How To Care for Dehydrated Nails

A re your nails starting to look a little yellow, or feel brittle? It’s time to learn how to care for your dehydrated nails. 

Call it a genetic predisposition, being dehydrated, or being too busy to care for the cosmetic appearance of your hands—the “why” of it is usually our last concern when we finally start noticing how unsightly our hands become if our nails look dehydrated. So, let’s get right into the solutions. 

Check Your Water Intake 

The principle balance that you can offset in an otherwise healthy nail is the water content in the nail plate. In optimum conditions, your nail plate consists of 18% water content. 

When you lose water due to change in temperatures, repetitive hand washing, or the biggest culprit of all—by not drinking enough water. It definitely makes your nails weaker. 

Remember, dehydrated nails or skin are lacking moisture from deep within. There are many ways to counter the loss of moisture but if you’re not replenishing it by drinking 12-14 glasses of water a day; all other efforts will prove ineffective.  

Wash Hands Often to Remove Bacteria and Offensive Agents  

Don’t get me wrong, repetitive hand washing and drying is one of the worst things you could do to your hands. But not maintaining hand hygiene could lead to issues such as psoriasis or fungal infections; these parasites thrive off maintaining a dehydrated environment for your nails and hands. 

Ensure that you’re washing your hands regularly with soap, patting them dry, and then applying a lotion or hand cream to keep the moisture locked within. This especially applies if you have clammy hands all year round or in certain weather. 

Always Wash Hands After Applying Nail Polish Remover  

Here’s a thing you have observed over and over again; and failed to take action against. 

Every time you remove your nail polish, your nail plate looks visibly stripped of luster. It looks dry, brittle and like it could flake off with one swipe of the nail-filer across it. 

This is no coincidence; nail polish removers contain acetone which sucks the moisture out of not only your nail plate, but also your cuticle and surrounding skin. Non-acetone nail polish removers are just as bad, due to not being as effective as acetone and requiring more scrubbing.  

So what do you do to minimize the damage? Always wash hands right after and limit the exposure time of these chemicals with your nails. 

Soak In Lukewarm Water to Encourage Blood Flow 

Warm water helps in dilating surface blood vessels, especially end arteries which can have inadequate flow for many reasons. The Japanese have used the benefits of warm water and included it in many steps of the Geisha skincare regime before dermatologists hopped on board with it.  

So, YOU are going to profit from exactly that—take a bowl of lukewarm water and soak your hands in it for 3-5 minutes daily to encourage blood flow. This helps in getting oxygen more rapidly to certain areas of the nail plate. This means your nails are breathing better, using up nutrients from your blood that promote their health and help them fight off bacteria and other pathogens. 

Massage With the Right Moisturizer  

Here’s the thing about moisturizers; if they’re artificially scented or dyed, they might do more harm to your skin than good. For your moisturizer to help you regain your skin integrity; pick one that’s suggested by dermatologists. 

Petroleum jelly, urea cream, mineral oil, and lactic acid are well-researched moisturizing agents that work wonders if your nails are not infected and only dehydrated. 3-5 minutes of massaging each nail separately as well as together, especially the nail bed and the skin supporting the nail can resolve most of the issues. This works best if the primary reason for dehydrated nails is loss of moisture from environmental factors. 

Get Prescription Biotin  

While biotin is a vitamin sent straight from the heavens; that helps with most (if not all) of your skin, nail and hair conditions—it can mess with many of your medical test results by displaying false values. That’s why consulting a health professional before getting biotin for your nails would be the smartest way to go about it. 

Many studies have proved that taking biotin, along with a regular moisturizing regime can eliminate dehydrated nails and improve their health twice as fast.  

Dehydrated nails can be more than a cosmetic issue that affects your self-confidence. From endocrine to vascular or dermatological issues--dehydrated nails can be telling you much more than you think. If these tips on how to care for your dehydrated nails aren’t working, make an appointment with a medical professional.

• This post is tagged in:

• beauty
• dermatology
• winters
• nail growth
• brittle nails
• nail health