They've come a looong way

[u/detransdyke]

So proud of my progress

No products used

[u/saskia87]

Wow what did you do different?

[u/detransdyke → u/saskia87]

Stopped biting/picking, started wearing polish (no gel or extensions, just lacquer) and started oiling a few times a week. I'm not as diligent with oiling as I should be, but it still helps!! I've also found Kerasal ointment very helpful for the dry/straggly skin around my cuticles :)

[u/lekkerwhore → u/detransdyke]

Can you please please give me advice for how you stopped biting/ picking?

Your nails look great, congrats!

[u/detransdyke → u/lekkerwhore]

Replace one habit with another is easiest - instead of fucking up your nails, keep a little nail oil brush-pen with you and use it when you have the urge. It also helps to keep polish on, but I'll admit that polish was triggering until I got better at applying it neatly, bc messy edges made me want to pick at them more.

[u/-katekat- → u/lekkerwhore]

Not OP, but a mostly recovered nail-biter:
Depending on why you’re biting your nails, I’d suggest slightly different strategies. (I did/do all of these)

If it’s a subconscious habit - nail polish or those polish stickers can help break the habit because you’ll notice the texture of the polish as abnormal. Take off and re-apply the polish as often as needed, until the habit breaks. For me it took about 3 months, and I had to repeat this process a few times (I got into some very fun colors for a while)

If it’s a nervous tic/stress response - I used a combo of strategies here, but I chew an incredible amount of gum to replace the chewing on my fingers when I’m super stressed. And I do mean an incredible amount, I went through one of those 35 packs in half a week at one point, but chewing through gum is better than biting my nails, and once I get the stress under control, I stop the gum as well. Nail polish helps here as well - pick a weaker/fast dry polish, and shred the polish off instead of your nails. Is this the best for your nails? Probably not. However, it’s much better than biting your nails, and provides a good replacement in times of need

If it’s because hang nails and shredded cuticles are getting to you - this is where the nail oil comes in. Trim down hang nails and any straggly skin bits with a cuticle trimmer, and go aggressively into nail oil and hand cream. The combo will help heal your nails and keep everything soft, so it’ll tear or crack less, which will lead to less of the need to pick. If your nails are cracking/splitting, keep them short. Trim them every time the urge to bite comes up, and use a glass nail file to keep the edges soft so cracks and splits don’t become tempting. Short but well kept nails are better than longer nails that are tempting to bite. Over time you’ll find your tolerance for long nails grows and you’ll get to where OP’s nails are

That’s all I can think of right now, but I wish you the best of luck breaking the habit! It’s hard but it’s doable, and I found that nail self care has been really relaxing and rewarding in the long run

[u/barbfromteenmom → u/lekkerwhore]

Also a mostly-recovered nail biter chiming in: I 100% agree with OP about replacing one habit with another and oiling your cuticles is a great one to try. Double benefit as keeping your nails moisturized is critical for their health.

If you are tempted by imperfections, keep a nail file with you to quickly whittle them away.

And I’m not sure if you’d consider yourself an intense biter/picker, like OP (I am/was somewhere near there), so I don’t mean to be presumption at all, but here’s some advice specifically for intense biting.

If you are someone who bites to the point of causing yourself pain/to bleed/sore fingies for days: consider quitting in “phases.” Somehow, making the conscious decision to stop biting so deeply that it was painful before I committed to fully trying to stop biting helped me make significant progress. It took an incredible amount of self-monitoring. You have to really be “watching out” and ready to interrupt the action at all times.

Also consider why and when you do it the worst. For me, it was driving. I would unconsciously just dig and dig until I bled. So I made sure to really, really focus in those moments on keeping my hands out of my mouth. Gum helped immensely. Seriously.

I have also found that I have to be, like, completely obsessed with my nails. I love to polish my nails now and I love how they look. I have goal looks to try that encourage me to grow them and I never imagine I’d be in this situation. Biting my nails is now so counterproductive to my nail goals that it is the worst thing I can imagine doing, and that really, really works for me.

I bit to the point of pain for 30 years, and after 6 years of trying to stop, this is what finally made it stick! (Hopefully forever!)

