Neat nails always attract attention and are a decoration of women's hands.
But how much effort is required to keep them in shape constantly, because it happens that one nail breaks and you have to cut off all the others.
Only a few know: this is far from the only way out in such a situation, manicure can be saved! But first, it’s worth understanding the causes of brittle nails.
Why do nails break?
Both a natural nail and one coated with gel polish or shellac can break.
In the first case, the reasons may be:
The main reason why an artificial nail can break is mechanical impact.
If you hit something hard on a nail plate coated with gel polish or shellac, a crack may appear or a piece may even break off.
If there is constant mechanical stress on the nails (typing on a keyboard and other factors), the coating often begins to peel off.
Due to a strong impact, such as a blow, a crack may even appear at the base or in the middle of the nail plate.
But sometimes it happens that the appearance of cracks and chips on artificial turf is to blame: due to improper construction of the nail architecture or excessive removal of the top layer.
Particular attention should be paid to manicure care on the first day after extensions or gel polish coating: You should not experience sudden temperature changes on it, and also do not get too carried away with water procedures.
How to fix a broken nail
First, it is worth noting that a nail that is more than 1/3 broken is not suitable for repair.
The matter can be corrected only with minor damage. But even after repair, you shouldn’t hope that the effect will last for a long time - such a nail can last only 2-3 days, if you handle it very carefully - a week.
The fact is that in such cases there is a high risk of infection getting into the wound.
The only correct solution would be to cut all nails to the length of the broken one in order to provide your hands with an aesthetic appearance. The damaged area should be regularly treated and the condition of the phalanx tissue should be monitored.
If the option of cutting all of them into one is absolutely not suitable for a broken nail, you can try to save the manicure.
Natural nail repair
To start nail repair, you need to have the following tools and tools:
1.
Means for degreasing the nail plate.
If you don’t have it, you can replace it with regular medical alcohol.
2.
Silk with self-adhesive backing.
3.
Special glue for nails. It is unacceptable to replace it with Moment or similar products, since such compositions aggressively affect even healthy nail plates. If you don’t have a special one at hand, medical glue will do.
4.
File or buff for nails with low abrasiveness (to reduce damage to the damaged nail).
5.
Acrylic P pad for fixing the glue layer, giving a natural shade to the surface of the nail, as well as masking the borders of the fabric.
All of the above is also sold as a special set, which is convenient to use both at home and while traveling.
Stages of natural nail repair:
1. First comes clean the surface of the nail with a soft buff. They need to be moved from the base of the nail upward.
2. Nail plate fat-free special liquid or alcohol.
3. Remove the film from a piece of fabric (silk) and stick it so that the crack is completely covered. Then on the overlay layer apply a drop of glue and dip the nail plate in the powder. After the glue dries a little, excess powder is removed. If necessary, the steps are repeated. If glue gets on the skin, remove it with an orange stick.
4. After the pad has completely dried, the surface of the nail polished with a nail file. This is necessary to remove the adhesive layer so that the nail plate becomes as smooth as possible.
Polishing is done with careful, gentle movements so as not to provoke a new crack. Then oil is applied to the surface of the nail and cuticle and polished with a buff. This is necessary in order to hide the break border as much as possible.
5. After this, apply 2 layers of opaque varnish. These manipulations will completely hide the crack.
If a piece of your nail breaks off, you can try to build it up using gel polish.
Tools you will need for gel polish repair:
- Ultraviolet lamp
- Base coat, top coat, natural or clear gel polish
- Means for degreasing the nail surface
- Foil (small piece, for one nail)
- Scotch tape or adhesive tape
- File, scissors for manicure.
Stages of the procedure:
1 . Lightly polish the nail plate in the broken area.
2. Fold the foil four times for rigidity, cut a long strip wider than the nail plate.
3. Place a strip of foil under the nail, bend it from the inside, giving it a curved shape, and secure it with an adhesive plaster.
4. Degrease the surface of the nail plate, apply a base layer to the part of the nail closer to the break, apply a thicker layer on the foil, further than the border of the future nail, you need to try not to get it on the adhesive plaster. Place your finger under the lamp, increasing the exposure time by 2 times.
