Health Living Tips

Everyone knows that having your nails done at a salon, usually means, having acrylics put on, silk wraps, gel or other non natural products. But what if you were able to go into a nail salon and only have your nails taken care of in a more natural way?

Believe it or not, not everyone wants to have fake nails, there are more than enough women and men who prefer the natural look without anything fancy.

These days there are nail salons everywhere, there pretty much the norm, every town has at least one or more.

Only problem is they are mostly the same. You have your low end nail salons that do only nails to your high end salons that give you a full spa treatment at spa prices. Most nail salons run in the middle of those two. There is a growing number of nail salons that are starting to pop up that aren’t the same as all the rest, they only take care for natural nails.

People in general know what they want when it comes to their nails. A lot of men and women don’t want to nail polish colors that shows, so there are now polishes just for that. Women on the other hand what either the full spa treatment or just a set of acrylics that all they have to do is go in and get fills every two weeks and maybe change the nail polish color. Or just want a manicure once a month and nothing more.

What is a natural nail care only salon?

They are nail care salons that only work with natural ingredients for starters. They will probably have their own line of natural products, and use only natural ingredients.  If you have a manicure done, they may use a stimulating salt scrub on your hands to remove the dead skin before moisturizing your hands with an organic lotion. You may have nail and skin treatments that could last up to an hour, such as warm towel wraps before a relaxing massage.

There are no acrylics, gels or silk wraps done at a natural nail care salon. But there is one thing they will do, and that is helps you with the transition from artificial nails back to your own natural nails. The nail techs take the time to educate you on caring for and reasons why your natural nails are just better.

In a spa like atmosphere the nail techs take you through a four part natural nail care program. The four steps are hydration, maintenance, protection, and glamour.

Including moisturizing the skin, performing maintenance and care on your nails (manicure), protect the natural nail plate from damage and helping you keep your nails looking beautiful. They work on your nails and also do pedicures all within a spa like atmosphere. Not rushing you what so ever. Not many nail salons do this.

One example of the four step program is a manicure that could last up to one hour. With heated gloves that stream your hands to open up the pores and allows the cream to penetrate and moisturize your hands. With gentle treatments for your nails and cuticles. There is major absence of any chemical smell or chemicals being used here. You are not rushed out of the chair, you know that your nail tech cares the up most for your nails.

Its extraordinary dedication and client education making sure that you understand the how’s and whys healthy nails are a must.

These days with everything so based on how you look, having nails that look cared for with the absences of any nail polish in many jobs is a must.

Natural nail care needs to be part of all man’s basic grooming. Most men don’t think about their nails, but they are just as noticed as women’s nails are. Its not going to change you from being a he man if your get your nails taken care of at a salon. With the proper care and treatment having your nails done at a natural nail care salon with be enjoyable and very relaxing.

With the natural nail care salons something pretty new to the scene, not many of heard of them, yet. As natural nail care has become more important to all, sooner or later there will be a natural nail care salon in your area.

 

Being wearing acrylic nails for a while and have decided to go back to your natural nails? We all removed our acrylic nails for a variety of reasons, some do it for the cost, others because they want to give their natural nails a breather or just because they want have their own nails again.

After you have decided to get your acrylic nails removed, there are two different techniques that can be used. You nail tech will help you with the removal process. It should take about 30 minutes to do so. The first technique that could be used it soaking off your acrylic nails in an ace-tone based mixture. The second technique would be your nail tech would use a electric drill. This technique your sculptured nail is gradually sanded off down to almost to your natural nail. A fine buffer is used to smooth the surface. The thin layer of remaining acrylic can protect your natural nail as it growing out. Your nail tech may use one or other or a combination of both techniques depending on what she feels is best for your nails.

Here are a few tips on dealing with your weaken nails.

Your nails are going to be really weak and may be hard for you to deal with the first few weeks as they are growing back out. As your nails are growing out they are going to be a bit paper thin they may split or peel as they are growing out. This is natural for your nails to do so, so expect it.

Getting a manicure once a week may help you deal with your weaken nails. You can also rub into the base of your nails at night olive oil, or cuticle oil to help strengthens the base. It also helps simulate growth.

Understand that your nails grow about 1/8 of a inch a month and even though it doesn’t seem like much it really shows after a month or so how your nails are growing back out.Your nails grow faster in the summer time and at different periods in your life so if they seem to be growing faster than 1/8 inch a month be happy for it.

You may want to use a nail strengthener as well. This nail care product helps prevent more splitting by strengthening the base of your nails. There are some products that you apply before you apply your base coat and others that you apply everyday whether or not you are wearing nail polish. Be sure to read the ingredients of your nail strengthener and avoid any that may contain formaldehyde which is very drying and may make your nails even more brittle.

