Jun
While some of us rely on gel manicures to keep our nails long and strong, sometimes they need a break from all those chemicals and the UV lights. If you are trying to get your natural nails back into shape after a long period of strong treatments, you will most likely turn to a nail strengthener.
But do nail strengtheners really help or hurt the nails?
For short nails, they are usually fine. The nail does not extend far enough past the tip of the finger to really be in danger of breaking if they get too hard. Because sometimes ‘hard’ can become ‘brittle’ over time.
One of the dangers is that if the nails become too hard for whatever reason, they will lose that flexibility that makes them capable of enduring minor ‘traumas’. Longer nails that are excessively hard have a tendency to break at the weakest part which is usually right at the quick. Talk about painful!
And as a side note, none of these products can actually make your nails grow faster. Granted, the action of massaging a moisturizer into the nail bed can encourage circulation but the nail grows at the same pace regardless. If you can strengthen the nail itself, it may seem to grow better because you are not constantly losing length to peeling or breaking.
For the most part, using a nail strengthening oil is a better bet than the products that resemble regular nail polish. These oils can build up the strength and can also tend to leave the nails more capable of withstanding daily wear and tear (so to speak). Ultimately you are not looking for hard nails, you are looking for tough nails. Nails that are strong yet flexible enough to withstand daily use.