5. Apply a layer of gel polish in the same way, thicker on the foil. Also keep it in the lamp twice as long. Apply the second coat of varnish and light it as usual.
6. Apply a layer of top, hold under the lamp and remove the sticky layer.
7. Carefully separate the foil and adhesive tape.
8. Using manicure scissors, cut off the excess part of the extended edge, sand and file it, giving it the desired shape.
9. Use a file to polish the nail surface at the junction of the natural and varnish layers, moving from the base of the nail to its tip.
10. Polish the nail.
If a nail with an artificial coating is broken, it makes sense to fix it, only after removing gel polish or shellac or artificial nails. The repair methods in this case do not differ from those listed above.
The ideal option would be to go to a salon if your nail breaks or cracks.
– If a natural nail is cracked and soft tissue is affected, the specialist will treat and disinfect the affected area.
– After that, he will seal it with silk and apply a special fastening agent.
– The crack will not heal, but painless growth of the nail will be guaranteed.
– In the salon, they can apply biogel to the damaged nail, which, in addition to gluing, will strengthen the nail plate.
Preventive measures for a broken nail
! Restoration of a nail can only be performed if it is broken off once.
If your nails break and crack regularly, it is better to trim them and start. To do this, you need to find the cause of the problem and eliminate it. No one can help you here better than a specialist - you should consult a dermatologist.
Preventative measures to combat brittle nails are:
1. Timely contacting a specialist and solving health problems.
2. Proper care: using high-quality nail products, using various baths, moisturizing the cuticle.
3. Compliance with the drinking regime: fragility and delamination of nail plates directly depend on dehydration of the body.
4. Doing housework with gloves - limiting hand contact with household chemicals.
5. Careful handling of nails: they should be protected from mechanical stress.
6. Using nail polish remover without acetone in the composition.
7.: filing nails at right angles, cutting, not tearing off burrs, using a glass or ceramic file, etc.
8. Periodic rest of nails from manicure.
9. Proper sleep patterns (at least 8 hours) and good nutrition: food rich in vitamins A, E, D, calcium, phosphorus and other microelements.
You need to monitor the health of your nails, not forgetting about the condition of the body as a whole. Don't despair if your nail breaks due to negligence: your manicure can be saved with these simple fixing methods that won't take much time, preserving the beauty and flawlessness of your hands!
Throughout their lives, women have to face many different problems. One of these is the problem that concerns nails. Every representative of the fair sex will agree that a broken nail is a tragedy that contributes to a deterioration in mood and requires the allocation of time to restore the nail plate. If the extended nail breaks, the woman will have to go to her nail technician.
Usually specialists fix breakdowns fairly quickly. In a situation where a natural nail breaks, which had to be grown for a long time, you will need to wait again until it grows back. From the material below you can glean information about what methods of nail restoration exist and what tools should be used to achieve these goals.
Causes of brittle nails
Every representative of the fair sex needs to know why nails become brittle and fragile, as a result of which their tips break and cause a lot of inconvenience. The main factors causing fragility are:
Lack of vitamins, microelements, minerals that contribute not only to improved health, but also, of course, to the condition of the nails. To prevent them from breaking, to be strong and healthy, it is necessary to pay special attention to nutrition. Recommended healthy products are:
- seafood;
- milk and other dairy products;
- nuts and sesame;
- seaweed;
- zucchini, cucumbers;
- fatty fish;
- vegetable juices;
- basil, parsley, cilantro, other greens;
- pumpkin seeds.
Incorrect care. To avoid breaking your nails, you need to pay special attention to caring for them. Due to the frequent use of cosmetics for the care of nails and hands, which contain harmful substances such as acetone and formaldehyde, with constant contact with various detergents and water, nails lose their strength and can easily break.
In order to improve your health and return your nail plates to their former strength and natural color, you can easily do therapy at home, make strengthening baths, masks, use special varnishes, and folk methods to prevent nail brittleness. But let's find out what to do if a nail breaks, or rather the tip? The easiest way is to trim the nail, then compare all the nail plates so that they are the same length. The second way out of the situation is to repair the broken tip. This procedure is carried out not only in beauty salons, but also at home.
