If you want to know how to make nails grow significantly with less chance of breaking, read on to find out what you can do to make your nails grow faster, longer and stronger.
As a manicurist, people always ask me how to grow their nails out and keep them long and strong, so I thought I’d share some tips with you.
Proper cuticle care, a nutritious diet filled with certain foods, wise use of nail products, your activities, and nail shape all play a role in your nail growth journey.
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Since everyone has a different nail type, different solutions work best for different people.
While the general rules apply, some nail types need a little extra help in certain areas.
Understanding your nail type will help you to tailor a nail care routine that best suits your nails and your nail growth goals.
How to Make Nails Grow: Tips and Tricks
The following 5 factors affect natural nail growth:
· Cuticle Care
· Nutrition
· Product Use
· Activities
· Shape
Here is what you need to know to be sure they are affecting your nail growth in a positive way instead of negative.
Cuticle Care
I once had a client who had the hardest time with growing her nails long. They would split, break, everything.
She would ask me all the time how to make nails grow because she really wanted hers long.
One day, she was on the train and saw a lady with long, beautiful natural nails.
She asked her what her secret was, and she said she massages Vaseline into her cuticles twice a day.
That’s it.
So, with nothing to lose, my client gave it a try, and boom! Her nails became much healthier, stopped splitting, and started growing long!
I was pretty amazed that such a simple thing could yield such good results, but voila! It does. I’ve told other clients to try it and they have, and it worked for them too.
The lesson? Cuticle care is everything. Properly taking care of your cuticles can help your nails become healthier and stronger.
Dryness can make nails brittle and cause splitting and breaking, so this step is essential. Massage cuticle oil into cuticles twice a day.
The nail forms under the skin near the cuticle, so keeping it moisturized with oils and vitamins is very helpful. Once you get your cuticles into shape, it should help you with your nail growth goals.
Also – never cut your cuticles. They are there for a reason! Cuticles are a barrier of protection against infection. If you cut them off, you may be susceptible to pathogens getting under your skin and damaging the nail where it starts.
Not only that, but cuticles are also there to block the loss of water. Cutting them off gets rid of this barrier and it is easier for your nails to become dry and brittle, leading to breakage.
Only the dead skin on the nail plate should be removed. Gently push back cuticles and gently buff the nails with a fine grit buffer. You can also put cuticle oil on before you buff them to protect the natural nail while removing the dead skin.
Nutrition
A nutritious diet can help to make your nails stronger. Eating foods rich in protein will help to make your nails stronger. Nails are made of keratin, which is a protein.
Biotin is a vitamin in the B family that helps with keratin production, and there are many foods high in biotin.
Biotin helps nail growth, makes your nails stronger, and also helps with brittleness, breaking and splitting.
Some foods that are high in biotin are bananas, eggs, nuts, milk, salmon, sunflower seeds, onions, and leafy green vegetables.
Eating a healthy mix of high protein foods will help you to grow your nails longer, as healthier nails break much less.
If you don’t like any of those foods, they do have biotin supplements you can take, but always check with a doctor to be sure it is safe and right for you.
Product Use
Use nail polish with less chemicals, especially formaldehyde. Formaldehyde can make the nails weak and brittle with a higher chance of splitting and breaking. That is the opposite of what you want for nail growth.
There were quite a few times I had to switch to formaldehyde-free nail polish for my clients because the polish was ruining their nails. When they went without the nail polish, they didn’t have the same issues as when they wore the polish. Switching to formaldehyde-free nail polish allowed them to wear nail polish again without the damage.
You should also use non-acetone nail polish remover to remove polish. Acetone is very drying and can be very harsh on the nails. It turns them white, weakens them, and in some cases the nails can be too thin and weak to use it at all without shredding them up. They dry up and peel and split.
Yes, I know it’s much faster to use acetone…it’s the reason I personally can’t seem to give it up. If you’re like me and have no patience to wait for non-acetone to do its job, then make sure you wash your hands to remove the chemicals and immediately massage cuticle oil into the nails.
Nail polish sticks better to dry nails, so before applying polish oils are supposed to be removed with alcohol. However, alcohol is a nail dehydrator to help adhesion, but it doesn’t help your natural nails much. The oils are good for your nails.
What I do if someone has a bad nail situation is massage the cuticle oil into the nails and just let the nails absorb the oil rather than remove it. The polish may not adhere as well, but it is better than drying out the natural nails and causing damage, splits and breaks. You definitely will not be able to make your nails grow faster that way.
It is a good idea to keep nail polish on as well. Each coat is an extra layer of protection for your nails. It helps make your nails stronger so they could grow longer.
Activities
As you know, the activities you do can affect your nails, in both good and bad ways. Remember what all of us nail techs always tell you:
Nails are not tools 😉
That being said, remember to not use your nails to help you with anything. Find another tool to do it. Use a spoon to open a soda can if you have to. Use a penny to scratch a lottery ticket. Use tweezers to peel things instead of scratching at them. Use your partner for housework if you have one. Whatever you do, just don’t use your nails!
Wear gloves when you clean and do the dishes. When nails get wet, they are much softer and may be able to bend or break more easily. Chemicals also soften the nails and can wreak havoc on them, so always protect them with gloves.
And now, my favorite tip of all because I’m not just a nail tech but also a geek…
Typing!
