HEALTHY NAIL HABITS | HOW TO FILE YOUR NAILS RIGHT

Image: beautyjunkees.com

I must confess, I am one of those annoying people who answers a beauty regime question with "I honestly don't do much, I'm just lucky I guess". For a very long time that was my answer whenever people asked  how I maintained my nails, and that really was the truth, but it didn't seem good enough. So, as much as the fact that the truth wasn't enough annoyed me, it also prompted me to pay a little more attention to my nail habits. And this tip I'm about to share is one which I did not even know was commonly practised by professional nail technicians.

As you can tell from my Manicure Mondays posts, I do most of my manicures myself and having done so for so long, it's only natural that I now understand what works for my nails. Whenever I go to the nail salon to get a manicure, I always file my nails myself. 1.) Because no one ever seems to get my intended nail shape right and 2.) They aren't gentle enough when filing. I get a lot of huffs and puffs and eye-rolls from the nail techs, but I am always as polite as possible and I let them know it's nothing personal at all, I just prefer to do the filing bit myself.

The above image shows the proper way to file your nails, you need to do it one direction at a time, typically from the outside in.

I have always filed my nails this way, not because I knew this was the right way, but because I felt I had more control. Although when I change the shape of my nails from round to square, I usually file back and forth in a sawing motion to get the top flat, but lifting the nail file off the nail after each 'saw'. That literally lasts about 7-10secs  and then I'm back to the one direction at a time. Filing your nails right goes a really long way in maintaining healthy long nails because doing it the wrong way can cause your nails to become thin which makes them split or peel.

I'll be sharing some more healthy nail habits over the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for those.

Please share your nail filing tips or ask me questions in the comment section below!

Ez xxX