Special set for nail repair
It is important to know that a broken nail can be repaired if no more than a third of it is damaged. In addition, you should not expect that gluing the nail plate will give long-term results. Unfortunately, this procedure can extend the life of the nail by only a couple of days. But if you treat it with care, you can walk with it for about 7 days. Remember, if a nail is broken right off the bat, it is strictly forbidden to carry out repairs.
The reason for the ban is that if the skin of the nail, located under the free edge, is damaged, the likelihood of infection increases significantly. Therefore, it is recommended to seek the help of a specialist. To repair the tip of a broken nail, you should use:
- Silk, as it is a suitable material for restoring ends. You can also use fiberglass.
- A degreasing agent that has a softening effect on brittle, brittle nails. This product is called a disinfectant. In the absence of a disinfectant, you can resort to ordinary alcohol.
- A special nail glue that is harmless and has a delicate structure. It is strictly forbidden to use ordinary Moment glue and similar ones if your nail is broken and needs to be repaired. Such glue, on the contrary, provokes brittleness of the nails and does not lead to the expected result.
- Manicure file. It should be soft so as not to make any scratches on the surface. Or you can use a buff.
- Powder. It will act as a glue fixer and give this layer a natural color. Powder is an excellent tool for masking cracks on a nail that has broken.
How to repair a broken nail yourself?
You can cure the tip of a nail with a crack in about five to ten minutes. So, let's look at the stages of solving the problem one by one.
First stage
If the reason for the broken nail is its fragility, first prepare the affected tip. Take a soft buff and clean the surface. The movements should be performed in this way: from the cuticle to the free edge. Next, take alcohol or a disinfectant to perform a procedure such as degreasing the nail.
Stage two
Take the fabric, cut a small piece, remove the protective film. Then attach the silk to the nail that you have broken. This way it will be possible to completely cover the crack formed. Then drip a small amount of glue onto the silk. Then you need to quickly resort to powder, or rather, dip your nail into it until the adhesive layer has dried. After complete drying, you need to remove the excess using a napkin. If necessary, this operation is repeated. If glue gets on the skin, you need to quickly remove it with a regular needle.
Stage three
When the glue dries, you need to sand it. This should be done with great care, since often, in addition to fragility, there is thinning of the nail plate. Using smooth movements without pressing hard with the nail file, scrape the adhesive layer so that it is even with the surface of the tip of your nail.
Finally, polish using a buff. You just need to cover it with oil in advance in order to strengthen weak, brittle, brittle nails. To complete the process of masking the crack, it is recommended to apply varnish of any color in a couple of layers, as well as decorate the nails in any way. For example, using rhinestones.
Sealing the nail
When a nail breaks, you can use a paper tea bag to seal the affected area. You should prepare:
- nail file;
- tweezers;
- special nail glue;
- clear nail polish;
- paper tea bag.
Sequencing
- You need to take a tea bag. To do this, pour out the contents and cut out a rectangular strip. The strip should be long enough.
- Next, you should polish the affected nail in order to eliminate all existing irregularities and apply a very thin layer of glue to it.
- Then you will need to take the blank from the bag and attach it. Using gentle pressure on the nail with the finger of the opposite hand, secure the paper to the nail. Excess paper should be cut off.
- After the above procedures, the next layer of glue is applied on top of the glued piece of paper. When it dries, apply a third layer.
- Upon completion, the nail is polished and a clear varnish is applied.
Hiding the chip under the tip
What to do and what to do if your nail is broken in the center? To solve the problem, you should use a tip. It should be remembered that blank products for this work process must have a square shape, translucent or completely transparent color.
- First, polish along the edges, making sure that there are no irregularities left.
- Then they take nail polish remover and wipe the nail plate.
- A nail that is broken in the center is covered with glue. Then the same procedure is carried out with the tip, namely with its inner side.
- Both surfaces, lubricated with glue, are applied to each other so that the edge of the nail, as well as the stop of the product, clearly coincide.
- Then you need to wait a little until the glue dries.
- They take a tip and give it the same length as the rest of the nails. (You just need to leave a small margin, because you still have to adjust everything).
- At the end, the nails are trimmed and made into the desired shape. The length of the natural nail plate is also aligned with the edge of the tip. Then the joints are sealed.