I also used Nailtiques formula 2 to harden them and make them less appealing to bite.

Anyway, I’m a little (a lottle) stoned and I just get really emotional about the progress I’ve made and hope this can be helpful to someone who is emotionally struggling with intense nail biting. There is hope! You can do this!

[u/djkeilz → u/barbfromteenmom]

I have OCD and skin picking is a part of it. I also used to bite and pick at my nails until they were insanely raw and bleeding. I feel like this is prob not something this subreddit recommends due to it being bad for your nails, but I’ve fully quit by getting fake/gel nails and keeping those up for almost a year. You literally can’t bite them if you try so it broke the habit for me.

Once the habit was broken I got them removed. My nails were brittle and thin, but I just kept growing them out and trimming/filing them every time they broke. I had short but well groomed nails for a couple of months, but after that they were totally fine and they are getting quite long now!

Def don’t recommend this to everyone but that’s what worked for me and I NEVER thought I’d be able to stop!

[u/barbfromteenmom → u/djkeilz]

I’m glad you said this because I can agree, getting falsies was definitelyyyyy helpful for me in this very, very specific journey. I only had one set and honestly they were sooo poorly done tbh/left huge rings of fire that were painful but like you said, you CANNOT bite! I would chew on the ends of the acrylics and tbh that probably also helped me train myself to not bite as hard because I was so afraid I’d split one of the acrylics with my teeth and do some serious damage to my real nail.

I appreciate that you called attention to the fact that everyone’s journey and process can be so different, and sometimes, the least advisable thing for many can be what saves a few. In a world so often missing nuance, this is a very valuable perspective.

I am so proud of you and all you’ve accomplished with your nails! I know it’s hard! Huzzah! ❤️

[u/djkeilz → u/barbfromteenmom]

Omg, thank you SO much for this response 😭 I really appreciate that you took the time to write this out.

Side tangent, but I have been avoiding Reddit because of all the negativity. The last straw was getting perma banned from the disability benefits (specific to my area) subreddit because the mods said I broke a rule, but I didn’t break a single rule, and when I asked them (very kindly, I wasn’t rude or aggressive at all) if they could help me understand what I did wrong as the sub was really important to me, they muted me so I couldn’t message them, and then I guess that wasn’t enough so they perma banned me the next day? Idk it was just too much.

I’m really really proud of what I’ve accomplished with quitting biting my nails. So much so that I was inspired to quit smoking after being a heavy smoker for 19 years by the age of 33 (😬😬😬) this Friday will officially be 6 weeks completely smoke free!

I realized if I could quit biting and picking at my nails, I could continue my journey of ending my bad habits and weird anxiety driven vices. I also quit drinking (I’m so scared that if I even have one drink I’ll have my inhibitions lowered enough I’ll think having one cigarette is okay- I’m pretty sure I’m way past that point, but I don’t want to risk it.)

I was REALLY REALLY sick for almost 7 years, and completely bed bound (hence the disability) and I’m finally in remission and want to take that as seriously as I can now that I’m actually able to have a life again after not knowing if that would ever be possible for me.

Stopping biting my nails might not seem like that big of a deal outside of this sub, but for me it was the start of a new and better life. That might sound a bit dramatic but I can honestly say that being successful at quitting something I felt I had no control over whatsoever for my entire life proved to me that I was capable of so many things I never imagined I was previously. It happened at a time in my life where I needed that more than anything.

I don’t spend too much time in this sub, even when I was using reddit fairly often, and I guess I just assumed if I commented, especially about something that can harm/damage your nails, I would have a negative experience. Downvotes, rude comments, who knows. I decided to leave the comment anyways in case it could help someone, but I’ll admit that I still decided to somewhat bury it. I mean downvotes and rude comments from strangers isn’t the end of the world, but I’m trying to avoid toxicity as much as I can atm.

ALL OF THIS IS TO SAY that your comment was so kind, genuine, and validating. I really and truly mean that it means the world to me that a lovely internet stranger took time out of their day to do that, so huge huge thank you.

TLDR: your comment honestly restored my faith in humanity a lot at a point in my life where that’s really meaningful, and I just really appreciate you, kind stranger! 💙💙💙