How I broke the nail biting habit

I've always been a nail biter as long as I can remember.  Where I got the habit from I have no idea as neither Mom or Dad were biters and they say you tend to mimic those around you.  I used to bite my nails so low when I was little that my fingers would bleed, not a pretty site I can tell you.  As I got older I longed for lovely long nails I could paint and show off, but still I couldn't break the habit.

Finally at the age of 33 (yeah, 33 not sure why?) I did it! With a mix of using Sally Hansen's Maximum Growth and Vaseline Intensive Care Hand & Nail Cream I managed to abstain from the biting habit and for the first time ever I had the lovely long nails I'd only dreamed about.  From here on my nails stayed this way until..........my pregnancy with Eliza.  Whether it was the pregnancy anxiety, sleepless nights or changing hormones, I once again bit my fingers to shreds.  Once again I grew them back for a short time until.......yes, you guessed it my pregnancy with Freddie.  Once Freddie was born in fact, I actually bit them more than ever yet again returning to those horrible stubby finger ends.  It was time to take drastic action.  This time I really was finding it hard to succeed using my previous techniques and my nails looked so awful that I hid them as much as possible.  Someone suggested trying acrylics or gels so I went to see Rachel who was recommended by friends to see what she could do.

Before

When she saw them she was shocked to say the least but was adamant that she could do something. She suggested that gel polish wouldn't look great at this stage as they really were so short so we went with acrylic tips with gel polish.  I was really concerned that they wouldn't stick but she did a fabulous job and they stayed on for about 2 weeks.  I went back again to have infills and for her to repair a couple of tips that had come off.  By this time the nail bed had grown a little so the next lot of tips stayed on even better.

On my next visit I had the tips removed and just had gel polish put on my own nails that were growing fabulously.  From here on I went back every 2 - 3 weeks each time getting another coat of gel.  I found with the gel polish on I wasn't the least bit tempted to bite my nails.  The gel makes the nails much thicker and quite hard.  It helps to protect them while they repair themselves.  My one bad habit however is that I tend to peel the gel off once it starts to flake instead of waiting to have them soaked off.  This doesn't really do your nails a lot of good, however, it's still an improvement on biting them.

From left going clockwise: acrylic tips, acrylic tips then gel polish and
gel french polish on my own nails

As you can see from my latest picture my nails have grown considerably now.  They still break from time and I somehow damage them doing silly things but I'm proud of how they look now and love to show them off.  I've had so many people comment and ask how I managed to break the habit that I thought I'd post my advice to help other nail biters out there.

My nails here are painted by myself with Barry M - Dark side of the shroom - gel nail polish.  This is the first time I've used a Barry M polish and I'm really impressed with the results.  With this particular polish you're supposed to use the Barry M gel top coat which I didn't realise at the time.  However, I used my previously bought Rimmel Gel Top Coat and this worked perfectly well.

Good luck and good growing!

Thanks for stopping by! x

Tuesday's Treasures - No to nailbiting!

Week 3 of Tuesday's Treasures is a a rather random picture of..............

My Nails!

This may seem a bit of a strange choice for my treasure but I am extremely proud of these little beauties.  I have been an addicted nail biter for 33 years and then suddenly last year I finally managed to break the habit!

I tried so many different methods including that horrible 'nail biting solver' but nothing seemed to work - eventually it just came down to sheer willpower.  After buying many, many packs of 'Broadway Artifical Nails' I thought the time had come to stop spending my money and just grow my own.

I started using Sally Hansen's Maximum Growth which was great and really helped to strengthen my nails.  I found that once I'd got past the 'end of finger' stage I wasn't even tempted to bite them.  I think the temptation was more so a jagged bit of nail or dry skin but once I started looking after them this disappeared.

Looking after my nails is now something I find quite therapeutic.  I love cutting and shaping them and also trying different colours of nail enamel.  Obviously, they still break from time to time like everyone elses but I've never been tempted to bite them even when they do.  Due to the fact that I'd bitten my nails for such a long time and also that I used to bite them so low the nail bed areas are now quite short, but even these have improved as time's gone on though.

I often get compliments now on my 'lovely' nails and I'm so proud as I know the willpower it took to get them like this.  My nails are actually quite short on this photo as they were getting too long for playing the piano. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd actually have to 'cut' my nails with scissors......I thought my teeth would forever do the job!