We advise you to take care of your nails so that you do not have to deal with such a problem as a broken nail. We recommend that you watch the video, which explains and shows in detail what needs to be done if a nail is broken.
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Moderately long, well-groomed nails are always beautiful. With a beautiful manicure, a woman's hand looks elegant and sophisticated. But no one, even those women who are lucky enough to have strong, durable nails, are immune from the fact that a nail can break.
Such an incident can spoil not only the appearance of your hands, but also your mood. But don’t be too upset, a broken nail can be repaired, thereby preserving your beautiful manicure.
What not to do if your nail is broken
In most cases, the nail plate breaks where its direct contact with the finger ends, i.e. along the line of the so-called “smile”. In this case, the nail may not just break off, but only crack a little on the side. This situation is even worse than the complete loss of a regrown nail, since it causes a lot of trouble. A broken nail will scratch, cling to hair, and leave puffs on clothes. But even despite this, I don’t really want to cut all my nails because of such a small nuisance.
There is a reasonable way out of this situation! A slightly broken nail on the side can be easily repaired. It should be said right away that trying to glue a broken nail with “superglue” or other similar glue is simply useless, since such substances are created for use in combination with artificial materials. If you use them to glue the nail plate, they will corrode living cells, and this will only lead to disastrous results - you can ruin the structure of the nail or even lose it.
How to fix a nail correctly
You should start fixing a broken nail as early as possible, before the crack gets bigger. What exactly is needed for this and how to use it we will now consider.
First, you need a disinfectant. It is advisable to take one that not only removes dirt and degreases the nail, but also removes excess moisture without drying out the nail plate itself.
Secondly, special fabrics will be needed. For this purpose, you can use both natural fabrics, such as linen, silk, and artificial ones, for example, fiberglass. It is most convenient to work with fiberglass or silk; you can buy them in ribbons or already cut to the size of your nails.
Thirdly, you need to buy a special glue that will not harm the nail plate. As a rule, such glue is liquid and easy and convenient to work with.
Of course, you will need nail files and buffy. A good nail file that will not damage the nail plate should have an abrasiveness of no more than 240 units. Buffy is a kind of file for working with fabric on the nail, which helps make the coating smoother.
Now on sale you can find special kits that include all of the above products. Purchasing such a set saves not only time, but also personal funds.
After you have purchased all the necessary products to fix your nail, all that remains is to deal with the actual repair of the broken nail. First you need to clean the area around the crack with a soft nail file. This is best done by moving from the base of the nail to its edge. Then we treat the nail with a disinfectant and place a small piece of cloth on the crack. You need to apply glue to this fabric and let it dry completely (this will happen quite quickly). Then, using a nail file or buff, we file down the surface of the fabric so that it is as level as possible with the surface of the nail. At the end of this procedure, you need to apply oil to the treated nail and polish it well with a soft nail file. In order to completely hide the damage, the nail is covered with colored varnish.
Of course, such nail repairs will not last very long, but as an emergency it is quite effective. It all depends on the extent of the damage to the nail and the stress on it. The repair procedure itself will not take much time, and you can do it yourself.
Long nails and a beautiful manicure are the standard of female beauty. And breaking a nail is a big nuisance for every woman. The chipped area looks unsightly and scratches the skin.
What to do if a nail breaks off and you want to return it to its former beautiful appearance?
Broken nail: what to do
What to do next with a broken nail depends on how it broke: slightly cracked or completely torn off. An uneven edge or crack will cause trouble - scratching and clinging to clothes.
Possible actions for a broken nail:
- Trim the nail or file it down.
- Glue the crack on one's own.
- Ask for help to a specialist.
If you want to solve the problem yourself and save a broken nail yourself at home, then you need to choose the right gluing technology. It depends on where the crack is: in the overhanging part of the nail or in the middle of it. The size of the crack is also important.
- If the breakdown small, then you can seal the problem area with a special patch made of natural fabric or paper plaster. This repair is used for any cracks on the side of the nail, along the “smile” line or along it.
- At complete breaking off nail from above impose acrylic artificial material – tips.
- Tips are also applied when a crack appears along the axis of the finger, in the middle.
It makes sense to repair a broken nail if it is cracked no more than 1/3 of its length. Otherwise, the repair will be short-lived.
