A modern person often has problems with skin, hair and nails. The reason for this is poor ecology and aggressive environment. Nails are made of keratin fibers. When they become thinned or friable, a state of hapalonychia sets in. It can be congenital, in which case weak nails can be traced in a whole generation of relatives. How to strengthen nails? The answer to this question depends on the general state of health.
Acquired poor condition of the nails is often caused by disorders in the body. In particular, due to a malfunction in the growth zone of the nail - the matrix. This is the tissue under the cuticle, the visible part of which - the lunula - protrudes under the nail plate. One of the signs of thyroid dysfunction is bad nails.
Failure can also be caused by sclerosis of the vessels that feed this area, a general disturbance in metabolic processes, problems with the intestines and the associated poor digestibility of vitamins, poor nervous conduction and other diseases.
Proper nail care required
Just as it is impossible to maintain healthy teeth without proper oral care, the strength of the nails depends on good quality care. Even naturally weak nails can delight their mistress, who carefully watches them. The question is not how to strengthen the nails, but how to save them.
If you don’t file a broken nail in time, it can begin to exfoliate, begin to hurt everything and can even crack, break, or break off from an unsuccessful movement. The nail has an arch in cross section, this gives it additional rigidity. Broken corner violates the design of the nail and exposes it to increased loads.
Protect your nails with varnish and gloves. This will protect them from external influences.
Nails need nutrition
Nails absorb water and fat well. This is the basis for treatment with masks, ointments and creams, wax sealing and therapeutic baths. The cuticle is also permeable to nutritional formulations, and regular care of it leads to good results.
How to strengthen nails with the help of external means, any manicurist knows. Often in the salon they sell special creams for nails and products for removing dead skin cells of the cuticle. After the hygienic manicure procedure, the master applies oil and makes a cuticle massage. He will tell you the better to strengthen the nails. The best formulations have natural ingredients. These are avocado oil, peach oil, aloe vera and others. Essential aromatic oils have nothing to do with nail care products. Do not confuse them.
Cuticle remover is also better to choose based on natural oils. These are alpha and beta fruit acids, which are instantly absorbed by the cells and nourish them. At the same time, they exfoliate keratinized keratin fibers, breaking the bonds between them. Therefore, such an anti-cuticle cream is not washed off after use. It is enough to apply it two or three times a week, and the root of the nail will receive the necessary nutrition. The cuticle will not grow.
How to protect nail polish
The fact that the nail needs protection is known to many. But not everyone can organize it correctly. Even the best and most expensive varnish will not be useful if it is worn chipped at the tips. The butt of the nail will then begin to absorb all the water and fatty compounds with which it comes into contact. In this case, the thickness of the nail plate increases significantly. From this, hard coatings (for example, ordinary nail polish) do not stand up and chip. The meaning of protection disappears, the nail exfoliates and loses keratin layers.
To prevent this, it is enough to seal the end of the nail, thereby blocking the gate to absorb solutions. Nail, as in a protective shell, will cease to interact with the environment. The butt is a vulnerable place; coverage is often wiped off it. In this case, you can simply reseal it with colorless varnish, if the time has not yet come for changing the entire coating. Under such conditions, any nail polish is firming. But there are special compounds with minerals and vitamins that are designed to protect and treat nails.
Healing varnish
Now almost every company that produces nail polishes has a line of medical products in the catalog. How to choose the best firming nail polish? First of all, pay attention to the composition. The international agreement of cosmetics manufacturers has a 3 free rule, which means a ban on the inclusion of ingredients such as formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate and toluene.
If the composition is acetone, this is also not related to therapeutic varnish. But proteins, keratins and vitamins are welcome. The structure of the nail is strengthened by the formation of a cellulose film on the surface, moisturized by extracts of oils and can serve as the basis for colored varnishes. It is best to consult with a practitioner about which varnishes strengthen your nails.
There are compounds that stick together keratin cells, which effectively remove the detachment. Crumbling nails are well treated with ingredients that fill the porous areas.
In our country, some professional tools are popular for solving various problems with nails. These are OPI (the American brand of the elite class), the domestic company Formula Profi (business class) and the Belarusian Severina (economy class). All products are certified and have excellent reviews. You can buy them in specialized stores for nail masters.
Baths: recipes for home use
Firming baths for nails - an easy and inexpensive way to solve various problems. There are several recipes that are used at home:
- Warm beer is mixed with grated cucumber, a small amount of salt is added. Hold your hands for twenty minutes. After the bath, the smell of beer can be removed by rubbing your hands with a cucumber.
- Hands hold in a solution of sea salt for twenty minutes, after which they do not wash with soap for half an hour.
- Water extract of dry kelp - a means for bonding detachments. Dry kelp grass is soaked in a bowl for half an hour, drained and used for a bath. The treatment time is fifteen minutes. After hand rinse with warm water and apply cuticle oil. The active ingredients of the bath are easily washed with a soap solution, so it is better to do this procedure at night to restore the condition of the nails.
