I think I'm doomed to live life with an unfused finger nail. :'(

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, here’s what happened.

Call it tacky, call it ghetto, call it a waste of money, call it pointless suffering for beauty- whatever you call them, I love my fake nails. In fact, I strive to find the most ghetto fabulous nail salons because a: they are cheap and b: they do the most amazing nail art. My philosophy for life, you see, is that the nails are the last place women can truly be crazy in their appearance, while still maintaining at least a moderate level of professionalism. In fact, these and these were my super tacky, ghetto fab Christmas nails.

The fabulosity of my nails really isn’t what this is about- oh no. This thread is about the horrible pain and perhaps deformity I’m surely going to have to go through the rest of my life with. Forever to be judged by strangers :(.

I’ve had my nails done since I was, oh, 15. In the last 6 years, I have never once popped off a fake nail- I mean, I’ve bent them back in a painful manner, but never popped one off. Until the other day, that is. I was trying to open up my gas tank, when my nail got stuck in the metal of the door. Pull, rip, OOOOOOOWWWWWWW :eek:.

I looked down and not only did my finger feel like it was on fire, but it looked very pitiful. The fake nail was hanging half off, the real nail was all red and horrible, and there was blood pouring out from my finger tip (from under the nail). My friend ran in and got a band aid fom me (interestingly, the gas station didn’t have a first aid kit :smack:, she had to get one from another patron, a woman who felt my pain), but my nail continued to hurt for at least three days.

When I finally got the nerve to rip off the acrylic the rest of the way, I noticed that a good half of my finger nail had. . . defused. . . itself from the meaty part of my finger.

So, here’s my question: am I doomed to forever walk the Earth in lonely, ugly, defused fingerhood? Or will my nail grow and refuse itself to flesh? Oh, or option 3: I’m going to die? All advice is welcome, even that not pertinant to my sad situation.

Oh, and because I know you are all sick bastards for pain, here is a picture I just took of my finger to show the nail all lamed up (you can see where it was bleeding on the sides, as well): a harmless one. And: this one is really up close and icky. I’ve you’ve ever had acrylics, you know it isn’t a pretty sight when the fake nail comes off- especially in a violent manner! Look at your own risk. Icky.

2

When I was about 5 years old the same thing happened to me. Well, except there were no fake nails involved. But I managed to rip off about half of my thumbnail. It took a while, and looked really gross for a while, but it eventually grew back and now looks completely normal.

I’d say you’re safe.

3

So, I’m not destined for death? Or being an outcast? Maybe we should go form our own island for victims of nail trauma. What do you think? We can have delicious rum based drinks, it’ll be good.

In other news, I’m pretty sure the reason my nail looks so stupid is that I’ve got nail cancer. That is probably the most likely scenario actually, right?

4

Awesome nail art. I used to get nail art done, back when I was actually earning a respectable salary. Never got snowmen though. I think I had kitties, once. On my real nails, not acrylic ones. That looks really … painful. :: shudder ::

:: clutches fingers and whimpers ::

5

Let me tell you something about the nail girl I go to: the last time I went in, she did a full fill with pink and white glitter gel (usually way more expensive than regular kind), then spent a solid hour hand drawing all of the detailed nail art on each finger. Do you know how much she charged me? $25.

I just recently started going to her, so I was totally taken aback. The last guy that I went to would do the same kind of fill (two glitter gels) and art on two fingers-- for that, he’d charge a minimum of $50 (usually close to $70-- you can see why I stopped going there!). I was so thrilled when the new girl said $25 (and she seriously did AMAZING nail art!) that I gave her a $15 tip heh. Damnit, I want her to know I’m good people!

6

No. :smiley:

7

Wow! Great nails.
I think you are going to live. It appears that you don’t have nail cancer. (Hope this does not count as medical advice)

8

Yeah, nails take a long time to grow back, but by Spring Break, you should be fine. Good thing it’s not a toenail - those can take a whole year to grow back!

And on another note - DAYUMN! You have seriously not broken a nail in 6 years? When I had acrylics done, I’d lose one about every 2-3 months! I wonder if there have been radical advancements in nail prosthetics ( :wink: ) or if you need a job with more manual labor!

9

So when did you and my wife become friends? You sound exactly the same as she when she breaks a nail - or correct that - when she get’s a nail ripped off. She always has acrylic, and I have noticed the few time she goes O’naturale her nails do not look healthy underneath. She explains that the glue actually eats away at your true nail and gives it the look of a thinner, pitted icky thing on the end of your finger.

It’s an unfortunate side effect and one that doesn’t appear to be avoidable. She has gone to several nail salons and only one of them uses an organic glue said not to pit and thin your nails. I dunno, I have up having my nails done years ago LOL :wink:

10

I tore off a toenail playing soccer (in running shoes :smack: ). It took awhile but grew back and is as normal-looking as before.

