Gels - nails seem to be ruined!

[JohnPrescottsPyjamas]

I very rarely have gels on my hands, but treated myself before I went on holiday. After 3 weeks, they needed to be redone, but my usual therapist was away so I made an appointment with a locally recommended business.

When I have my toes redone, my therapist always soaks off the old gel with cotton wool pads and foil. The woman at the new place literally filed off the gel on my fingers with an emery board. Maybe I should have said something at the time, but I could feel the friction burning and when I put my hand under the UV, I could feel something very hot.

When the latest treatment started to lift, I soaked them off myself with specific gel remover (soaked and held on with foil)

The problem is; my nails are now literally paper thin and absolutely ruined! They are lifting off in layers and I’ve had to cut down into the quick to remove the soft material as it was tearing off and getting very painful. I have always had very strong nails and I’m in full health, so has this therapist caused the problem?

I’m almond oil and cuticle cream religiously every night in an attempt to encourage new growth, but what else should I be doing or is it just patience?

Many thanks.

This has happened to me in the past. My nails were absolutely wrecked. It took a while but I used a nail hardener, think it was a Sally Hansen one to get my nails back to normal. I do not get gels any more.

Gels completely wreck nails generally but this is harsher than usual, cuticle oil and keep them short, maybe a vitamin supplement.sounds horrible 💐

Sadly, I think it’s patience! I won’t do gel anymore. That said, if you do decide to go for it again, you can buy a primer or undercoat. Put it on first (it can be applied in a similar way to “normal” nail polish) before going to the salon.

I had gel in May and the damage still hasn't grown out. Its why I rarely gave it done. It isn't worth it

I've never had damage from gels, but I can recommend soaks in warm jojoba oil for general nail health/flexibility.

I’ve had the same damage from soaking off three times now with three different beauticians. I tried BIAB, gels, same each time. My nails are normally very strong and healthy. Never again.
Look up The Salon Life on YouTube, she’s a miracle worker with nails and I followed her advice.
It’s taken 4 months to get my nails anywhere near healthy.

Another vote for looking up The Salon Life..I recommend her all the time as she transformed my nails after gel damage too. Like a PP mentioned, she recommends nails soaks in jojoba oil. Although any oil will work if you don’t want to spend.

This is my before and after finding The Salon Life.

My nails were actually a lot worse than this when I first had the gels removed.

I either do back to back gel nails, or keep them bare for 3-4 months so I have completely new regrowth. As PP said, it completely wrecks your nails as even the acetone removal can weaken them.

I had mine done for Xmas. I soaked them off myself but nails were wrecked underneath. It took to end of April before all the damaged bit had grown out - not worth it.

Thank you for all your replies - really appreciated and lesson learnt. I certainly won’t have gels again.

@BeretRaspberry, that looks exactly like the damage I’m experiencing. It’s like the layer composition of my nails is lifting and disintegrating like the pages of a wet book! Never experienced this before as they’ve always been very strong.
At the moment I’m cutting them as short as I can bear to remove the damage.

I’ll certainly look at The Salon Life as the recovery in the before and after is amazing. I guess it takes around 4 - 5 months growth from base to tip?

Unfortunately this is normal, no matter which method of removal you use. Gel ruins nails. All you can do is wait for the damage to grow out.

A series of IBX treatments to strengthen/fortify the natural nail should help to improve the condition of your nails, but it will probably take several weeks to fix, at a minimum. It looks as though they have been over-buffed unfortunately. You can have IBX done in a salon or do it yourself at home, but you will need some form of halogen light to cure the treatment polish so that it can penetrate the nail. As an aside, I don't think gel is suitable for once-off use. It will always have a negative effect on your nails when removed. Good luck OP.

Massage Vaseline into your bare nails at bedtime and in a weeks time you will have helped transform them.

Really? I’ve got one of those small tins of Vaseline that I use for chapped lips. I had no idea I could use it for nails too. Thank you for the tip!

I second IBX treatments, my nails have never been stronger and I only had four treatments! The Salon Life has a video about it.

No tips on repair OP, but even though acetone does damage your nails I think it’s not as bad as filing the gel off!!! If they aren’t careful they file the nail down to far and my god, it can hurt like hell afterwards.

I don't have gel anymore as it also wrecks my nails.
Try CND Rescue rxx treatment. You can get it on Amazon. It's really good for repairing nails. I use it all the time now to keep my nails in decent condition.

Yes, it’s about 6 months for full growth but you’ll see an improvement before then too, especially if you use oils etc. It’s definitely a good idea to keep them short too as it reduces the risk of further damage. Also, I think she recommends filing rather than cutting as cutting can cause a bit of damage too.

And it’s ok to file back and forth, contrary to what we’ve been told all these years! It’s more to do with the coarseness or fineness of the grit on the file as to how smooth it ends up at the tip. I use a very fine buffer to go over the edge once filed with my normal nail file. This helps smooth it and causes less snags.

Same here. Took months for my nails to recover.

I’ve been using Rimmel Nail Nurse on my flaking nails. It lightly coats them while they recover and grow.

Exactly what she did! The nail plate is actually bendy when I press on it, she’s made it so thin.

Acetone doesn’t damage your nails. It causes temporary dryness but nothing else. The lady from the Salon Life has a couple of videos - one where she only uses acetone to wipe toenails over a few pedicures (and on the other foot she does polish etc as usual)…the one that has only had the wipe with acetone is much healthier looking at the end of the experiment. It’s usually the polish itself that causes the damage (even ‘normal’ nail polish does to a certain extent).

She also soaked some nail clippings in pure acetone for a while and nothing happened to them.

I find it all fascinating!!! I actually qualified as a beauty therapist years ago, when it was City and Guilds and even though we did a lot of learning on the hands/nails etc, I didn’t learn as much as I have through her.