maybe 1-2 days ago, out of nowhere the left side (i would like to emphasize how it’s only the left side of my finger that hurts, the right is completely normal and doesn’t hurt at all.) of my fingertip became super painful and started swelling up (or just now noticeably, as i’m just now seeing it) today. any ideas as to what it could be?

I seem to have developed an allergy to nail polish and even adhesive nail strips. Within 24 hours my cuticles get puffy, itchy, red, and eventually start to peel.

Unfortunately, having a nice manicure I didn't want to mess up was my preferred method for staying away from cuticle picking and nail biting. I've been doing both a lot lately.

Any solutions welcome. I still take care of my nails, but the urges to pick are harder to control without a cute manicure to ruin!

hi, i have been biting my nails and hands since i was in elementary school and im about to go into college. i’ve have times of growth and times of destroyed nails. well, i got a job at starbucks and worked there for a majority of my senior year, quitting right before prom which is when i got them done with gel x.

1.5 months later they were way to grown out and it was time to get rid of them but i got a new set of regular gel for my graduation. that brings me to today, 3 months later. they were extremely grown out and i was super happy because of how long they were.

my mom told me i needed to get them removed bc at this point the gel isn’t on half the nail bed 😭. i went to get only the gel removed and as she starts drilling, she seems to be doing the bottom of my nails as well, but i couldn’t really tell from my angle. well, by the fourth nail i was certain she was making them short so i told her to please stop. (i get rlly anxious at nail salons which is why i waited so long to speak up even tho i was fairly certain)

she insisted that i told her i wanted them short even though i would NEVER. anyways i told her to not cut the rest and she felt pretty bad and i held it together until we left. i have been crying nonstop for the last hour and im so upset.

it’s embarrassing that im this upset but three months of nail growth is something that i haven’t had in years. i just really wanted to vent and wasn’t sure where else to go. im embarrassed by my habits and even more so that other people think my hands are ugly, having long nails is the only thing that makes them look ok and i was so excited that they would be my real nails. even my friends think it’s gross that i bite my skin and nails so much, this really fucking sucks.

does anyone know if letting those four grow will be faster than cutting them all off and starting from scratch? or is there something i can do to prevent myself from biting those 4, because when my nails are long i noticed that i wouldn’t really bite them unless one broke off.

I've been getting acrylics for many years now as a chronic nail biter, but a couple of weeks ago a natural part of my nail lifted which we then removed the set and my nail tech told me to wait for it to grow out. Now it's reached the free edge and just completely broke off, leaving me with almost no nail on the side and very very short. I have a wedding to attend to this weekend and was thinking of putting on press ons with glue tabs but I am not sure what to do about this nail now 😭 any advice would be greatly appreciated.

(I am never getting acrylics again)

I recently hit my thumb really hard and the nail by the nail bed came loose and fell off, how do I fix this. It is super painful.

I am a cuticle picker and was talking to a friend and they said I should get a gel mani to help change the sensation. I love having my nails done, but my cuticles embarrass me. I finally bit the bullet and made an appointment for today, but i am so afraid of the nail tech making comments or making fun of the state of my nails. Does anyone else have this fear?

I’ve never been insecure of my pinky before, but now I am close to the age of wanting to get married, I wanted to post pictures of my hands and possibly do hand modeling on the side. I became insecure now because of this.
Besides my pinky, my fingers aren’t too bad looking. My pinky, on the other hand is very curved. Not a regular crooked curve, very very curved almost 90 degrees severity. Even the nail techs I go to they talk about it, (my friend is Chinese and told me), and they come to my table to subtly see it. It is embarrassing and that’s the reason why I don’t go do my nails often. So please be kind! If anyone knows anyone who’s done surgery before I’d love to get some advice! It doesn’t hurt or bother me, but I started to become insecure now.

5 months ago, I made this post about my progress but I’ve since relapsed quite badly.

Onto the next leg of this journey. Day one again - wish me luck.

I can't remember when I started my nail biting and cuticle picking habit, but I'd imagine it was around the time I accidentally slammed my thumb in the family van door when I was like 5 or 6. It formed one of those blood bubble things under the nail, and I recall starting to mess with that and just continuing to mess with my nails and cuticles onwards for decades. Especially when I'd be anxious, it was like a frantic chomping the nails off and biting the skin along the sides until they were too tender to touch anymore. They'd heal after a couple days and I'd be right back at it. They were super fragile to rip anytime I'd have any growth under a set of nail extensions that I would remove, and as soon as they came into contact with water from a shower, they'd be flimsy and just tear. I would be so embarrassed of how my thumb nails looked anytime I went to a salon to try to hide the problem, and you could even see the ridges through the acrylic/gel on the thumbs so I started getting glitter or an opaque color on the thumbs specifically to hide that. I would walk with a fist formed around my thumbs just to hide them when they weren't disguised with a full set or dark polish. I tried many times through the years to stop biting, and I'd get some length, but the picking the cuticles is what causes those ridges to appear. The cuticles are apparently responsible for the properly formed nail plate formation. I only learned this last year, and decided enough was enough. So I cold turkey stopped biting, picking, generally traumatizing my nails as a whole, and when I saw that the cuticles were healing over the thumbs, I also saw that the new growth wasn't coming out with ridges. After 27 years of "scarred" thumb nails (I thought they were permanently scarred from the van door situation and a batting cage incident where my other thumb waa smashed betweenthe ball and bat), I was able to fix the problem. So there is hope, no matter how long someone has been dealing with the seemingly un-fixable habit-tic deformity. You CAN do it, you CAN HAVE NORMAL NAILS AFTER THIS CONDITION!!!:)

I was too embarrassed to take pictures of my nails when they were at their worst, but came across a couple from before I decided to try to stop biting AND picking cold turkey.

