Rehab Your Nails: After Enhancement Nails
8:12 PM
Alright ya'll...for this particular blog I have gone ALL the way back into the archives and found this picture from 2012. This is MY nails and this was actually taken AFTER I had done a full workup on my nails which were damaged from like, seven sets of acrylics in nail school. Hard to believe that this May I'll celebrate 7 years of being a nail tech...and seven years of not having to put my nails through repeated abuse. :P At any rate this is a good picture because it's from a previous Rehab Your Nails post about caring for nails after you remove acrylic AND how to properly do it. So if you have on acrylic nails now and you're thinking of removing them yourself PLEASE pop on over there and take the time to read about how to do it properly. Improper removal is one of the leading causes of nail damage from enhancements. As a nail tech there is nothing worse than a client who chooses to remove a perfectly applied set of enhancements (and this can include plain gel polish even though it's not technically an enhancement) at home and then comes back for damage control. Once the damage is done it's SO much harder to repair than a proper removal is. Now of course another reason for damage is improper application and that's typically caused by a tech using a drill incorrectly. But it can be caused by overfilling, over-prepping, under-prepping and lots of other things so for now, let's not focus on blame because to be perfectly honest with you....anything you put on your nail -- including polish -- causes damage. Some minimal and some not so much but you'll almost always end up with some kind of damage to your nail from regular use of product. So the question is how do you care for your nails when you've just had off enhancements?
In general nails will be thinner and weaker than they were before the enhancement and they may actually FEEL thinner since you'll feel a lot more when the enhancement is off. It's kind of like how the first time you apply lipstick your lips feel suffocated but after awhile you don't notice it anymore. So a nail strengthener can go along way to soothing the nail, adding strength, and also helping to alleviate that feeling of vulnerability. If the nails are very thin, like the ones in this picture (they may have a lacy appearance) then they should be cut to avoid painful breaks. Regular use of oil and lotion will help the nails grow faster and healthier and of course, AVOID WATER. Like super avoid it at all costs. Water plus thin nails = disaster. If you like, you can apply a layer of clear (or colored) gel polish for awhile to add some thickness to the nail while the thinnest parts grow out. But I would caution against doing this unless you plan to wear it the full length of suggested time, which is typically two weeks. Removal of gel polish is hard on nails and nails that are already thin and weak will sustain extra damage. Last tip: give yourself time! Healthy nails take 4-6 weeks to grow from matrix to tip so don't get discouraged if you're not seeing a difference. See that picture above? The arrow indicates the damaged nail and below it is my healthy nail growing back in. It will take time but you'll see it!!
:)
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