Nail Health Standards

As long as the four core characteristics of "no pathological depressions/thickenings/cracks on the nail surface, uniform nail color without abnormal discoloration, no recurring redness, swelling and pain around the nail surface, and stable growth rate" are met at the same time, combined with personal innate judgment, the nails are considered healthy. Most of the rumors circulating on the Internet that "vertical lines = bad liver" and "less crescents = deficiency of qi and blood" are rumors without evidence-based basis.

A while ago, a young girl born in the 2000s came to have her nails removed. As soon as she sat down, she frowned and showed me her nails: "Sister, look at the vertical lines all over my nails. I searched and found that this is a liver problem. I stay up too late recently, am I going to get a serious illness?" ”

I took the hand of the nurse next to me who was doing a manicure and showed it to her. She had just had her annual physical examination and everything was normal. There were also thin vertical lines on the nail surface. In fact, this kind of fine vertical lines are simply "growth lines" on the nail surface, which are similar to the dry lines on your face. They will appear when you are older and have more friction on the nail surface. They are not a sign of disease at all. Of course, if you ask traditional health practitioners, they will most likely tell you that this is a sign of decreased metabolism and liver qi stagnation. You cannot say that they are completely wrong. If you have stayed up late and been under a lot of stress recently, and suddenly you have many more vertical lines than before, and you also have the problem of getting tired easily and not sleeping well, there is definitely no harm in adjusting your work and rest, but there is really no need to scare yourself into having a full-body checkup just because of a few vertical lines.

Let’s talk about the nail color that everyone is most concerned about. A normal and healthy nail surface is a uniform light pink, but the range of this “light pink” is too wide. I have seen mountaineers who run outdoors all year round. Due to long-term exposure to ultraviolet rays, their nails are one shade darker than those of people who sit in offices all year round. There are also girls who are born with thick nail beds. The blood coming out of their nails will be lighter. They are always said to be anemic. If they check that the hemoglobin is within the normal range, there is no problem at all.

You should only be wary of sudden and abnormal discoloration: for example, the entire nail surface suddenly turns yellow. First think about whether you have applied dark nail polish without base coat for more than a month recently. If the yellow spots recede after removing the nails, it is simply dyeing, and it only takes two weeks. ； If the nail surface is still yellow after removal, and the nail surface becomes brittle and has powdery debris, then it may be a fungal infection and you should go to a dermatologist for a check-up. There is also the kind of nail that suddenly turns black. If there is only a small patch, it is probably because you bumped it before and did not pay attention. The subungual congestion will disappear as the nail grows out. If the large black spots are still spreading, then you should be alert to the possibility of nevus and see a doctor in time.

Many people only look at the nail surface when looking at nail health. In fact, the condition of the periungual is the most easily ignored signal. For example, if you feel like you are deficient in vitamins when you have a hangnail, don't take supplements blindly. 90% of the hangnails I have come into contact with are caused by washing hands too frequently without applying hand cream, or by chewing on hands and tearing the barbs apart. Of course, the dermatology department also has clear standards: if you have long-term and recurring hangnails, and you also often suffer from angular stomatitis and seborrheic dermatitis of the scalp that never go away, then it is possible that you are deficient in B vitamins. Appropriate supplementation will be helpful, otherwise you can apply two more layers of hand cream than anything else.

There is also the problem of ingrown toenails. When we do manicures and encounter mild ingrown toenails, we usually use phototherapy glue to do a nail surface shaping and lifting, and slowly pull out the nail that has grown into the flesh. Most people can improve it after three or four times. However, if the ingrown toenail has been repeatedly red, swollen and pus, and the inlay is particularly deep, we will usually directly recommend that you go to a surgeon and perform partial nail matrix removal to cure it. There is no right or wrong between these two methods, but the severity of the adaptation is different.

By the way, there is also the mythical "Little Sun Standard" that everyone spreads. It is said that all ten fingers must have crescents to be healthy. My mother has ten fingers without even one crescent. She is 62 this year. She has no problems with her annual physical examination and can climb Mount Taishan faster than me. To put it bluntly, the crescent moon is the exposed part of the nail matrix. Some people are born with the nail matrix growing farther back, so naturally there is no crescent moon, which has nothing to do with blood. There are also small white spots on the nails. Many people say this is calcium deficiency. In fact, most of them are caused by you knocking your nails before and the nail matrix being slightly injured. The nails that grow out will have white spots. If you cut them as the nails grow forward, they will disappear. Don’t take calcium tablets blindly.

As for the growth rate, there is no need to worry about it. Normal nails grow about 3mm per month, but this floating range is particularly large: young people grow faster than old people, summers grow faster than winters, and people who type keyboards and do manual work every day may grow twice as fast as sedentary people because of good peripheral circulation. I have a regular client who does programming. He comes in every two weeks to have his nails trimmed. He says they are too long and make it difficult to type on the keyboard. This is normal for him, and it is not a matter of "excessive metabolism" at all. Unless your nails suddenly don’t grow at all for two or three months in a row, then you should consider whether your previous manicure was too harsh and damaged the nail matrix, or if you have other skin problems, just go to the hospital in time.

I have been a manicurist for 7 years, and I have touched thousands of hands at least. I have never seen a few that completely meet the standards of "perfect and healthy nails" on the Internet: either there are a few thin vertical lines, or only two thumbs have crescents, or the nail color is naturally darker. Most of these small flaws are normal individual differences and are not a problem at all. You really don’t have to worry about looking at your nails every day and checking the standards on the Internet. If you really find that your nails suddenly have changes that haven’t happened before, such as sudden large-scale discoloration, dents, and pain, stop doing manicure for half a month and see. If it doesn’t get better, go directly to the dermatology department. It will be much more useful than searching online for a long time to scare yourself.