Confessions

My confession:  I am a nail biter, it is a bad habit and  I am so ashamed of myself for letting my nails get back into this condition again. I had beautiful nails for 5 months!  And, in one day, they are ruined and back in a nail bitten state.

I am starting this blog again to keep myself accountable.  Someone needs to know the condition of my nails.

The pictures below are my beautiful nails before I destroyed them!

Now, my nails are so short and bitten off.  They have been hurting for days now. I am so disappointed in myself for letting my fingernails get into this condition again.

Why do I do this?

I am trying to figure out what caused my vicious nail biting cycle.  Oh, I remember...I removed the colored nail shellac because I was not happy with the nail growth showing at the base of the nail.  So, I removed the shellac and in the process of removing the shellac, and I discovered it was difficult to remove the polish from the tips of the nails. 

The removal process my way involved me scraping the nail shellac off with my teeth.  I know...why did you do that?  Because I did not want my nails sitting in acetone for 45 minutes to get the shellac off.  

I managed to remove all the shellac off my nails, filing my nails started, which resulted in poor results. I started slacking off on the twice a day hand care. My nails were in terrible shape at this point. Nail biting started, the vicious cycle starts and does not stop until the damage has been done.

I know....Why didn't you go your nails done?

Stupidity! Lack of caring! Laziness!

I did realize the next time my nails are long, I will do things differently.  I will not allow my nails to become too long, 5 months of growth is too long!   If I am going to have my nails done, it will have to be done every 2 weeks.  Two weeks of nail growth is too much for me to tolerate.  

I will need to let a manicurist care for my nails because obviously I cannot do the job correctly.  At times, I will file my nails too much. then, my nails do not look pretty and the nail biting begins. 

I also figured out when my nails are very short and bitten, the skin about the nails and cuticles are very dry and prickly I tend to pick and bite them a lot and my vicious nail biting cycle starts. Also,  I have gotten lazy about my hand care twice a day (oil to cuticles and thick lotion to hands).

Once the biting of my nails start, it is a vicious cycle...I can't stop biting my nails until they have been bitten off. I hate hanging skin around my nails, cuticles! I will bite them off.

My fingertips hurt, they have been hurting for days.  They hurt worse when they are wet and when I am doing something with my hands. I hate doing stuff around the house with my hands because my fingers will hurt.

Last night, was my beginning of nail recovery.  I took a metal nail file and filed all my fingertips smooth, which means that I removed all snags from nails and skin areas.  Once my fingertips were smooth and soft, I applied Vaseline to my hands.

Did I say, my fingertips hurt!  Hurting as I type.  My thumbs hurt pretty bad. I somehow manage to find a nail snag and I pulled it off with my teeth...which resulted in taking the nail too deep into the nail bed...which often causes bleeding and it hurts really bad!

See my pictures, these are my nails at their worse.  These nails have looked like this for at least a week. 

My recovery begins.  Join me!  In 3 months my nails will be pretty again and so will your nails.