Reader question: Nails
tokio asks: I have what people in the cosmetics industry lovingly refer to as "duck-bill" nails. If you were to take two of my nails and put them back to back, they would look slightly like the bill of a duck. My fingernails have ALWAYS been brittle and they are extremely sensitive. Biotin helps a little, but not enough to keep them from breaking. If I paint them, they break a few weeks later.
Your last post about nails, cuticles specifically, got me thinking about my own; it appears that I don't have visible cuticles except on my thumbs, which happen to be the strongest nails. The shape of the bed of my nail is a lot different than other women's. They're longer than guy's nail beds, but rounder than women's.
Is there any correlation here? What does having no visible cuticles signify?
There probably isn't any sure way to figure out if there is a correlation (I haven't found any hard evidence about that), but it is definitely a possibility. But even with the helathiest nails, the cuticles aren't always that visible. I would start with a really good nail conditioning kit and push back the cuticles so that the "half-moon" is more visible. Some brands to look for: Elon, Barielle or Trind. Used often, these treatments should help your nails become stronger.