8 Ways to Avoid Nail Horrors

8 Ways to Avoid Nail Horrors

Here’s everything you need to know to avoid nail horrors:

1. Do ask how the tools are being cleaned and sanitized. To protect yourself, make sure your manicurist soaks her tools in a hospital-grade disinfectant for at least 10 minutes between clients. Some doctors say tools -should be sterilized in an autoclave, an apparatus that uses heat and steam to disinfect.

2. Do ask for a cuticle remover instead of cuticle cutters. If cuticle cutters haven’t been properly sanitized, they can cause serious complications, ranging from an inflamed cuticle to hepatitis. Tell your manicurist you’d prefer that she use a cuticle remover oil or cream–this will soften the cuticle so the manicurist can gently push it back without having to cut any of the skin.

3. Do observe your surroundings for proper hygiene. You need to look further than the countertop. When the manicurist opens her drawer, take a look inside and make sure there isn’t any dust and that everything looks clean. Often, the cleanliness of the person working on you is indicative of the hygiene standards of the entire nail salon.

4. Do consider bringing your own tools. If a manicurist uses a dirty instrument infected with blood, it .could possibly infect someone else with blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. To play it safe, buy your own manicure set and never leave home without it.

5. Don’t let them cut too much. When skin is broken during a manicure or pedicure, it creates openings that allow contagious germs to enter and infect the body. If the tools aren’t sterile, you can develop paronychia, a serious bacterial or fungal nail infection that requires medical treatment and antibiotics. For this reason, manicurists should never try to dig out an infection or use blades to remove anything such as a corn or an ingrown nail.

6. Don’t bathe in someone else’s foot tub. Bring your own foot tub, or insist that your pedicurist clean the basin out in front of you with. a hospital-grade disinfectant.

7. Don’t let manicurists poke around underneath your nail. If you create a separation between the nail and the nail bed, you create a poker where moisture can accumulate, and that’s the perfect climate for fungus to grow in.

8. Don’t let anyone use an emery board or pumice that’s been used before. In many states, it is illegal to use these tools on more than one person, because they can’t be properly disinfected using conventional sterilization techniques. Ask for the disposable kind. Another dicey tool: the nail whitening pencil. Make sure your manicurist sharpens it first to eliminate infectious germs. Or better yet, bring your own.