing the dishes can also weaken your nails. It’s because this process dries the nails out along with the rest of the skin on your hands. To prevent this, wearing gloves to protect your hands is the best way. In addition to washing the dishes, you also need to wear gloves when doing other chores like gardening to keep your nails from acquiring dirt and avoid infections.

Use hand moisturizers

It is great if you can apply hand moisturizers regularly. When doing this, make sure that you also work it into the cuticles and nails. Remember that regular hand washing and using hand sanitizer or alcohol can dry out the skin and nail bed fast. Therefore, after every wash, try to moisturize your hands and nails to maintain their softness.

Buff your nails instead of applying nail polish

Buffing the nails may not be as fancy or eye-catching compared to applying nail polish, but it can go a long way when it comes to maintaining healthy nails. Therefore, try to take the time to trim, file, and buff your nails properly. Doing this regularly will surprise you with how great your nails can look even in their natural state.

Take infections seriously

You can surely smoothen ragged edges and wrap a broken nail in an adhesive bandage. However, when you start to see some signs of infection, you need to check with your doctor immediately for the needed nail care. Some of the signs that you need to watch out for, when it comes to bacterial infection are swelling, pain, and redness.

Some of the early signs of a nail fungal infection, on the other hand, are red, puffy, irritated skin around the nail bed. You can treat fungal infections with over-the-counter anti-fungal treatments. However, they sometimes require prescription medications, too. Therefore, for optimal nail care, get medical attention quickly, especially when your healthy nails are at risk.

Always eat healthy foods

This is probably the easiest routine that you can do at home to keep your natural nails healthy. Diet is essential to maintaining healthy nails. Protein and omega-3 fatty acids are crucial to achieving healthy nails. You can also eat foods that are rich in biotin to reduce the brittleness of your nails. Don’t forget to drink lots of water to stay hydrated, as dehydration can also reduce the health of your natural nails.

These are some of the things that you can do at home to maintain your natural nails. All of these are simple steps, and you don’t really have to spend a lot on them. We hope this post helped you learn more about keeping your nails strong and healthy.