Do you want shorter nail beds?

Some people are probably thinking WTF?!  Why would you want that?!  Believe it or not I get about one hit a week from people searching the topic.  Normally people want the opposite of this and I showed how you could achieve longer nail beds in a previous post found here.

Actually I've had the tutorial pictures for this post prepared months back, but I am a bit hesitant to post because I thought I might get some back lash with the method.  Hopefully people will read the post in it's entirety.  Either way maybe a few words of caution first ...

BE GENTLE

More on how later in the post but first, why would someone want to do this?!  How about some pictures?

I suppose some people would actually want to shorten their nail beds while others just want to even out the smile line.  It's all about what you find aesthetically pleasing.

Not all nails are created equal. Sometimes they grow all weird at the free edge. What we are really talking about is skin connected to the nail called hyponychium.

This picture shows one nail that grows pretty even (in black) while the other (in red) is a bit wonky.

Lets look at the hyponychium from underneath the nail ...

Some people have this skin grow up the nail free edge while other people will not even notice it. 

It's this skin (in blue) that you can GENTLY manipulate to even out or shorten the nail bed.

Manipulating this skin is not a permanent fix.  It will grow back ...

I swear it grows back.  Here is one hand where I GENTLY pushed back the skin.

Here is the same hand months later.



















Finally the HOW TO:

There are a plethora of ways to go about doing this.
For example, you could put your hands in warm water for a couple of minutes or even better do this after a hot shower.  Doing this after a shower with cuticle oil is the way to go if it's your first time. 

Some tools.  It looks a bit scary, but that is why I stress pushing back the hyponychium SLOWLY and GENTLY.  This shouldn't hurt ... ever.

So, let's grease up first k?

Apply oil to the cuticle.

Apply oil underneath.

Wait 5 to 10 minutes for the oil to penetrate and soften the skin.


Use the tools GENTLY and SLOWLY to push back the hyponychium to create the smile line you find appealing.

After the skin is pushed back your nail will be clear underneath.  You can see this on two of the nails in the picture.  After the nail dries it will go to the normal free edge nail color. 












Is this safe and should you do this?!  That is up to you.  All I am saying here is that I've been there done that and survived, lol.  If you don't feel comfortable poking yourself underneath your nail then don't do it.  However, if you are doing it gently and slowly it should not hurt and it will grow back.