Sometimes the crack goes so deep that it injures the finger under the nail. In this case, it is better to carry out treatment and recovery in the salon.
What can't do:
- Glue living natural nail for superglue. The synthetic composition corrodes living cells of the nail plate. Only extended acrylic plates can be repaired with synthetics.
- It is forbidden treat the nail with acetone or other nail polish remover when breaking it down to “meat”. Aggressive chemical solutions should not get into the wound.
- It is forbidden delay repairs nail if you have a crack. The nail may crack further and break off completely. The sooner you start fixing the problem area of the nail, the smaller the crack that needs to be repaired.
Tools and materials for nail repair
Often, materials for gluing damaged nails are sold as a set, like a professional kit for repairing nail plates. It includes:
- Silk for repairing nails on an adhesive basis.
- Glue for natural and artificial nails.
- File and buff for natural and artificial nails.
- Any disinfectant: hydrogen peroxide, medical alcohol, or even better - a professional manicure product.
- Orange sticks for a manicure.
All these tools and materials can be selected separately, depending on availability in the store and personal preferences. It is worth noting that although the special nail repair silk is self-adhesive, its adhesive base is not enough to glue the crack, nail glue is required.
In the absence of silk for nails, it can be replaced with a piece of natural or synthetic silk, a paper napkin, a tea bag, filter paper or a paper plaster - whatever you have at hand at home.
Natural nail repair
Most often, the nail plate breaks at the point where it attaches to the finger. This line is called a "smile". The repaired nail loses its strength, but retains its appearance. The repair technology is as follows:
- Remove varnish And handle nail antiseptic.
- Treat uneven areas with a buff on a broken nail.
- Prepare a piece of fabric - cut it so that it covers the crack by 2-3 mm on each side.
- Apply glue And impose on top of the nail piece of fabric, press it carefully. To level the patch, use a toothpick or an orange stick with a pointed end.
- After the glue has dried, smooth the edges of the fabric with a buff.
- Glue in the same way 1-2 more layers of fabric on top of the first, depending on the size of the damage, carefully filing each layer
- Cover the nail with varnish to completely disguise the crack.
You can learn more about how to repair a broken nail by watching this video:
When gluing tips, the technology works in the same way. Instead of three layers of fabric patches, an acrylic tip is glued over the damage. After the glue has dried, the tips are cut to the required size.
Crack under gel coating
In order to glue the nail under the gel polish, you need to remove the polish. You don’t have to remove all your fingers, limit yourself to just the broken nail, and leave the rest alone. For removal, use special means for removing Shellac or biogel - depending on the coating of the nail. If you can’t remove the gel polish, you can glue a patch over the old coating.
A “patch” is applied to the place where the nail is broken.
The technique of applying a patch to gel polish is the same as for a natural nail, and it is covered with a new varnish, which is dried under a UV lamp. For home repairs using gel technology, you need a UV lamp and gel polish.
If the crack is located along the edge of the nail, then it can be cut and re-grow with biogel. To do this, use a special form or foil, which is placed under the nail and used as a support for applying the biogel. After the biogel hardens under a UV lamp, the foil is carefully removed.
How to build up a broken nail with biogel or a rubber-based base coat, see the video instructions:
Nail extension repair
Extensions are done acrylic tips. They do not have a living structure, so if they break off, they can be glued with synthetic glue for plastic (superglue, “Moment”). The fastening materials are the same - filter paper, silk strips, paper plaster.
The technology for gluing the extended plate is as follows:
- Drip on the nail glue And attach cut out on top of it paper strip.
Place a drop on top of the strip glue again. Third layer of glue apply over the dried second one.
- Process repair place nail file.
- Apply varnish on top.
Another repair option is to replace the broken tip with a new one.
What to do if the nail breaks off to the meat
If the nail breaks off very badly, you must immediately handle him by any antiseptic: hydrogen peroxide, chlorhexidine, miramistin and others. It is very difficult to glue such a crack yourself. It is better to contact a competent and experienced specialist at the salon.
The repair procedure is done after relieving inflammatory symptoms and complete healing of open wounds of the nail plate.
Professional restoration of such damage involves the use of special biogels. They contain proteins to restore the nail structure and also protect the chipped area from infection.
