I have fairly nice nails. But my cuticles and the skin AROUND my fingernails are a different story. I chew on them until they BLEED. My thumbs are almost constantly bleeding, and I’m always pulling hangnails off with my teeth.
Anyway, I go to the manicurist last week and she says “do you trim your cuticles at home?” and I said, laughing,
“Naw, I just chew them to death.”
and she shrugged and said, “that’s better for you anyway. You should chew your cuticles down”
WHA? HUH? SON OF A?? HOLY… WHAT THE…MOTHER…
Is that true? This habit that my husband’s been begging be to break is actually good for me?
Find another manicurist!!! Anything that leaves you bleeding when you are done is usually not good for you. It’s even worse if you are going in for a manicure with your cuticles all bit to crap. (Chance of infection increases etc.)
And, if you bite your cuticles that badly, consider getting a manicure every two or three weeks. That will keep the cuticles neat and a really good manicurist will leave you nothing to bite on. (The voice of experience speaks!)
I have seen some real nasty skin infections result from chewing cuticles. The kind of infections that require surgical drainage and antibiotics to get under control. Now I haven’t seen many of them, and it hasn’t kept me from biting off my own cuticles from time to time when I get a hangnail, but you can give yourself a really, really ugly cellulitis from biting. Do with that knowledge what you will. Try tylenol first.
Personally, I think chewing on one’s fingers, cuticles, or nails is a sign of intelligence and beauty.
True story:
When I was around 11, I managed to pick up blood poisoning from a, um, wound on my thumb. Yes, I chewed on my fingers to the point of giving myself a potentially fatal condition. I remember lying in bed one night looking at it. Then I noticed the red line going up my thumb, and halfway up my forearm.
Being the child genius that I was, I recognized this as a sign of blood poisoning. I got up, and showed it to my older brother who was babysitting me. He was dubious, but called my parents. They, too, were dubious, but they were also parents, so they said “Well, we better believe her.” They came home and took me to the ER.
It was indeed blood poisoning. The doctors said that if I had waited until morning, it could have been very serious. As it was, they patched me up, cut half my thumbnail off to drain the infection, and sent me home.
Did it teach me to stop chewing on my fingers? Hell no. They’re bleeding right now.
Centers for Disease Control and other credible sources say that hepatitis C can be transmitted through the use of non-sterile pedicure/manicure instruments. All it takes is a microscopic droplet of contaminated blood and you risk lifelong infection. BTW, HCV claims nearly as many lives each year as AIDS–no cure, no vaccine, no warning signs of contamination.
Take your own sterile set to the manicurist and insist she use it. Better yet, get another manicurist, as well.
Here’s a bit of home care you can do a couple times a week. Gather together a teaspoon of baking soda, moisturizing hand soap, and a thick, rich hand/body cream. Turn on the tap and wash your hands with the soap thoroughly and use a soft nailbrush to scrub all around the nail area and underneath. While your hands are still wet and soapy, sprinkle a small amount of baking soda into the palms of your hand and work all over and around your hands. The baking soda exfoliates old, dead skin from your hands and nails and smooths things out considerably. Rinse your hands thoroughly. You might want to use the nail brush again to sweep every last trace of baking soda and soap from underneath your nails. Dry your hands gently and apply a generous amount of hand/body cream while your hands are just a little moist. Work the cream in good, and put on cotton gloves or socks to hold the cream in. If you do this a few times a week (men and women) your hands will look and feel a lot better, even in winter.
