Everything You Need To Know About Your Nails

Nails reflect our current health state, so understanding the health of the nail, and what the nail says about our overall health status is an important aspect of SpaRitual‘s Slow Beauty practice—a practice devoted to sustainable self-care. If the eyes are the windows to our soul, then the condition of our nails is a window to our health. Plus, nails serve many purposes. In addition to their anatomical functionality, nails are also an intrinsic part of one’s appearance.  Women, and now men, are attaching more importance to their care and grooming as the popularity of hand and foot ritual services grow. Here, I will outline the fundamentals of nail knowledge.

Nail Makeup: The fingernail is a flexible plate of horny tissue formed by the natural hardening of epidermic cells.  Many factors influence the development of this tissue, including genetic makeup, diet, and the environment. The essential components of the nail are keratin, water, and calcium and iron lipids.

Nail Growth: Nails grow all the time, but their rate of growth slows down with age and poor circulation.  Fingernails grow faster than toenails at a rate of 3mm per month.  It takes six months for a nail to grow from the root to the free edge.  Toenails grow about 1mm per month and take 12-18 months to be completely replaced.  Protein, pectins, and fatty acids in the daily diet help to strengthen and speed the growth process.

Nails & Health: Changes in the human body are often reflected in the health of the fingernail.  These include the effects of childbirth or even illness such as high fever and pneumonia. Even psychological shocks can affect the matrix and appear on the surface of the nail as uneven or deep grooves. Just as poor health and dietary deficiencies can inhibit the growth of a nail, illness and diet can also influence the condition of otherwise sound nails. In general, any circulatory condition that reduces the supply of blood to the matrix of the nail can prevent it from receiving proper nourishment and developing normally.  Other health problems that can affect the nails include glandular disorders, poor metabolism, allergies, anemia, and calcium, amino acids and essential nutrients deficiences.

 More Nail Intel:

• The average growth rate for nails is 0.1 mm each day; individual rates depend on age, time of year, activity level, and heredity.
• Nails grow more rapidly in the summer than in the winter.
• Men’s nails grow more quickly than women’s, except possibly during pregnancy and old age.
• Nails on a person’s dominant hand grow faster.
• The nail of the middle finger grows fastest, and the thumbnail grows the slowest.

SpaRitual & Nails:

SpaRitual offers a variety of nail treatments and essentials for manicures and pedicures to keep nails both feeling and looking healthy. In 2004, we launched the SpaRitual nail color and care category of the brand. In addition to offering high-quality vegan products to nail technicians and their clients, our mission was (and still is) to offer consumers more conscious product options.