Be careful as formaldehyde may be listed as toluene, toluene sulphonamide or toluene sulphonic acid.

While your nails are growing out, you want to wear light colored nail polish. The reason for this is because your nails are weak, they may chipped at the ends and dark nail polish doesn’t look good chipped. Light nail polish hides any chips you may receive.Also make sure that any nail polish remover you may use when changing your nail polish color is ace-tone free.

Also always carry a emery board with you at all times. Your paper thin nails can still split and tear and get catch on things. It’s best to keep your nails super short but they can still get straggly edges and may cause you to want to bite them and that is not a habit you want to start up now! Having a emery board with you at all times you can smooth out any edges that are rough.

Apply hand cream as often as you can and rub it into the cuticles around your nails to help keep them soften. The hand cream will help boost the moisture levels in your nails and help them from being too dry. Also apply cuticle oil at night and when giving your self a manicure as a way to help condition the cuticle area and keep your cuticles soft. The last thing you want while waiting out your natural nails growing out is hangnails as well. Those tiny tears in your cuticles will drive you nuts, so keep your cuticles soft.

I hope this helps with dealing with your weaken nails after you have removed your acrylics. Taking care of your nails and they will grow back out as beautiful as they were before you had acrylics.

 

 

 

Nail polish and nail treatments, like many other cosmetics, are made up of dozens of chemicals that work together to make a product that is colourful, shiny, hard, and chip-free. When we paint these chemicals onto our nails, they interact with our bodies. Most chemicals are harmless. Some aren’t. In fact, many brands of nail polish contain chemicals that are known to be harmful—toxic, actually.

 

But you don’t have to give up having gorgeous nails to avoid being exposed to these toxins. Instead, you can send your nails to rehab and say no, no, no to toxic chemicals.

Pick products like those from Nail-Aid that are specially formulated to be effective without the nasty additives.

 

Shiny Nails Can Cause Headaches (Literally!)



 

For years, nail products, including nail strengtheners and other treatments, included chemicals that manufacturers knew were probably not great for us. But it was believed that because nail treatments didn’t expose users to large quantities of these chemicals, the effects would be minimal. Also, manufacturers couldn’t find a way to avoid using those chemicals without negatively impacting the formula (or the price): the harmful chemicals were cheap, and they kept nail polish bright, glossy, and chip-free.

 

Until recently, many brands of nail polish contained three major chemicals we know to be harmful to humans. These are:

 



Toluene

Formaldehyde

Dibutyl phthalate



 

 

So if you’ve used nail polish at all in the last ten years, you’ve definitely been exposed to these. That’s the bad news. The good news is that your body has probably already processed out most of the toxins, and it’s also much easier nowadays to find nail products that don’t contain these awful chemicals.

 

Why You Should Avoid Toxic Nail Product Chemicals

 

Scientists are great—they’ve given us life-saving medicine, the Internet, and air conditioning. They can also warn us about the dangers hidden in our make-up bags. While we don’t know everything about every chemical, studies have shown definite harmful effects from toluene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate that mean it’s worth your while to find out whether they’re in your favorite shade of polish or that miraculous peeling nail treatment you’re using.

 

Here are some of the effects we know about:

 

Toluene

Toluene is a chemical that contributes to that distinctive “nail polish smell”. Toluene mostly affects the central nervous system if inhaled, causing headaches, forgetfulness, and confusion. If you’re exposed to it at low levels every day—if you work in a nail salon, for example—toluene can also cause fatigue and nausea.

 

While the symptoms of toluene exposure end once you stop breathing the fumes, it stays in your body for a long time. Your body stores it in places where there is a lot of fatty tissue or a lot of blood: your brain, your liver, and in your fatty deposits. There’s also evidence from animals that exposure to toluene can cause birth defects, usually brain damage, in a developing fetus. So pregnant women especially should avoid using nail polish that contains toluene.

 

In short, avoiding toluene in chemicals is good for your brain and your baby’s brain if you’re pregnant. If everyone who uses nail treatments demands that toluene be stripped out, that’s good for nail salon professionals too, because they won’t be exposed to it all day.

 

Formaldehyde



Formaldehyde is a chemical you might remember from high school biology—those frogs you had to dissect were floating in it. It’s probably also in your nail polish or your favorite drugstore strengthener, because it’s a preservative. However, it’s also been tagged as a chemical that might cause cancer by the Environmental Protection Agency. Some people also experience irritation of the skin when exposed to products that contain it.

 

If you’re checking your makeup labels for the word “formaldehyde” you might not see it, but it could still be there. Some other chemicals can release formaldehyde when they break down. These include:

 



Diasolidinyl urea



 



DMDM hydantoin



 



Imidazolidinyl



 



Quaternium-15



 

You’re not a pickled frog: be smart and pick nail products and cosmetics without formaldehyde.

