When I was a teenager, I remember the first time I went to a nail salon and had the sweet Korean woman working put Acrylic on my real nails. After they were done, I thought “Wow, I don’t think it’s possible for me to ever break a nail.” They were very thick and helped my nails ‘grow’ and I thought I could never go back to not having acrylic on my nails.
Over the years, I had an on again, off again love affair with getting acrylic put over my nails. The issue I personally would run into would be that your nails are in a HORRIBLE state once you soak off the acrylic but you end up missing the carefree feeling of not worrying about chipping your nail polish or breaking a nail.
People that know me well know I LOVE crazy nail art, and my love has only grown more insane over the last two years or so. Every time I go to my artist, he mentions that my nails are wonderful without the acrylic but I fell into this belief that my nails would never last without acrylic.
One of the many things I am working towards for life is to be superhero healthy. I want to be quick like a ninja and glamours like Rupaul. Part of being superhero healthy would include nail health. I decided to do some research on what I was really doing to my nails by putting these very heavy chemicals on my nails.
Aside from your nails being paper thin due to the process in which you have to put acrylic on your nails, over the years the acrylic can cause discoloration. A more serious and apparently common (thank God it never happened to me) issue is nail infections. This is caused by the acrylic spacing from your nail and moisture getting in to the opening. This causes fungus development. Now, in my research I found some pretty awful photos of this happening and I will spare you. If you’re interested google image your heart out. I have no interest of having any reason to have fungus easily develop on my body.
That can ALL be prevented if you go to proper nail salon but realistically, I want to focus more on getting my nails naturally healthy. After reading about the types of infections it can cause and all of the nail filing and drilling, I am ready to have strong and healthy nails without some hard compound being put onto them.
So this how to guide is going to be for those ladies out there still putting acrylic on their nails. Stop that. I know they last forever and the polish never chips away but it’s definitely not worth it. I will be looking up different ways to naturally regain nail strength and also post more photos of fun nail art that takes place on my nails.
Here are some photos of my favorite nail art that i’ve had done on my nails…
Man, I just got jealous looking at photos of my own nails. I will post any super awesome art that takes place on my nails WITHOUT the acrylic. Here is the current state of my nails without the acrylic and I love them…
Since I am learning how to properly care for my nails, do you have any tips? I have been reading up on nail care seriously for about a week and I think I am going nuts. What are some easy ways to make my nails stronger and healthy?
Still gushing over my nail art from the past,
