Linda : February 2015

How I keep my nails healthy - no breaking and peeling!

February 24, 2015

First some history. I could talk forever about for how long I was desperate and miserable because of my nails (first world problems) – probably for about 5-6 years, after I turned 15. When I was very young (12-14,15) and was first allowed to have my nails long, they were so shiny, healthy, happy, strong, I was never using nail polish, all natural. But after I began with high school and started living in a student's dorm far away from home, make up and nail polish happened. And nail polish is what destroyed my healthy nails. As soon as they grew for a few milimetres, they started breaking, peeling, literally falling apart. Evey time. Sad times.

So began the 'era' of buying nail hardeners. I tried so many I lost count. Usually I bought the nail base/nail hardener ones. I tried every one there is from Essence, Kiss, the expensive salon ones (CND, Micro cell), and when we got Essie in Slovenia I tried the Millionails. Maybe some of them did work, but only for the first third of the bottle, later it was just the same old story.

My boyfriend was always convincing me this is an obvious sign that I am not really healthy. That I need to eat more protein, start taking vitamins and minerals and all that jazz. Being a stubborn teenager, I was convinced there will someday be a new nail hardener that will save my life. So stupid. Should have listened to him from the start – he always knows best. About everything. I mean it!

So I did some research. What to do, what magic pills to take. There were many skin – hair – nails pills on the market, but all of them were pretty expensive. So I researched some more. This word 'biotin' popped on my screen a few times while browsing the net.

''Biotin is a coenzyme and a B vitamin and is also known as vitamin H. As a supplement, biotin is sometimes used for diabetes, brittle nails, and other conditions.''

Let's give it a try, I said. So I found some biotin pills, very cheap, and they had written skin and nails all over them. The pack contained 60 pills, one for each day. I started taking them every day. After about 6 weeks the first results where there. I noticed my nails are acting very strange – there was suddenly much less chipping and peeling. Lord behold, a miracle! I bought another box of pills, ate them all. So 4 months after the first pill, my nails were reborn. Healthy, strong, no peeling at all.

I can't even tell you, how happy I was. I thought I was saved. So of course I forgot about the pills. In about two months, my nails got really bad again. So I started taking the pills again. A few months and everything was OK again. This was about a year ago.

taken about a year ago

What about today? My nails are still very strong and much more healthier than a few years ago. From time to time a nail breaks, but no biggie, it mostly happens because of work. I still take the biotin pills, but only one or two a week. I don't think I will ever stop, because it is obvious that I can't be without them if I want healthy nails. Plus, I honestly think they had a very positive impact on my hair too – I color them red every 4-5 weeks, but I only see some split ends after about 10 months after I get a haircut. I am really happy about that, because I want to have really long hair.