 

 

Dibutyl Phthlates

Dibutyl phthalate is still being researched, but the evidence points to many disturbing effects. It’s a plasticizing chemical used in nail polishes, topcoats, and strengtheners to make the paint flexible and tough. It’s also been shown to cause birth defects in animals exposed to a lot of it. The concern about dibutyl phthalate is so great that some European countries have completely banned it from cosmetics.

 

While you aren’t going to get a huge dose of dibutyl phthalate from having your tootsies painted pink, you’re also exposed to it from other sources, such as certain types of plastic packaging. So any time you can eliminate exposure from another source, you’re lowering the overall dose you get hit with. That’s a good thing.

 

 

Three Ways To Detox Your Talons

 

1) Toss Out: Several US manufacturers of nail polish and nail treatments started to eliminate dibutyl phthalate from their formulas in late 2006 (Nail Aid, an industry pioneer devoted to its customers’ health, never used DBP, toluene, or formaldehyde in the first place). So if you’ve got a shoebox somewhere full of old nail polish bottles you still think you might use some day, say goodbye.

 

2) Read Up: Labeling on nail treatments and nail polish isn’t great. In California, manufacturers have to indicate the presence of DBP, but not necessarily anything else. Use your friendly neighborhood Google to look up the ingredients in products you’re interested in trying—most manufacturers will list them on their websites—and also find out about possible side effects. Try to get your information about health effects from sites that post actual scientific research, such as government agencies. It’s easier than ever to be an informed consumer, but it’s also easier than ever to find a big bad health scare story that doesn’t have a lot of facts.



3) Slap On: Only use nail care products that avoid toxic chemicals, even if the dosage isn’t enough to cause immediate harm. But for many chemicals, we don’t yet know what the long-term health effects for humans will be—little doses over decades could spell trouble. And while you might not be hurt by the occasional mani/pedi, your nail technician has to work with the stuff for hours every day. So show your salon some love: research toxin-free nail treatment products, and spread the word about your favorites.

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Beautiful nails have been an obsession that can be traced back to the ancient Chinese. It has been said that the Mandarins (males & females) considered long nails to be a sign of wealth. If you had two-inch talons, that was a sign that there was no way you could be a common working laborer.

These days anyone can have well cared for hands and nails without spending a mild fortune and still be able to show off your own personal touch of style.

In this article: acrylic nails means, acrylic, gels, silk wrapped, fiberglass. Just makes it simpler to speak of all these different types as acrylic.

Acrylic nails or keep your nails natural?

This all depends on how you care for your nails and if you have the time to get your nails manicured and filled every two weeks. Because of the cost not everyone can really afford having their nails done every two weeks. Many who take care of their own nails do self manicures every week and their nails look just as wonderful as those who choose acrylics.

Acrylic nails have come along way. You can get a French manicure done and change the tip color (part that is normally white) from white to any color in the rainbow with glitter if you like!

The good news about acrylic nails depending on where you get them done, they can look just as if it was your own natural nails! The type of acrylic nails that look the most like your own is called “Pink and White”. The way this works is the pink is the base part of your nail. You can receive a pink that closest to your own. Your nail tech will be able to show you all your choices. “Pink and White” will cost you a bit more and they are worth the money if you just want nails that look just like your own.

Please note that you don’t have to get the square shape nail tip! Besides it doesn’t look all that natural and if you want nails that look best, they need to be the same shape as your nails are now. “Pink and White” will really look like yours only better! Your nail tip needs to be oval but just a little bit square. This looks more like your own natural nail shape. “Pink and White” are great for those who do not want to wear nail polish due to job or personal choice. Easy to care for, look amazing on all skin tones.

As with all types of acrylics, your own nail will be come softer. As long as you wear acrylics that point doesn’t matter. Remember this point also, your nail tech when using the drill on your nail base should never cause you pain! If they do, get a new nail tech! Having your nails done is not something that should be painful!

Another rare problem that could happen, you can get a fungal infection on the base of your nail. If you acrylic nails and they lift, you can get water trapped under the acrylic next to your nail. The water will turn green and can strain your nail. This is something that happens very rarely, if you have a good nail tech this it won’t happen. If this was to happen you would have to have your acrylic nails removed till it clears up. It is just something to think about.

When you visit a nail salon for the first time, take the time to ask questions. Watch how the nail techs talk with each other. If they speak another language and this bothers you, then that may not be where you want to get your nails done at. Also take into account the cost of having them done every two weeks including the cost of the first set.

Doing your nails or having your nails done for you, remember this point. Beautiful nails will never go out of style!