Do you have broken skin around your fingernails that leads to painful inflammation and makes your hands look unkempt? Here's how you can prevent it and avoid the problem in the future.
Everyone knows about those little bits of skin on your fingers. It is extremely tempting to pull or bite at them. Most of the time, we can't resist the temptation.
But the moment we pull on it, we know: This was not a good idea!
The small cracks and skin flakes are not only a visual problem. Viruses and bacteria penetrate the open areas, and there are large quantities of them on our hands.
If it goes really bad, then it comes to a nail bed inflammation, which must be operated or treated with antibiotics.
So broken skin around fingernails is not only ugly, but can lead to major health problems.
Do you also suffer from cracked skin around your fingernails and don't know why? Then let's find out today! This is how you get rid of broken skin around fingernails once and for all!
Why does the skin on the fingernail crack?
Cracked cuticles and dry skin on the hands can have many reasons: Professional or everyday activities that stress our fingers, cold weather, contact with water, nails biting and aggressive chemicals.
Nails and skin bite: Some people relieve stress by unconsciously tearing or biting their cuticles, which destroys the skin and can lead to minor injuries and inflammation.
The technical term for this habit is perionychophagia.
Vitamin deficiency: Very unbalanced diet can cause broken skin around fingernails.
The body then does not have enough vitamins and nutrients to keep the skin and nails healthy.
Wrong skin care: Using harsh chemicals when brushing and over washing your hands can lead to damaged cuticles.
Then, if you don't use moisturizers to nourish the skin, it will crack and become inflamed.
Bad weather: Broken skin around fingernails and on fingers occurs mainly in winter. Then, when the air is very dry and cold, microcracks appear.
By the way, this can also happen if you frequently use air dryers and hair dryers. In summer, this phenomenon hardly ever occurs.
What to do about broken skin around fingernails?
To avoid aggravating your skin condition, do not use air dryers or rough paper towels in public restrooms.
Try to find out what is causing your skin to be so dry.
If you know the cause, you are already a big step closer to the whole phenomenon and can start working on healing the cuticle.
Apply healing ointments
Wear an antibacterial ointment or Vaseline* onto the cracked area. Repeat this process at least three times a day to eliminate any inflammation.
Use hand masks
If you often have cracked skin around your nails, hand masks are a great solution.
They look like gloves, but are made of thin plastic and contain an intensive hand cream made specifically for this application.
Here's how it works:
- Just put on the gloves and leave them on for at least 10 minutes.
- Then the included hand mask gets to work and repairs all the broken skin.
- The glove retains heat so that the active ingredients can penetrate deeper.
- After the application time, take off the gloves and massage the remains of the cream into your skin. Your hands will look refreshed and like new!
Big advantage: there is no greasy residue!
You can also easily make a hand mask yourself.
For this, use a very rich cream and put on cleaning gloves that are 2 sizes too big for you. Leave your hands in it for 10 minutes.
Dabbing instead of rubbing
Use soft towels to dry hands instead of paper or air dryers. Do not rub hands dry, but dab them gently.
Let them air dry briefly and then apply a moisturizer without additives.
Make hand scrub
Skin that flakes around the nails is usually due to dryness.
You may have already tried to solve the problem with hand cream, but that didn't help?
Most people forget that the dried skin must first be removed. The old skin scales must be removed because they block the active ingredients from the creams.
Whether you have broken skin around fingernails or not, you should exfoliate regularly in winter to refresh skin cells. Only then can skin creams work well.
There are a lot of DIY instructions for this, you don't have to buy a hand scrub. Most instructions use sea salt, but this is not a good idea if your skin is already open and inflamed.
We recommend you a gentle DIY hand scrub with sugar and coconut oil, which is specially made for dry skin.
Use nail oil
If you're not a fan of greasy creams and ointments, nail oil is a great alternative.
These vegetable oils are absorbed very quickly and do not leave a greasy film. They make the skin soft, supple and can relieve inflammation.
Broken skin around fingernails needs more care than a conventional cream can give it. Massage the oil firmly into the skin and repeat the process 2x a day until you notice an improvement.
As DIY nail oil you can Almond oil*, Coconut oil* or olive oil on a cotton bud and dab the skin with it.
Refrain from biting nails
Nail biting is a small vice that affects numerous people. The best care is not much use if you tear the skin with your teeth.
If you have this problem, it's time to finally tackle it! The result of nail biting is torn, bloody skin that can easily become very inflamed.
This looks extremely unappetizing and leads to bad inflammations.
The good news is that biting your nails and skin is a habit you can break with discipline and ambition.
There are special remedies that you can apply to your nails. As soon as you put your fingers in your mouth, you taste the extremely bitter liquid.
It is so terrible in taste that you quickly get tired of it. You can find more on this topic here: "Finally stop biting your nails - this is how it works!“
You will see that broken skin around fingernails and the nails themselves recover quickly and then look much healthier.
You can find some great tips here in this video
What deficiency for cracked cuticles?
Did you know that not only constant fatigue, but also brittle nails with grooves can be a symptom of iron deficiency? Dry and cracked skin can be caused by it.
If you have dry and cracked skin, a feeling of tightness or itching, it may be due to a zinc deficiency.
You can address this deficiency by eating rye and wheat sprouts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, hard cheeses, fish and meat, and oatmeal and lentils.
Likewise, you may have been too low in biotin (vitamin B7) lately -. You can also recognize a biotin deficiency by the hair.
Biotin is an important component of many metabolic processes and is responsible for strong fingernails, beautiful skin and hair.
21 Power Beauty Foods for strong nails and beautiful skin!
Our conclusion
Cracked skin around the fingernails can have many causes, but is usually due to dryness.
Regular exfoliation and the use of a cream or nail oil can help alleviate the problem.
Also, if you bite your nails, you should use a bitter to help you stop.
Finally, you should make sure that you eat enough vitamins and minerals through a varied and healthy diet. Then broken skin around fingernails no longer has a chance!
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