What do you do with a splitting nail?

[0phelia]

Hi DP has a nail that constantly splits. He is taking "silica complex" that contains calcium but it's not working.
He sometimes puts superglue on it but I rekon that's making it worse.
Any advice?
(He needs his nails being a guitarist)

I sometimes use a tea bag and nail varnish to fix mine. It does work!

Teabag + superglue/nail glue, then buff until smooth. If you use the outer rim of the teabag (the thicker bit) it should hold for long enough to grow it out to the stage where it can be trimmed off.

Is it vertical or horizontal?

It's a vertical split. Seems to grow but split as it grows iykwim.

Is the teabag an antiseptic thing? Would antiseptic cream work better?

So do you "brew" the teabag then place it on the nail or use it dry?

The teabag is like wallpaper across a crack if that makes sense, to hold he sides together. Used to be able to get a Sally Hansen repair kit with with similar papers for this purpose.

THE sides.

I had one of these for years. The only thing that worked was keeping the nail as short as possible. I think this worked because as the nail grew out any kind of force along the weakened nail area would open the split which would then travel down the nail. Keeping the nail short meant that the weak part of the nail was supported and didn't split open. After about six months or so the split grew out.

I'll admit that having an ultra short thumbnail for six months wasn't ideal but the constant splitting was even less ideal.

The teabag trick never seemed to work for me. It just didn't offer enough support for the nail and the split would continue to travel down the nail.

Oh I getchya.
Is there a way to stop the crack coming in the first place though?

thecapitalsunited
That's useful thanks. He's tried the patching up kits but nothing seems to work.

I just use Superglue and keep the nail as short as possible until the glued split has grown out. If it really won't stop splitting, I'd glue it then keep the end of the finger wrapped in micropore. This would hopefully help avoid any further splitting ( and be a constant reminder to be careful) until it had had time to grow out.

I didn't find anything other than keeping the nail as short as possible (virtually nothing above the nail bed) which prevented a split from developing.

Keeping the nail as short as possible, as mentioned previously, until it had grown out helped mine.

Not sure if it would further weaken the underlying nail - some guitarists use fake nails when theirs break or are not the right length

I've had this 3 times. As already said, keep the nail ridiculously short until it grows out. This, for me, means cutting it with a cuticle cutters every couple of days so that it was always the shortest it could possibly be and can't catch on anything. Rubbing Vaseline in also helps as they will be less brittle and split less easily. I'm growing one out at the moment :-(

After over a year of trying every strengthener and glue on the market constantly clipping it for a few weeks is the only thing that worked.

Probably a silly question but can he not get on with a plectrum.

I have this, buffing the nail seems to help it grow longer before it splits vertically. Since this started I keep all my nails short and use OPI nail envy but I appreciate your husband might not want shiny nails

I have a similar issue with my nails - also splitting & peeling etc so I went to the Health store yesterday and they advised me to leave nail varnish off and rub with Neem oil 4times a day. Worth a try as all my usual Sally Hansen tricks don't seem to be working any more...

These are all great suggestions thanks.

I had it with a toe nail. took ages to grow out.
keeping it short and smooth and protecting it with tape seemed to help.

Use mavala nail hardener? Keep nail short.

I had this on my ring finger, I assume I damaged the nail bed without noticing because for months I had a vertical ridge through it which then split as the nail grew longer. The only thing that helped was keeping it really short as other posters have suggested. I rubbed nail oil into the cuticle daily which may or may not have helped but after a few months it went. It took a long time though!