Some biogels dissolve when exposed to detergents and acetone. Therefore, after such treatment, when washing the floor and dishes, you must wear rubber gloves.
A broken nail is a big nuisance. However, you can return it to its original appearance: seal the crack and cover it with varnish. If you cannot perform the repair yourself, then seek help from a professional nail technician.
Irina Efimova
Beautiful long nails have always been an adornment for women. Just like beautiful hair and good makeup, they generally make up a well-groomed image of any woman, adding good mood and self-confidence.
To make your nails look well-groomed, you should make a lot of effort; one visit to a beauty salon and applying varnish, as many people think, is not enough. I know from experience that long, beautiful nails don’t come easy, which is why women turned their attention to gel or acrylic nail extensions.
It’s so easy to give yourself into the hands of a master, without thinking about their condition, without being sad about burrs, fragility, or regular varnishing.
But this celebration of life cannot last forever; the time comes when you should pay attention to the condition of your own nails, in order not to lose them completely or not to get stuck in a state where nothing can be done except extensions.
Therefore, you can increasingly meet women who, having abandoned artificial nails, grow their nails in a natural way, making regular masks and strengthening them with massages with special oils.
Making efforts to care for, strengthen and stimulate the growth of our nails, we are faced with such a problem as a broken nail, which is considered the main “scourge” in this process.
After all, it’s such a shame when, having done everything possible in growing long nails and getting an excellent result, one breaks and nullifies all your efforts. But do not despair, there are several methods for eliminating this unpleasant moment, and now we will look at them.
First method
Often the nail breaks off at the edge, along the so-called “smile” line, and immediately begins to cling to hair, tights and clothes, and strives to break off completely, causing a lot of unpleasant moments, from pain to an unaesthetic overall appearance.
Before gluing a broken nail, let's prepare special tools:
- File (necessarily high-quality, with fine abrasiveness);
- Buff (this is a special sanding file that looks like a piece of foam and is used for polishing);
- Special glue (you can buy it in a specialized store, but under no circumstances use household “superglue” or “moment”; it is not intended for these purposes and its use will lead to disastrous results);
- A piece of silk or fiberglass (you can also buy it in a store, although it can easily be replaced with paper from a tea bag);
- Toothpick or orange stick.
- Before starting work, treat the nail plate with a disinfectant, this will protect you from possible infection and unpleasant consequences;
- Then clean the chipped area with a soft file, removing all roughness and leveling the surface;
- Take several strips of material with which you intend to seal the crack, be it silk or tea bag paper. One strip should be slightly wider than the crack and completely cover it, while grabbing the area around it; it is advisable to cut the second strip along the width of the nail, this will consolidate the result;
- Coat the crack with glue to the width of the prepared strip, apply the material and carefully straighten it, press it with a toothpick or an orange stick. Apply glue to the top of the patch;
- After the glue has completely dried, polish the surface of the patch, removing irregularities and roughness, only carefully so as not to tear it off;
- Next, repeat everything again, only applying a large strip to the entire nail plate. Finally, carefully line the edges with buff;
- If you are not sure of the result, the last procedure can be duplicated.
This way, the nail will last as long as it takes to grow to a certain length.
The procedure is simple and inexpensive, the main thing is to follow the sequence of technology: glue the nail, apply a patch, glue the surface of the patch. You can buy a whole set to solve the problem of how to save a broken nail.
Second method
Do you have a beautiful manicure, but you don’t know what to do if your nail breaks? You can try to increase it at home using tips. Take a high-quality tip, without unevenness, roughness or chips.
A set of tips can be bought in a store; try to choose transparent or translucent ones, preferably square:
- Polish the edges of the nail, removing roughness and unevenness;
- Degrease the nail surfaces with nail polish remover;
- Apply glue to the nail plate and the inner surface of the tip, apply it so that the limiter on the inside of the tip coincides with the nail cream;
- Let the glue dry for a while;
- Cut the tips to the length of the remaining nails, leaving a few centimeters to adjust the shape;
- Give the new nail a shape, and also carefully align the edge of the tip with the natural nail, just be careful not to overdo it;
- To secure the result, coat the joints with glue.