The more you type, the faster your nails will grow. The tapping stimulates the nail matrix, leading to faster nail growth. I can attest to this because whenever I type a lot, my nails always grow faster.
So, to my writer ladies who want long nails…keep writing! Type it up. Keep tapping away on that keyboard.
If you have an office job and need to be on that keyboard, good! Keep typing. Type those numbers, type that data, type those words. Type everything! You’ll see your nails grow faster.
It’s also a great excuse to email your friends! Bring back real letters to the inbox. Who wouldn’t love getting those? Its a break from the subscriptions, bills, sales emails and spam with a real letter from a friend. Plus, it’s a nice way to spread love, which we need more of in the world. And if you make your nails grow faster in the process, yay!
If typing isn’t your thing, you could always just tap your nails on the table frequently but…no one likes that unfortunately haha. Maybe you could do it on your steering wheel when no one is in the car with you or something lol.
Shape
The shape of your nails can also help with your nail growth because some shapes break less. The right shape for your fingers and your lifestyle is what you need to grow your nails longer.
Rounded nails help because they have no corners, so there is no corner to bang and chip away. In my experience, it seems to be a much more forgiving shape. A lot of times, if you are busy and always throwing your hands around, or are a bit rough on your nails, you may lose more than one corner from time to time, which misshapes them and may tempt you to cut them down.
Square nails are so pretty and can be good if you are not rough on your nails. There is added protection on the sides of the free edge, which is great as long as you don’t bang your nails around and lose corners.
Stilletto nails and severe almond shapes are among the most vulnerable nail shapes. If you wear these shapes, try not to take off too much of the free edge sidewall where the free edge begins. Instead start narrowing the nail a bit on the higher side. The narrower they are, the more chance of breakage because there is absolutely no support on the sides. My natural nails never broke as much as when I wore them this way. These looks sometimes need acrylic or gel for added strength and to maintain length.
Unique Nail Growth Problems and Solutions
Since everyone has a different nail type, different solutions work best for different people. While the general rules apply, some nail types need a little extra help in certain areas. Understanding your nail type will help you to tailor a nail care routine that best suits your nails and your nail growth goals.
Thin nails
If you have thin nails, you really want to keep them protected to help them grow.
Keeping your nails covered in a few layers of nail polish helps add a little thickness. Replace the polish as soon as it starts to chip to prevent your actual nail from chipping.
Using a nail strengthener as a base coat helps prevent breakage.
To add thickness while also prolonging the life of your manicure, add a coat of clear nail polish on top every other day. The added layers will protect your nails. Remove and restart once a week, but remember to use non-acetone nail polish remover for the removal.
You can also try gel polish because it’s thicker than traditional nail polish and gives your nails a little added strength.
I’ve had some clients with thin nails who have had some success growing nails long with this.
The only problem is the removal process. It has to be soaked in acetone. If you go this route, try to choose a gel polish that has the quickest removal time.
Some gel polish brands are much easier and faster to remove than others, and that’s what you want to minimize acetone exposure.
Damaged nails
If you’ve recently removed any nail enhancements like acrylic or gel, or even if your gel manicures have been too rough for your nails, your nails may be temporarily damaged.
Many people are under the misconception that once they are damaged, they stay that way forever.
This isn’t true.
All you have to do is grow out the damage. You should keep them short while you do, and as they grow out, cut a bit more of the damaged area off each time.
Eventually it will be all grown out and you can start over. This typically takes about 6 months.
I know that can seem long, but the point is, don’t lose hope. They are not permanently damaged. The only time permanent damage can be done is if there is some injury to the nail or cuticle area, so it’s important to make sure your nail technician is gentle.
Once you have all new growth, you can implement the tips previously mentioned. With patience, you can make your nails grow longer.
Splitting nails
Ohhhh how I loathe nails that split. It is one of the hardest things to stop. Once the nail layers split, it can travel down the surface until you smooth it out…but if you smooth it out too much it can take away even more layers of the nails, weakening them even further which leads to breaks.
If this happens to your nails, they are in desperate need of moisture. In this case, you need a little extra cuticle oil than mentioned previously, and also be sure to drink plenty of water. Once the nails are more hydrated, they should hopefully stop splitting.
To even out the layers that have already split, very gently buff the loose parts away until the nail looks smooth.
Be super careful not to buff too much of the unsplit portion of the nail. Use a very fine grit buffer for this so you don’t thin out your nail too much.
It also helps to just use the corner of the buffer rather than the whole surface so that you can buff away only the lifted part and save the rest of your nail.
You may have to wait for some of the thinness to grow out after that, but hopefully that is just near the edge and will grow out quickly.
And remember to be religious with oiling your cuticles throughout the day to prevent further splitting. Jojoba oil is a great one to use for your cuticles.
Brittle Nails
Brittle nails snap very easily. You want to have some flexibility to your nails so that if you bang them, they bend instead of breaking.
Again, in this case you need extra moisture going into your nails so double up on the cuticle oil each day so the moisture can penetrate. Keeping your cuticles extra moisturized should help add some flexibility to your nails, decreasing the chances of them snapping.
Also, stay hydrated! Drink plenty of water. Water has so many benefits for the body and nails are no different. If you stay hydrated there will be less of a chance of having brittle nails.
So what do you do to keep your nails growing long and strong?
Will you polish them next? If so, you may like to read How to Give Yourself a Manicure Like a Pro.
