Share of my experience with fingernails, and an acrylic nail journey.
My Mother was a hand model for a minute in the 80's, and she left some big 'gloves' to fill, with her hands always manicured immaculately, always naturally long, and painted beautiful shades of red.
While me, I was running barefoot driving her crazy, never sitting still, and my nails were stubs that constantly broke and snagged, and drove me crazy.
When I had children, my fingernails finally began to grow, which I contribute to the prenatal vitamins. It was then, that I was hooked on having long nails, and began to pay more attention to my own nails. Before that, having long nails was always some distant fantasy.
At that time, they were naturally long, no paint. Until 8 years later, when I was working on cars. In the shop I would do a quick coat of silver quick dry polish, and be ready to go. The funny thing is that back then, working on cars with long nails, they would hardly ever break on an engine, it was usually me breaking them doing something soft like brushing my hair 😆.
10 years later, my nails were long, and with two small children, I was doing a lot of girly things, and my nails were always breaking. It was then that I found acrylic nails, and I was hooked on putting acrylic over my natural, long nails to keep them long.
I began to use acrylic in place of polish, and was constantly doing, and redoing my acrylic nails.
(Fyi, I suffer from psoriasis, I am not a boxer 😅)
Turns out that to do your own nails can be very time consuming, but being sick a bit, and home with small children, it gave me something to do. Known at the time by my children as the ring, and nail Mom,
I wore acrylic for 5 years, doing my own acrylic, constantly filling, fixing, and THINKING A LOT ABOUT NAILS.
If I wasn't thinking about how I was going to do them, or how pretty they looked, I was usually thinking how I was going to FIX them, or searching Pinterest for more ways to make them pretty. Sheesh. It was a lot of time invested in nails.
If I could do things over again, I might invest that time in more crochet, which I could not do when my nails were wet, which was a lot back then. Double Sheesh. :P
I am not only here to warn you of the danger of lost time, which is especially true doing them yourself. But....
After doing my own acrylic nails for 5+ years, I decided to treat myself and have someone else do them for the first time.
The manicurist did a decent job, that I paid handsomely for, which was okay, because I was pleased that I did not have to do them myself, and they looked nice enough.
Pictured below, as I was leaving the salon. Honestly, I liked them better when I did them.
And my cuticles never heart like that when I did them, ouch (she said that is normal?) no. :(
They start looking bad, so I booked an appointment. The same lady gets me in, and redoes my nails. A week later, I have what looks to me like a fungus. 😮 (WHAT! I never.)
I call, they have no openings (no what!? THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!) I call again, but nope, they will not see me at all, and tell me they are booked out for a month.
The fungus grows more by the next day, so I eventually just take them off, and deal with it myself.
😔
I have not worn acrylic nails ever since.
With my nails not only having a green fungus, but even before then, you could see pitting, and splitting from wearing acrylic for so long, which was getting worse as time went on. I decided to just cut them short and began to try coconut oil on them everyday.
I used coconut oil on my nails every time I got them wet, and topped the oil with lotion. It felt very soothing.
I did this regularly for months, applying coconut oil every time I washed my hands. After a few weeks, I was noticing that even the pitting was feeling better. Of course they were growing out too, but I do believe that they would not have grown as strong with out this treatment.
Whenever my nails are feeling cracked or brittle, I will make sure to use coconut oil, and they will almost instantly feel better. Otherwise, I only use it at night. It became my thing, and my go too, along with petroleum jelly which strangely enough is great for psoriasis. And of course, a good dose of vitamins.
My oldest daughter originally suggested coconut oil for mouthwash, and why not on nails, I thought.
Just say no to acrylic nails. This is my advice.
KEEP IT NATURAL AMERICA 💚
Below, my nails 5 years after stopping acrylic and using coconut oil daily. Showing way less pitting, much stronger, and much more healthy.
Another thought, our children are watching us, just like I was watching my Mom.
Youngest daughter, Liz at 6, insisting on birthday PressOn Nails.
Youngest daughter, Liz several years back:
Those are gel, which are supposed to be better for her than acrylic.
I would refuse that she use them, but somethings must be figured out on your own.
Liz's gel nails recently, at 16;
One last fun fact about my hands 😅
Then 23andMe provided interesting confirmation to this fun fact, explaining that women being exposed to high levels of hormones, and testosterone during gestation, were likely to be born with longer ring fingers.
This all feeds into a lot of other weird tidbits about my Mom's pregnancy with me; my Mom complains that her pregnancy was very hard, having to deal with things that were strange to her, like being hot natured, unusual food cravings, and hands and feet sweating. All the things that turned out to be me, 😀 usually labeled a tomboy, as a child (she was too); always wanting to do more boyish things, like lift weights, turn wrenches, tend animals, join the Military, electronics, and build, but I was instead taught to act like a little lady, which did not come naturally to me. 😅 Except for babies.... Caring for babies comes as naturally as caring for animals to me, both of which I love tending to.
Peanut
My early French Manicure attempts, Acrylic nails and baby Peanut. Again, more time petting Peanut, less time on nails..... Sweet little Peanut 👼
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