Ugh, dirty nails. They followed me all throughout high school. Even after moving out from home, I couldn’t seem to keep them clean. It was baffling, really.
I took care of my nails and cut them regularly. I cleaned them
Why did other people manage to go through life looking well taken care of and my nails seemed to magnetically attract dirt? My fingernails were always dirty!
This might seem like a small problem to have. But as an adolescent who wanted to be taken seriously, dirty nails simply didn’t work for me. So I set out to find a solution.
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Why is it that I always have dirt under my fingernails?!
My first step was to investigate why and how nails get dirty, to begin with.
Obviously, the easiest way to get dirty nails is to dig in the dirt with your hands. Everyone knows that.
But how do your nails get grubby when you are just out and about in the city?
Well, the answer is as easy as enlightening: Your nails have teeny tiny fibers. Any dirt and dust that comes by any of those fibers
And
So if you’ve been looking at your fingers and asked yourself “Wait a second: What is the stuff under my nails?” – There you go. It’s lots and lots of small particles making friends with your nail fibres.
How to get rid of dirty finger nails
So the next step is to find a solution to the nails getting dirty. If dirt gets stuck to those little fibers, what could we do to prevent this from happening?
The answer is easy: Get rid of as many of those little fibers as you can.
No, I am not talking about getting rid of your nails. That would be a little drastic.
I am talking about evening out our nail surface so much that any filthy particles will have a hard time sticking to it.
You might not be aware of it, but many tools used in daily nail care actually roughen up the nail edge.
Cutting your nails? Better stop doing it altogether.
Filing your nails with a metal file? Big nope!
Instead, start using something that will polish the nail’s edge as much as possible. Funnily, this, for most people, is the secret tip on how to keep your nails clean.
Prevent dirty nails by switching to a glass file
The material that will assist you best in getting rid of dirty nails is glass. So your next step is getting rid of all your metal nail care tools and buying a glass file*.
Remember, no more cutting your nails! And definitely no cleaning your nails with anything metal!
Everything that touches your nails from now on is the glass nail file like this one*!
For bonus points try to always file your nails in the same direction. But to be completely honest, I don’t do that when I’m in a hurry, and my nails still look like I take good care of them. Finally! Goodbye dirty fingernails!