Caring for your cuticles properly is one of the things you should know more about. Most of us do own our cuticles since sometimes we don’t have the time to go get a manicure.
I bet most of you feel the same way. So you might be asking yourself on how to take care of your cuticles on your own? There are so many ways to care for your cuticles on your own or at the comfort of your home.
Below are 8 Ways to Care for Your Cuticles:
1. Keeping your hands off your mouth
Just like every part of our body each has its own function, and the hands are the most useful. But don’t make the habit of putting your fingers in your mouth. Our mouth contain enzymes specifically in our saliva that can harm our skin and our cuticles.
2. Hangnails are forbidden
Hangnails or ‘agnail’ is a small torn piece of the skin whether in your toenails or fingernails. Removing it is an essential part to care for your cuticles. You must be extra careful on this because even if it’s small, if you cut it too deep it hurts and might cause infection then inflammation might occur.
3. Moisturizing
Handing your nails to a manicurist is not only the care needed by your cuticles. Unlike your skin it needs a lot more delicate moisturizer. First you must soak it in lukewarm water for 10-15 minutes then prepped it up, don’t clip or trim the skin that made up the cuticles cause it may detach and be open to infection.
If your cuticle is dry, try applying a moisturizer that contains, glycerin, petroleum, shea butter or safflower seed oil. Any moisturizer with citric acid will be a good choice for your cuticles, as well as your hands.
4. Handling With Care
Dry cuticles don’t need to be push back, since it’s dry it will only cause more damage to your cuticles. Instead moisturize it, soak in lukewarm water before doing push back. Hydrating it first is much better to avoid more damage to the cuticles.
5. Proper Push back
Pushing back of cuticle is also a delicate part, you might not want to remove the nail beds. First you must have the proper tools like cuticle pusher and moisturizer. Then start using cuticle remover and push them back gently using an orange-wood stick. Then remove the dead or excess skin moving it in small circles.
6. Cutting nails
Some thought that cuticles are dead cell that should be cut, but the truth is we should not cut the cuticles cause if you remove it there will be a space wide open to any foreign particles that can cause some bacterial infection. This may lead to more severe damage to your nails. Cuticles serve as a covering and protection for our nails, so we must not remove it. Its better to just push them back carefully.
7. Metal is not advisable for cuticle push back
During cuticle cleaning its much better to use wooden tools, except for cuticle trimmer for cutting the ragged edges. And for push back, its much better to use wood but plastic and rubber is also okay. Cuticle protects the nails so we don’t want it to be push a lot cause it will become thinner.
So be sure the trimmer is sharp to remove the whole hangnails. But you still need to be careful. If you already cut too deeply, just put an antibacterial ointment to prevent further infection.
8. Choosing the right nail care products
Additional to soaking in lukewarm water, you also need some essential oils and moisturizers for your cuticle care. In choosing the best cuticle oil or moisturizers, go for more natural or pure nail care products. You should watch out for chemical substances because it may only dry-out your nails or skin. Also the soap, lotion and creams for your hand should contain lots of natural oils.
Caring for our cuticles is also part of good hygiene and health. The cleaner and healthy cuticle you have, the more your healthy you are and safe from getting diseases. Take time to care for your cuticles!
