Growing out long and strong, healthy nails is a dream for many of us, but not everyone knows what they really need to keep them that way. Here’s how I went from having short, brittle, dry nails to having strong, healthy nails that grow out relatively quickly!
Remember, there is no real way to grow out your nails overnight or even in a week unless you’ve already started healing them and are keeping them healthy to grow out!
My secret weapon
No matter how much we wish they would, nails don’t grow overnight.
Whether you’re trying to regrow a nail from a break, split, or trying to go back to natural nails after acrylics, it’s going to take some time—and patience!
I often use nail polish to see how much my nails have grown since painting them or avoid pushing back my cuticles for a bit It usually surprises me and also acts as another protective layer for what is already grown out.
p.s. nail polish is your best friend! Unless you can’t wear it to work or school, you probably want at least one or two coats to help protect your nails and encourage them to bend instead of break!
But my real secret weapon isn’t nail polish… it’s jojoba oil! There are plenty of expensive nail oils out there that are diluted, overpriced, or just plain unhealthy for your nails so you’ll keep coming back to their products. Don’t get sucked into the endless cycle of needing a product to save your nails; instead, find a cheap, big bottle of jojoba online and add it to your cart!
I first started using nail oil after seeing it on SimplyNailogical’s YouTube channel, where she even shows how she made her own brush pen for easy nail oil application! I highly recommend you check out her channel and watch her videos about yellowing nails, recovering from a break, or simply taking care of them in general!
She even has a song about ‘duck nails’ and yes, it’s hilarious AND informative!
Simple lifestyle changes
When growing out your nails, you can’t just focus on actually getting them to grow. You’ve got to make sure you’re doing what you can to avoid breaking them by doing everyday things!
Here’s a list of things that can easily break your nails if you’re not careful!
- Pushing or shoving something into another, like trying to fit a lot into a bag. Just get a bigger bag for the sake of your nails!
- Washing the dishes for a long time without gloves
- Taking long baths with your hands submerged (check out Simply’s duck nail video here for more about this)
- Washing your hands more than 3-4 times a day (dries them out, even if you’re applying nail oil)
- Frequent rough contact with hands (sports where you have to dive, strenuous tasks at work, or even yard work!)
These are just a few of the mainstream things that can cause breaks, but there are tons more!
For me, I struggle to keep my nails healthy because my puppies constantly want to play, which is sometimes too rough for my nails to handle. I also have worked jobs that can’t allow me to wear ANY nail polish for health code reasons, which means my nails are more at risk of breaking, so I’ve got to take care of them well!
Cater to your own nails’ needs and adjust things in your everyday life to make life a little easier for your nails. It’ll pay off in the end, because trust me, you don’t want to wait week after week for a sign of significant growth only to have it all break off!
I’ve watched my mother and grandmother grow their nails out for years now, wondering how they managed to keep them so strong and how to have them recover so quickly after breaks.
Unfortunately, I am not as blessed with naturally strong nails and I have had to have some help along the way, but I have finally found a system that works for me and I urge anyone with brittle, dry, or damaged nails to try it too!
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