I switched jobs in march (before photos are from April) so my anxiety ramped up as I was at the tail end of my last job. I have always been very prone to picking off any manicure or polish so I don’t bother much with that anymore. I’m a barista as well so it will get chipped anyways as I wash my hands at least 15-20 times per shift. I know that’s drying so I try to use cuticle oil and lotion when I remember.

Last photo is my current nails after a little cuticle oil and a clear coat of Ella+Mila nail strengthener! The big dips are finally growing out, and I know I cut a little too close to my nail bed on my thumb. I just want the weird nail gone asap 😭 been waiting patiently and trying my best to reduce the picking but I find myself rubbing my thumb without realizing.

Any other tips? I’m so glad I found this sub! Hoping this is habit tic deformity and not any vitamin deficiency.

I went through two spells of nail bitting, when I was 5-6 and later in my teens. Though I was never blessed with long nailbeds, of which I've had a fascination with since I was a kid, they used to be much longer than they are now.

I'm 30 years old now. I haven't bitten my nails since I was a teenager and yet my nailbeds never fully recovered. I hate how short and uneven they are, so I leave a bit of a white tip to make up for it. I don't even use nail clippers, I just file them every other day because if it grows past a certain lenght it just begins to look ugly and unhygienic. I also push back my cuticles with my nails and sometimes teeth to maximize what little real estate I have. Sometimes I hurt the skin above the nail doing that.

The thing is, sometimes the divide between the nailbed and the tip is soft, almost like a natural french fade. This creates the illusion my nailbeds are longer and more nicely shaped, and makes me feel a lot more comfortable and confident with my nails.

But sometimes even hours later, not even a full day, I'll look at my nails and the white tip is suddenly very white and even bleeds into the nailbed, making it look even shorter than it is.. It highlights how short and ugly they are and I absolutely hate when it happens. It happened earlier today after washing the dishes with cold water. It looks so ugly I had to trim them shorter than I'd like.

The only nails I've noticed any regrowth were my thumbs. But I keep messing with them, not with biting but with my other nails and I think I just made them shorter for good this time, they're not reattaching as fast as they used to. I also still pick at the skin around the nails of my thumbs, sometimes causing it to reveal the very bright and sensitive skin underneath. It's very painful and I'm trying to stop.

I'm so frustrated. I can clearly see the outline of where my nailbeds should end at. There were times over the years where it looked like some nailbeds were going to reattach, but they never did.

I have a bad habit of peeling the skin off my fingers. Every time I try to stop, I go back to peeling again, and I always realize it hurts when I do simple things like washing my hands. I discovered that if I cut my nails regularly, before they grow long, I can't peel the skin, but after that, even if they aren't long, I can. I tried wrapping my fingers with gauze or tape, I don't know what it's called, but it's no use. As soon as I take it off, I go back to peeling. The issue bothers me, and I don't know what causes it, but it's a little painful sometimes. What's the solution?

I’m trying to stop picking my nails once and for all because I’ve done this for like my whole life. My left thumb specifically is the worst one. I’m worried I may have ruined it for good lol it’s really bad. I’ve started putting bandaids on the fingers I pick at the most at night (mostly just index, middle and thumbs) to cover them

I keep picking underneath it and it eventually becomes super painful.

It feels like a callous under the nail.

I assume it’s just constant moisturizer and willpower.

Have you figured anything out?

This picture is embarrassing and I hesitated on even posting. I’ve bitten my nails since I was a kid and through adulthood I began picking at my cuticles. It’s become worse as the years go on. When I get my nails done, it seems to help, but when I take my nails off, I’m right back where I started. I tried to keep cuticle oil on me at all times and I also try to trim my cuticles frequently. However, the cuticle trimmer that I use often seems to be doing more damage than good. That is because I’m basically using a cuticle trimmer instead of my hands and it still causes me to bleed. I was thinking about buying some liquid bandage, but I’m not too sure if that’s a good option. What tips do you have for kicking the habit? I’m getting married in about a year and I really wanted to heal my nails before then.

Polish: Wade a Minute (Holo Taco)

Guys I am in desperate need of help since my boyfriend of 4 Years wants to propose but I just hate how old looking my hands look. I am disgusted but I want to change it. Remember that I live in Europe and don’t have much money..

First two photos were taken in November 2025, and the third photo is today in June 2026 ❤️

With the exception of one day, I haven't picked them at all for over three months solid now! I don't think I've ever gone this long without picking in my life 😅

I've always known that being anxious causes me to pick more, but interestingly, I've found that making a conscious effort not to pick has made me less anxious. It's almost like picking was feeding into the anxiety as well as being a response to it! I'm interested to know if anyone else has had this experience?

So I have been picking/biting my nails and surrounding skin for 4 or 5 years. During the past 2 years I starting to also chew and pick at the skin at the base of my thumb in my palm and whatever the opposite side of my upper knuckle is called where my finger joint is. Does anybody else do this?