(Don’t) Stop Chewing Your Nails
I used to ben ashamed to admit that I have a “bad” habit of chewing my nails, I’ve been doing it ever since I can remember. And I can’t, nor do I really want to, stop. My nails have always been short and crooked and my cuticles looked like they were run through a shredder. I don’t chew my nails so short where there is barely any nail left (see image below) but they could be better. It’s not a great habit to have, unless you’re an expert like me.
I chew my nails because I’m bored or anxious or even when I think my nails look too long. A lot of people associate nail biting with nervousness or anxiety, which would likely be the case but there are always many reasons to bite your nails. I grew up watching my mom chew her nails, and her father would always yell at her to stop, but that doesn’t stop us, now we just don’t in front of him. My father doesn’t like it when I bite my nails, but only because the sound bothers him, I sometimes forget to stop.
I don’t see the whole issue with chewing your nails, why is it frowned upon? Is it rude or unladylike? I know the sound can be kind of annoying, the snap and click of the nail pushing back against our teeth and fingers. It definitely isn’t the most sanitary thing to do, unless you wash your hands as much as you can. But I’ve been doing this my whole life and I’m relatively fine. Although there are some severe cases where people get infections or their nails get really really short, or sometimes even permanent damage.
“Biting your nails can raise the risk of catching a cold or other illness because you’re putting your unwashed hands in your mouth. It can also raise the risk of paronychia, or infection of the skin surrounding the nail, says Rochelle Torgerson, M.D., Ph.D., a dermatologist at the Mayo Clinic. You can “end up with redness and swelling and pain and discomfort — that’s a sign of infection,” Torgerson tells HuffPost. While most instances of paronychia are bacterial, they can also be fungal.” Says Huffpost.
Because my mom has been biting her nails for so long and doing it so often, she has one of the permanent side effects on her thumb nails where the whole nail is bumpy (she is not an expert). According to Huffpost and Rochelle Torgerson “the majority of the fingernail is produced in the area of the nail bed where there is a “white hill,” also called the lunula. The fingernail is made there, as well as the area beneath the lunula that extends down underneath the skin. “So if you end up with a lot of inflammation or an infection of that skin … where the fingernail is made, you can start making a funny fingernail,” she explains. “You may end up with a fingernail that’s bumpy or ridge-y." I always thought it looked kinda cool, she doesn’t seem to care about it too much, she just doesn’t paint her finger nails.
One misconception that a lot of people have about people with chewed nails or just with having chewed nails yourself, if that you can’t paint your nails. I have stuck with this belief for a long time until freshman year when I met a girl, who is now a close friend of mine, and had nails a little longer than mine that were painted with bright colors. before I thought that whenever I painted my nails they looked childish and weird on my stubby fingers. But when I started to paint my nails again, I grew to really like it. It was something to look forward to and helped tie outfits together.
People should be proud of their nails, they come in all shapes and sizes, different colors and textures too. So what they’re kinda janky or maybe you have hangnail, the only important thing when it comes to nails is loving them for what they are and appreciating them for being there. Thank you nails.