Bring Life Back To Your Natural Nails After Gel Nails

I’ve been meaning to put this post together for awhile now.  Not quite sure why I haven’t but each time I start my weekly nail routine these days it jogs my memory to put my thoughts down about nail care.

Let me preface this by stating that these are my own individual thoughts on nail care and additionally my thoughts about gel nails.

So, allow me to start by saying that as women it’s not uncommon that we want our nails to be manicured nicely and look put together.  Certainly we can do this ourselves with the right products on hand (no pun intended).

But if you’re anything like me, you don’t like waiting for nail polish to dry, you don’t want to spend the time doing them yourself, and we ultimately enjoy the pampering when we go to the salon.

Months ago, for awhile actually, I was manicuring my own nails.  To give you a little perspective, I have thin nails that aren’t strong and they tend to split and peel.  It requires some quality nail polish and upkeep to keep them healthy.  I have managed to keep them looking nice and healthy at several times in my life but I have to really focus on them in order to achieve that outcome.

Well, right before I started my new job, I decided it would be a fabulous idea to have gel or shellac put on my nails as an overlay.  I am a veteran when it comes to acrylic nails but removed many years ago and boy, did it take a long time to grow my nails out healthy again.  Wearing acrylic nails for years did a lot of damage to my natural nails.  So, saying that, I’m very familiar with the process of getting nails done at the salon.  No matter what type of artificial route I have gone.

I was very excited with my new gel nails and they seemed to allow the added strength to my nails that I am always working towards when I do them myself.

Here’s where my lecture starts….several weeks ago, I was sitting at work reading emails and a corner of one of my nails chipped.  What do you think happened?  Did I wait to go to the salon to have them removed and redone professionally?  No, I proceeded to pick and pick at my nails until I picked almost all of the gel off.

Not sure if any of you know what that does to your nails but in essence as I was peeling off the gel on my nails, I was also taking off the top layer of my nails.  Not a good thing at all.  Not a proud moment of mine.

So I’m not here to bash gel nails or any salon manicures of the like.  I’m here to share what I had to go through and still going through to baby my nails back to a healthy state.  And, with that said, I probably will not get any type of overlay done on my nails again. Yes, it was that bad.

I wasn’t about to take a picture of my nails right after the peeling incident.  They were so red and thin it made my eyes water from the tenderness of just touching them.  Therefore, I don’t have anything to share but you can imagine.

So what have I done since to help my very damaged nails?  See below for my best tips on nail care when they are in their worst shape and what has worked very well in a matter of weeks.

• The first step after I had rid my nails of the chipped gel and cut them back was to soak my nails in a bowl of coconut oil.  Yes, believe it or not that helped tremendously.  My nails were so sore to the touch and painful that the coconut oil soothed my red and very thin nail beds.  It did wonders.  I tried to do that each day for about a week.
• Once my nails had gotten to point where I could start putting a fortifying nail polish on them, I used OPI Nail Envy clear polish. I also bought a very light pink color of OPI Nail Envy to add color so they didn’t look so bad with just clear polish on.  The color polish has the same fortifiers in it so it was only an added bonus.
• They were in such bad shape that there were times the nail polish felt like it was burning my nails.  I really did a number on them let me just say.  But for the most part I have kept the clear polish and color polish on for weeks now.
• I keep them cut down.  Length is not important to me at this point.  They will be too thin anyway if I were to grow them out and the shape they were in they would snag on something and probably tear.
• Always keep cuticle oil on them each day.  This is a huge staple for my nails.  I use the CND cuticle oil to nourish my nails and keep my cuticles healthy.
• When I use nail polish remover to get the polish off, I typically use a strengthening remover.  Whether or not it truly strengthens my nails, I’m not sure, but anything with added strength seemed to be the answer at this point.
• I only remove my nail polish once per week so I’m not using any harsh chemicals on my nails during this time.
• No biting!  I try hard not to bite my nails anymore. That used to be a very bad habit of mine.  I keep mini nail clippers in my purse along with a crystal nail file.  Crystal nail files are so much better than the regular nail files so I tend to use them when filing is needed.
• When filing, try to file in one direction.  I’ve read this tip many times before so rather than filing back and forth I try to just go in one direction.  This reduces nail breakage down the line and prohibits tiny tears in your nails as you file them.

I have done my best to keep up this process and while it’s going slow, they are in much better shape than they were.  The trauma I put my nails through I take full accountability.  The gel nails themselves and getting them done at a salon was not the culprit.  I should have had them professionally removed.  I’m sure I’m not the first one to make this huge mistake so I’m here to tell you it’s not worth it to keep picking at them.  However, if you do, you can follow the steps above and I highly recommend the polish and cuticle oil I mentioned.

I’m not here to tell anyone to never use gel or acrylic nails but going forward it’s not for me.  I’m back to just my own natural nails and I plan to keep doing what I’m doing so I can grow them out on my own again.

I’m hopeful, as my readers, that you found this helpful even if you were just looking for ways to give your nails a spa day at home.  If you happen to have any questions, comments or tips to share of your own please feel free to drop them in the comment box below.