To Ask How To Stop Biting Nails

[WednesdayBeetlejuice]

And how to help them grow without covering them with gel or acrylic and somehow end up with nice strong nails.
Happy to spend money on purchases if they have good results.
I have tried the stuff that tastes vile. The habit is too strong for that to stop me. I just want nice hands.

My natural nails have very minimal damage from biab and it’s definitely helped me stop biting them I do still skin pick a a fiddle with the polish a bit but it’s loads better than just having a natural nail with normal polish.

Another recommendation for builder gel. Also see a manicurist for a clean up of your cuticles and a tidy up of your nails. I used to bite nails and now mine are lovely. Gel polish on top of builder gel makes them look really good and they feel much stronger

Also invest in a decent cuticle cream and some nice hand cream and massage into your nails every day.

I was a nail biter and skin picker for as long as I can remember and the only thing that’s helped is BIAB. I go every 3 weeks to get them redone, I can leave them 3 weeks and 4 days but they begin to get loose and I fear I’d start picking at them,

I've bitten for around 35 years and it's got worse since the pandemic. I really have to find a way to stop.

Thank you. I’ve started with cuticle oil and decent hand cream.
I’ve ordered some fidget toys for work to try and keep my hands busy.

I actually have a uv lamp at home and builder gel. I may try and do very small layers so it’s not very obvious. I’ll try that tomorrow evening as I have college after work today.

Work and college are triggers for me so finding ways to stop would be great.

when my anxiety is high no acrylics or gel will help as I just ending up picking that off too.

Learn to knit or crochet when you have a spare few minutes. Gives your hands something to do. And you get something at the end of it. I would fiddle and tear my nails if I didn't do something else with my hands. Or get a little fidget toy - even knit/crochet one.

Agree with PP to look at your diet. I stopped biting/picking with no effort when I got my iron and B12 levels sorted.

I bit my nails from childhood to 61 years old - where out of desperation I went to a nail salon - as there was virtually no nail left in some fingers, the skin around the cuticle was bleeding. They were so sore, painful and hideous to look at.

I had the full works. Plastic false nails with some sort of paste on top. I think this is the gel stuff. Then varnish on the top.

I have it done once a month it costs £36. I am finally proud of my hands and no longer hide them.

I know people say that gel makes the real nails weak.. but I have accepted that after 60+ years of painting them with grim tasting deterrent, hypnotism, wearing gloves at night.. I am never going to stop unless I literally can't 'get to them' , break them, chew them or peel them off. They are indestructible. Best of all my fingers are no longer painful.

Try this video on YouTube - it's a bit odd (you have to keep tapping and letting go of spite!) but it really helped me and has worked for a friend's daughter.

Good luck

I only stopped when I got braces (in my thirties) so I literally couldn't bite them anymore.
And since then I have been militant with manicures.

I used to bite my nails as a kid. Then one day I decided to let one of my pinkie nails grow, allowing myself to bite all 9 others. The look of the pinkie nail when it grew out and was healthy was enough motivation to stop me biting. I’ve never bitten a nail since. Worth a shot?

I found that my level of nail biting was heavily linked to my stress levels.
Once I'd changed jobs and cut some toxic people out of my life, I realised I wasn't doing it any more.
(not saying this is the same for you, OP, but worth ruling out triggers).

Having builder gel applied professionally will likely stop it lifting around the edges, which will stop you having something to pick at, and a good nail tech can also remove the hard, dry skin that you're picking. It's also much safer in terms of the risk of potentially developing an allergy, because home products tend to have higher levels of acrylates, and a professional will be cure the gel in the correct lamp for that gel, which significantly lowers the risk of having under cured gel on your hands (you can't tell if it's fully cured even when it's hardened).

That's not to say that builder gel is necessarily the answer here as nail biting is usually anxiety related. I have nail clients who have had good results for nail biting or picking with CBT.

This is going to sounds so bizarrely simple but it's what worked for me - I used to bite mine for years and then I started to trim them regularly. I cut them so short (but not past the quick) that it's basically impossible to bite them because there's nothing really to bite. I realise that might not be very helpful though if you generally like to keep them long.

Thanks everyone. I’ve booked in for BIAB is it called on Saturday. I just need to not touch my nails until then. So far I’ve managed one full day although I’ll admit it was super difficult.
3 more days to get through and then hopefully the nail salon will make them look pretty and the temptation won’t be so strong.

I've also ordered a couple of fidget toys to see if they help.

Sounds fab!! My BIAB is so so strong I couldn’t even try and pick it off. It’s solid, so much better than gel. I used to bite and pick all the time until it bled and now I love my nails. Good luck OP!

What colour do you usually ask for if your nails are very short? I don’t want to draw massive attention to them and I want them to last as long as possible. At least a month of I can. Money is short at the moment but it will be well worth it if they last a good while.

I usually go for either a neutral dusky rose pink or something autumnal like dark burgundy or a really dark shade of forest green. They might also be able to do gel tips to make them look a bit longer.

An autumn brown sounds nice. Like a lighter nude colour. They can do tips but I just want the strong gel for now.

After a very stressful day of biting my nails I got acrylics after work.

I'm going to try and keep them on until they will be long enough for BAIB or whatever it is called.

Ive gone nice and short and autumn colour.

Life long biter here and I've stopped now.

I used the Elegant touch glue on nails for a couple of weeks to get a start. Took a supplement everyday which started to improve the strength (I like the Sainsbugs gummies). Then I just put on lots of hand cream, oil at night, and keep them painted with a strengthener ( just a Rimmel one).

Everytime I want to nibble, back on go the glue on nails for a while.

Its taken a year or so, but I am there now.

They look lovely. You’ve inspired me. Need a haircut before I splash out though! Does it feel nice to have lovely nails?

They look gorgeous op!

They look lovely op. As your biting is related to anxiety you might try some relaxation or hypnotherapy on YouTube or Spotify. Paul McKenna has books which you can get from the library which have download codes for his hypnosis sessions.