First and foremost, let’s take a deep dive into the complex science behind dry and split nail plate. Understand the oil and water balance within the nail plate and how it affects the health and strength of your nails.
A typical natural nail contains approximately 18% water and 5% oil. Optimal flexibility is achieved when the nail plate retains approximately 25% water.
However, excess moisture can weaken and damage the nail plate, just as a sponge shrinks when it dries, leaving a dry and brittle nail plate. This process starts a vicious cycle, and you have to keep adding more water to stop it. Restoring the nail plate may take a considerable amount of time, but it will be successful as long as nail plate cells are produced.
Balance method: How water maintains the strength and flexibility of the nail plate
Nail plates that are constantly exposed to water, especially soap, become soft and weak due to this continuous process. Remember, soap dissolves oil.It takes several hours for the nail plate to fully restore its normal “oil and moisture” levels.
There is no doubt that maintaining proper moisture balance is essential for healthy natural nails. With proper moisture balance, natural nails can withstand trauma due to their flexibility. Think of it like a shock absorber for a car or bicycle. It soaks up the bumps in the road so you can arrive bruise-free. The flexibility of the nail plate serves a similar purpose.
Essential oils: How they nourish and protect the nail plate
5% Oil – Where does it come from?
These oils are produced in the nail bed, slowly penetrate the nail plate from bottom to top, and are eventually washed away. These oils keep both the nail plate and bed epithelium supple. These oils are composed of “lipids” such as squalene and cholesterol.
Oil and water don’t mix naturally, so how do they both penetrate the nail plate? Since it seems illogical for both to use the same channel, is it possible that each takes a different route? The scientific community has not yet reached a final conclusion, but in practice they may have taken different paths. It is suspected that there are One possible explanation is:
– Water enters the nail plate cells directly through the cell wall.
– The oil cannot penetrate the cell walls and instead penetrates through the spaces left between the nail plate cells.
The protective power of oil: How it strengthens dry and cracked nails
The oil plasticizes the nail plate. They move much more slowly and do not evaporate as quickly. As a result, the oil blocks both the inflow and outflow paths of water.
As a result, your nails become less brittle, more flexible, and essentially stronger. Oil remains in the nail plate for a long time and has a significant impact on the overall condition of the nail plate.
But what happens when this balance is disrupted by trauma or conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, lichen planus, or even a fungal infection? The nail plate and nail bed can become dehydrated. But what if that’s not the case and everything seems normal?
Unraveling the matrix: how onychocytes form and why defects matter
For this, it is necessary to examine the substrate in which onychoocytes are produced.
The matrix produces nail plate cells 24/7. When you’re 21, you’re at full capacity, but after that it slows down.
Consider a tennis ball machine that continuously spits out tennis balls. This is how the matrix works. If something is not right, cells may be produced but not as fully as they should be. This produces weaker nail plate cells that may look normal but lack the strength of fully formed nail plate cells.
Of course there are exceptions. You don’t have to be old to have abnormalities in your nail plate cells. It can also occur in young people if they suffer from psoriasis, lichen planus, alopecia, or eczema. Babies may be born with nail matrices that are not yet fully formed, but the nail matrices recover quickly after birth.
Nail plate pressure: how defects create grooves and valleys
When the nail plate is placed on the nail bed, the nail plate receives pressure from all sides. The lateral walls, nail bed, and proximal nail folds all stabilize the nail plate as it moves along the nail bed. This pressure is so great that if the cells are not intact, they collapse and create grooves in the nail plate, with the weakest cells in the valleys and the strongest cells at the top of the hills. This is why we buff and file the nail plates. If you try to make it even and shiny, you will cause even more damage and you will unconsciously remove it. the strongest connection.
Sometimes small bead-like structures form and the nail plate can unravel.
The domino effect: How cellular neglect and abnormalities lead to dry and cracked nails
Imagine that the nail plate does not receive special care from external oils. Let’s also assume that a truly abnormal cell is generated under the same pressure from the side wall, etc. At that time, the nail plate cells start working, just like anything else dries up. Separation — pure stress from drying out (think about painting a wooden window, for example; once the seal breaks, it’s downhill). Water then penetrates, and as that water evaporates, further dehydration occurs, and the pieces of the puzzle that make up the nail plate cells easily break apart, causing the nail plate to tear horizontally.
Figure 6. January 28, 2023 – Here you can see how the nail plate crumbles at its weakest point. After about 5 months of intensive nail care, May 10, 2023 There are still grooves in the nail plate (this is a defect in the nail matrix and there is nothing we can do about it), but the nail plate is once again complete and in good condition, and the flexibility allows the nail plate cells to stick together. will be kept.
Figure 7. On the left side, the nail forest is dry, so the nail plate cells are expelled vertically, and the nail plate does not fit normally into the paronychium cup. After intensive nail care, the nail plate is in the paronychial cup, the outer nail fold can play its role, the onychodermal band visibly plays its role, and the nail plate is no longer No broken bones.
Understanding how this happens and what it takes to fix the problem will help your salon become the busiest salon in your area and keep your salon customers for life.
However, it is important to realize that none of these solutions will work right away, but with continued care and maintenance of your nail unit over time.
picture: Tracy Ann Shelverton, Josephine Freitels, Xuan Chu
