Nails

You were given ten nails, which will never stop growing. That’s why trimming your nails is the next chapter in this guide, as you will have to trim them all your life.

Are long nails that bad? Not necessarily. But they have many disadvantages:

• They look bad
• They can be sharp and hurt yourself or other people
• They collect lots of dirt underneath them
• They can seriously hinder you in doing your daily tasks. (For example, if I have long nails, I can’t easily type or play piano, because my nails are touching the key before my finger does. Which feels bad and clunky.)

In nature, we’d automatically trim our nails. As animals run, climb, fight, etcetera, their nails will break and shorten. But we don’t live that way anymore.

I therefore advise keeping your nails short and clean.

How often should I trim?

Nails grow at a different rate for each person. There’s no standard rule for when to cut them. Cut them whenever they become a nuisance or you can clearly see the white outgrowth of the nail.

On average, though, you’ll cut them once every two weeks. If you experience trouble with long nails, or they collect too much dirt, definitely cut them earlier.

Sometimes, your nails will collect lots of dirt without being long at all. (Mostly because your work means getting your hands dirty.) In that case, they need special cleaning. When taking a shower, or washing your hands, check if they are dirty.

How to remove that dirt?

Try these steps (in this order):

• Wash them
• Use a flat pin or tool to get underneath the nail and remove the dirt
• Buy a special brush you can move over your nails, with hairs that reach underneath
• Hold your hands/feet in a bowl of hot, soapy water for a longer period of time.
• Keep your nails really short in general

Don’t try to clean your nails by scratching the dirt away with another one.

About biting nails

Don’t! Just don’t do it!

• It doesn’t look good
• Your nails get rough, uneven, sharp edges. (Which again, are impractical and can hurt yourself.)
• It’s not natural to bite or eat your nails.
• This is usually a symptom of being stressed or anxious. Resolve this problem in a healthy, constructive way—instead of merely taking away the symptom.

How to trim nails

When you look at your nails, you should see two parts.

• A pink-ish part near the finger
• A white part at the growing end.

The white part is the part of the nail that sticks out. Its color is created by the oxygen it collects. The white part can be cut off completely, but leave the other part alone!

If you’ve accidentally cut a nail uneven, don’t try and try to fix your mistake. It’s a never-ending process that will make your nails too short.

It also increases the probability of nails growing in. It means the nail grows into your skin, because it has nowhere else to go, instead of growing outward. This is painful. It often requires a doctor to solve the issue.

Instead, if needed, try to even your nails out by using a nail file.

Your Hands

Fingernails grow faster than toenails. They are also seen more by others. (Unless you, somehow, show your feet to a lot of people.)

These, therefore, usually need more care and more trimming than your toes.

You should cut the nails round / curved. Its end follows the roundness of your fingertips.

Your Feet

These ones grow slower, but are much stronger. People usually cut them less often, but you can do them at the same time as you do your hands.

The biggest difference? You must cut these straight. The end should mostly be a straight horizontal line.