My wife and I disagree about how to cut our toenails.
I cut my toe nails in a rounded fashion, in the same way I cut fingernails. They are rounded, short, and smooth.
My wife, however, says that you are supposed to cut them in a straight line(which she does using those large toenail clippers). Actually, she says that the real correct way is to cut a V shape on your toenails, so they grow towards the middle. A foot doctor told her this was the right way.
Is there a right way to cut your toenails, and if so, what is it?
How do you cut your toenails? Is one of us right and the other wrong?
I guess it makes more sense to cut them straight because it would probably cut down on ingrown toenails. That said, I cut them round and haven’t had an ingrown toenail.
I’ve been told by one GP and one podiatrist to cut them straight across. This matches “Fixing Your Feet” (foot care book for endurance athletes) - the author also recommends keep the edges nicely smooth with a nail file or emery board (all this is to help prevent toenail injuries and loss). Cutting them curved so that the sides are shorter leads to ingrown nails according to my doctors (I used to have that problem all the time).
I’ve always been told to cut in a straight line, but my partner was told to do the V in the middle cut to prevent ingrowns. So she’s not the only one who’s ever heard that advice, but it sure does look funny when they’re cut that way.
I don’t know who the PR firm was who instilled in me as a kid (1970s) to cut my toenails straight across or Adolf Hitler would be riding shotgun in my car! but it appears to have worked.
I had to have ingrowns removed when I was a teenager. It’s not pretty. My big toenails have strangely straight sides. My podiatrist said the ingrowns will happen again unless I cut straight across forever.
My toenails are actually rather brittle, so I don’t generally get a chance to cut them…as soon as enough to cut grows past the base, it snaps off. Except for my left big toenail, which I have to cut off, because it doesn’t break off evenly, and tries to stay attached at the inside, so it ends up in kind of a ‘check mark’ shape.
I’ve had a recurring ingrown nail on the big toe on my left foot for about 30 years. ‘Recurring’ only when I don’t cut the ‘V’ notch in the middle of the nail, and holy crap, an ingrown nail is painful. Like, can’t wear a sock, can’t let the bedsheet rest on my foot, painful. I try to be vigilant, and as an adult I’m pretty good about it, but there have been a few times that I figured, nah, it won’t happen this time. Then it does.
So straight across on all my toes, but a notch in the big toes.