Are You a Fanatic for Trimming your Cuticles? Find out if you really need to: a blog about manicures, pedicures and cuticles.

You can help keep your nails looking their best by trimming and filing them regularly. If you are careful and follow the rules, you should be able to do this safely at home. However, it is always best to visit a professional manicurist or pedicurist for advice on how best to care for your nails and to give your hands a regular treat!

Filing

To keep nails in good shape, gently file them with an emery board (a nail file with abrasive surfaces) whenever they need it. Don’t use metal files as these can weaken nails.

Cutting nails

Keep the tools you use to cut your nails clean and sharp so that they don’t damage your skin or nail edges. When cutting nails, make sure they are dry as wet nails will split more easily. Cut straight across the top of the nail using small strokes. Then round off the corners using a gentle side-to-side motion. Make sure you don’t cut into the corners of the nail as this can lead to infection.

Cuticle care

Cuticles are tough layers of skin

You may think that you need to do a manicure and pedicure every week, but it is okay to take a break from time to time. We have all done it: pushed back our cuticles during a manicure or pedicure. But just how necessary is this practice?

Some people are obsessive about cuticles or their manicurists are. But what you may not realize is that pushing back your cuticles can be dangerous. You risk infection and damage to the nail bed by doing this. Ideally, you should only push your cuticles back with an orange stick after soaking your hands in water for five minutes. Anything else can cause problems for you in the future.

Your nails need to breathe and trying to keep them looking perfect all the time can be hazardous to your health. When you push back your cuticles, you are actually damaging them so they will grow back thicker and faster than normal. This means that they will need constant attention, which can be a pain. Instead of trimming them all of the time, it is better to keep them moisturized and healthy with a good quality lotion made especially for hands and nails so they will look great without all of the maintenance.

“Cuticle care is very important, if you don’t take care of your cuticles they will get hard and painful and can even crack,” says Wendy Rozak, a manicurist at the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa in New York City. “But, when it comes to cutting them there is a lot of misinformation out there. It can be harmful if not done properly.”

Technically, your cuticle is the skin that attaches your nail to the nail bed. But for manicurists, the term also refers to the thin layer of dead skin that hugs the base of your nail. This skin is different from the rest of your hand; it’s thicker and doesn’t exfoliate naturally like other parts of your body. That’s why manicurists push back (but never cut) this layer of skin during a manicure or pedicure. “Pushing back the cuticles stimulates blood circulation and encourages cell turnover, helping to keep the skin healthy,” says Rozak.

The potential risks of trimming include infection and permanent damage to your nail matrix (the area where finger- and toenails originate). If damaged, this area can cause ridges, white spots or discoloration in nails. But as long as you don’t

I’ve heard a manicurist say that when she’s pressed for time, she skips the cuticle trimming step. And I’ll admit that I’ve been known to leave my cuticles intact on the occasion when I’m in a rush. But what about you? Do you like to have your manicurist trim your cuticles?

I am always curious why some people like their cuticles trimmed and others don’t. I also wonder how many men (and women) actually know what their cuticles are? Most people probably think of their cuticles as the hangnails that appear from time to time around their fingernails. But actually, your cuticle is a piece of skin that runs along the base of your fingernail. And there are those who will tell you that it must be pushed back and trimmed on a regular basis.

Are they right? Maybe not!

Cuticles: What They Are, and What You Should (and Shouldn’t) Do to Them

Cuticles are often the topic of confusion for many manicure-goers. In fact, most people don’t even know what a cuticle is. The cuticle is the thin layer of clear skin at the bottom of your finger nails. It serves a purpose by protecting the nail bed from bacteria and other harmful things. A lot of women ask their manicurists to remove their cuticles, but that is not always necessary. We actually recommend leaving them intact and only removing them if they are overgrown or painful.

The next time you go get a manicure, ask your manicurist to trim them as opposed to removing them completely. This will keep your nails healthy and strong!

You may think that cutting your cuticles is the best way to keep them in line and looking sharp, but it turns out that you may be doing more harm than good.

Step 1: How to Soak and Soften Cuticles

Step 2: Push Back Cuticles

Step 3: Trim Cuticles

Here’s a quick tip on how to trim your cuticles.

A fanatical manicure is one that includes cutting the cuticle. A professional manicure should never include cutting your cuticle, as it will cause damage to your nail bed, and possibly infection and all that sort of stuff. If you want to remove dead skin around the nail or hang-nails, you should use a little file or scissors for this.

As for me, I don’t like my cuticles being touched at all. This is because I’ve had so many bad experiences with manicures, where the manicurist has insisted on pushing my cuticles back, and then left my nails looking horrible and painful. The worst part is when they start digging in to try and remove some tiny bit of hang-nail or something. It’s awful!

So I usually ask for just a file and polish, or sometimes a buff and polish. But if you do have them push your cuticles back, make sure they only push them back into their normal place – do not let them cut them!