You and I have it in our hands how comfortable our nails feel with us. As resistant as they often appear - after all, they consist of up to 150 irregularly stacked horny plates - they are very sensitive.
The 101 on Fingernails and Toenails
When we talk about nails, we actually mean nail plates. A healthy nail plate (let's stick with it) is firm yet pliable, is evenly pink because the underlying perfused nail bed shows through, and is up to 0.75mm thick in adult humans.
Since fingernails and toenails, like our hair, are formed by the keratinization of skin cells, they belong to the so-called skin appendages.
Fingernails grow an average of 0.5 to 1.2 millimeters per week, toenails about half as much. A few fun facts: Nails grow faster during the day than at night, men's nails faster than women's, and nails grow slower in the cold season than in the warm season.
At its core, nature designed our nails to protect the pain-sensitive fingertips and toes from injury and to help them detect the slightest touch stimuli. Overall, they form a perfect unit for touching and grasping.
What Makes Our Nails Sensitive
The biggest weakness of our nails is their low water retention capacity. As a result, they quickly become porous and brittle when dry, soften when there is too much moisture and thus offer fungi an ideal breeding ground.
How to Protect Our Nails
That's why it's not exaggerated, for example, to wear gloves to protect your hands and nails when cleaning. Or always dry your feet properly after showering or bathing, as they often quickly disappear into socks and shoes, and the moisture there can no longer evaporate quickly by itself.
What also protects the nail is appropriate nail care. On the one hand, nail polish offers a certain protection against external factors. On the other hand, it is, above all, a suitable care product that can contribute to beautiful and healthy nails.
A nail oil like our
Nail & Cuticle Oil helps the nail to recover and makes it resilient. Nail oils usually contain fats, oils, and waxes that improve the elasticity of the nail, care for it, and at the same time protect it from drying out and swelling. The nail oil also makes the cuticles soft and supple. As a result, the cuticles can be easily pushed back during the manicure without cracks, which can often be painful.
As with facial and body care, the same applies to nail care: routine brings success. It is, therefore, best to use nail oil daily.
Nails and Health
Like our skin and hair, our nails reflect our physical and mental condition, lifestyle, and diet. Nervous people like to pinch their fingernails, for example.
Thinking about our diet also means that we can do something good for our nails from the inside. You can support your nails' health and attractiveness by eating foods containing iron, magnesium, zinc, calcium, biotin, folic acid, and vitamins A, B, and C, for example. And you should always drink enough water to help the nail grow regularly and smoothly.
Suppose you notice any changes in your nails, such as longitudinal and transverse grooves, that you cannot attribute to injuries, thickening, unusual curvatures, or nail discoloration. In that case, you should always have this medically clarified. Such changes can indicate deficiency symptoms and diseases.
Beautiful, Well-Groomed Nails Have a Long Tradition
Those who regularly care for and beautify their nails stand in a long tradition. Some findings prove that people care for and color their nails as far back as pre-Christian times. Manicures and nail coloring were often used to indicate social status. For example, a manicure was a sign of an aristocratic lifestyle in ancient China. It demonstrated prosperity and showed that the person didn't have to do manual labor. Even today, well-groomed hands and nails are a hallmark and an expression of our personality.
Take care, Verena