- Mix vegetable oil (sunflower, linseed or olive) with natural grape wine (preferably dry) in a plastic or ceramic container, heat in a water bath and lower the nails for ten minutes, then rinse with warm water and grease with cream.
- A decoction of oak bark is rich in tannins, strengthens nails and makes them strong. The procedure takes ten minutes. Skin and nails may stain.
- Kefir mask: pour a little kefir into a bowl, heat in a water bath, add a spoonful of olive oil and hold hands for 15 minutes in this composition. Kefir is well absorbed by the cuticle, nourishes and moisturizes it. After application, the shine remains on the nails and they acquire elasticity. Fragility and lamination pass.
Masks
In addition to strengthening baths for nails, special nourishing masks are made.
For strengthening, the following compositions are used:
- Aloe mask: 10 ml of cream is mixed with 20 ml of burdock oil, 40 drops of sea buckthorn oil and calendula oil. To the mixture add 20 ml of aloe juice. Rubbed into the base of the nails. Aloe contains allantoin, 18 amino acids and penetrates deep into the skin.
- Lemon mask: the lemon fruit is cut in half and the nails are immersed in the pulp of the fruit for 10 minutes. It has a whitening effect. Fruit acids are perfectly absorbed, saturate the cuticle with vitamins, accelerating metabolic processes in the matrix, where keratin cells are built.
Treatment of severely advanced problems
To restore the nails, a powder mask with vegetable oil is made: any vegetable oil should be boiled, cooled and the tips of the fingers dipped into it. After the fingers fall into the loose powder. They put on clean cloth gloves and leave them overnight. Then remove and rinse your hands with warm water.
If the next morning there is a feeling of greasy, you can wipe the skin with face lotion. Nails can be polished with a nail file with a hardness of 1000 grit, making several movements. The substances of the mask penetrate deeply into the keratin of the nails, and their appearance will become smooth and shiny.
In the case when you need to quickly achieve the result, sealing the nails with wax will help. To do this, 25 grams of beeswax and 80 ml of olive oil are dissolved in a water bath. Pour hot and rub into the cuticle.
Which cream to choose for nail protection
When you meet a cream on the shelf of a store intended for hands and nails, promising velvet pens and strong nails, look at its composition. If the ingredients include glycerin, liquid paraffin or mineral oil, then you should not take it. These components only dry the skin, drawing water out of it. Outwardly, this does not manifest itself in any way, all processes go deep in the cells. Such a cream can be taken to protect the hands when working in the garden, especially if the composition is silicone. Tissue regeneration needs a different composition.
What cream nourishes nails
A firming nail cream should primarily nourish the cuticle. Not all substances can penetrate into the area of the sprouting zone of the nail, and this is very good: natural protection does not allow bacteria and viruses to get there, creating a natural barrier. Only alpha-hydroxy acids (ANA), soluble in water, can help with the nail. Beta hydroxide acids (BHA) are also useful, they are fat soluble.
If the composition contains ANA or VNA, this is a natural cream that really nourishes the cell. Glycolic acid has a very small molecule and therefore is instantly absorbed and moisturizes, citric acid enhances collagen synthesis. And salicylic acid, related to VNA, has an exfoliating and bactericidal effect.
Vitamins for Nail Growth
Vitamins A and group B are involved in the process of keratin formation. In second place are calcium, iron and sulfur. If there are few fruits and vegetables in food, a malfunction in the general metabolism is inevitable. Therefore, by the spring, the hair grow dull, the nails exfoliate, skin problems appear. Fortunately, vitamins that strengthen nails, hair and skin can now be purchased.
Researchers have noticed that synthetic vitamins do not have the same effect as natural ones. Therefore, in the composition of vitamin products it is better to look for the chemical names of natural vitamins isolated from natural products: carotenoids, tocotriinols, L-ascorbate, thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinamide, pantothenic acid, biotin, paraminobenzoic acid.
Of the trace elements, calcium is important, which is involved in all metabolic processes. Better to choose calcium citrate. Silicon is directly responsible for the production of collagen, and sulfur is part of the nails and gives them strength.
How to strengthen nails after building
It happens that after removing the extended nails requires a deep restoration of the nail plate. Especially for this, biogels have been created that allow you to immediately solve the problems of detachments and soft nails. Of course, you can do this procedure for those who by nature have nails in poor condition.
Famous Names and Royal French from Formula Profi became the most famous. Although these are salon procedures for restoring nails, they can be successfully done at home. You will need an LED lamp for the polymerization of materials and a set of biogels.
The video discusses the solution to several problems, including giving a master class on how to strengthen thin nails. It is unlikely that such a procedure will be needed more than two or three times, because after it the nail will take a healthy look and significantly strengthen.
That's all the basic methods of treating weak nails that exist in the arsenal of a modern manicurist. And what is very important, they can be successfully used at home.