11

Yeah, see, while I think your nails are fantastic for the holidays (and I’d love to do something like that myself), I don’t see wild nail art as being even moderately professional. A bright color, yes, slightly glittery, yes, but not painted all up like that. YMObviouslyV.

That said, I’m sorry you hurt yourself. I hope it heals up soon. And I do really love the designs, in spite of my opinion about professionalism. :cool:

12

I’ve never heard that of the glue (although of course everyone’s body chemistry is different), but the fact that they file down the top of the nail to roughen the surface for the acrylic to stick to certainly thins the nail some. It’s like sanding before applying a new coat of paint - when you sand, you rub away some thickness.

Back in the dark ages when I was doing it (the nineties), “they” were still recommending that you go acrylic-less for a month for every three or four you had them on, in order to reoxygenate the nail bed and promote healthier nail growth. Of course we all ignored that advice. I had mine on for nearly 10 years with no lasting damage. But yeah, it looks real gross for a few months when you decide to kick the acrylic habit and everything needs to grow out.

Dangnabbit, this thread has me wanting to get my nails done again. How can I maintain my hippie chick cred with acrylic nails, darn you all to heck?!

13

You are destined for death. Sorry, but we all are. The good news is, you are not destined for “death by fingernail”.

14

curls in a ball and rocks back and forth Why did I open this thread! Don’t click the link, nails will eat me. Don’t click the link, nails will eat me.

15

I don’t have acrylics, but I do read Glamour every month. Aren’t you supposed to not have the false nails on for a while, every once in a while? I seem to recall it’s advised to give them a rest occasionally in order for the actual nail to grow and breathe. Here’s what one site says: Never wear artificial nails for longer than three months at a time. Remove them for one month to give nails a rest.

16

I just have to say DAYM girl those nails are gorgeous! :smiley:

As for your poor nail, fear not. Like others here, I have lost a whole entire toenail (the big one! Woe to me, the perpetual sandal-wearer) and it grew back fine.

17

I have beaten a few nails off with a hammer and they always come back good as new in a few months.

18

Oh, it’s probably the latter heh. But that said, I never even broke one during high school, where I went to daily PE and was the captain of the varsity girl’s tennis team. Actually, I even wore them longer and ghettoer back then!

Well, I’m also 21 years old and work for our family business. I suppose if I were 35 and doing some other job, my nails would be of greater consequence. As it stands though, I think people expect me to look ridiculous half of the time because I am young :D. Actually, I get compliments every day from our male and female clients about my nails, so maybe we just cater to a different sect than most folks.

In that regard though, I once came up with a theory that my hair dresser agrees with. I was 20 at the time and I told her that, at best, I had 5 more years to have crazy hair colors, crazy hair cuts, and crazy finger nails. Once you hit 25, people begin to really expect you to act like a goddamned grown up :(. Depending on where my life is at that point, I might be able to push the wacky to 30, beyond that though? It’s questionable.

Frankly, I’m going to mark that one down in the “Score one for me” category.

Yup, and that’s what I do. That horrible thing you are looking at? That’s after having acrylics on for one month (I had them off for 2 or 3-- during which I oiled and filed and strengthened them like it was going out of style). I would point out though that the reason that nail looks particularly bad is 1: it’s in horrible pain, so obviously I didn’t file it down at all in an attempt to clean it up and 2: it was just ripped in a very unpleasant way. Usually, when I take my acrylics off, they never look that bad.

And as WhyNot said, it’s not the glue that messes them up, so much as the fact that they have to file the top of the nail into rough oblivion to stick something to it.

Can we still have rum drinks?

19

I smashed the living daylights out of my toenail when I was a wee tot. The nail came off completely. It grew back (prolly took about 9 months?) but it came back as normal as the original.

20

Dude, the exact same thing happened to me and my acrylics. I bent it almost completely back, separating it from the nail bed. It hurt for freaking ever. Wear a band-aid to hold the nail down and protect the bed. Cut the nail absolutely as short as possible; it’s really easy to accidently jostly it and rerip in the healing stage. Whatever you do, don’t decide it’s halfway grown out so you can try getting a new tip on it, it’s not ready. I did this, wound up rejamming my finger and had to wait all over again.

It’ll grow back but it’ll take a few months. Like I said, don’t rush the getting a new tip, wait until it doesn’t hurt at all to mess with it. I still got my other nails done while it was growing out tho’; the band-aid looked cheesy but whatever.

Nah, most derm doctors say you just need to make sure you have a well-trained nail tech and watch for fungus. I often let me nails grow out “too much” so I have a good quater inch of healthy nail bed showing before I get a fill (acrylic reapplication).