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The cold has left your nails weak, your cuticles dry, and your hands chapped. The damage has been done, but don’t despair. Today I’ll share with you my 3 favorite home remedies for damaged nails. With just a little care, your nails will look and feel amazing!
But how? For many of us, the first thing we think to do is to go out and buy expensive moisturizers and nail products to help us get our nails back to their original glow. Others may think to run out to the salon and have a professional take care of it for us.
Not this year! Don’t break your bank on expensive cuticle creams and wallet draining moisturizers. Instead, try these three at-home quick fixes to moisturize and repair your nails after the long, dry, harsh winter.
Table of Contents
AMAZING Home Remedies For Damaged Nails
#1. Buff your nails
Your nails have dried out over the winter months. No matter how much moisturizer you used, they just seemed to get more and more dry. You’ve noticed grooves and ridges on the surface of your nails.
Yikes! Not good! But not to worry. You can smooth and polish your nails with a buffer to help the natural shine come through. Getting rid of the dry, dead skin of your cuticle will help you focus more on the healthy parts of your nails.
Try buffing natural nails for a healthy shine that won’t chip off! Use a four-way buffer to shape nails, remove ridges, smooth the nail surface and give nails a super shine without polish.
This buffing is over half of the battle when it comes to getting your nails looking great after the harsh winter.
However, it is important that you are careful with your nails. DON’T over-buff. Too much buffing can cause friction, build up heat and weaken nails. Always use a super-fine-grit nail buffer to lightly smooth ridges. Buff in an X pattern, lifting the buffer between strokes.
Keep your nails healthy by buffing them at least once a week.
Nail Files and Buffer
Revlon Crazyshine Nail Buffer4 Way Shiny Block for nails
Related: Beauty secrets from Hollywood stars
#2. Moisturize your nails
Nearly every woman has what she needs to moisturize her nail beds and cuticles at home. Don’t make the same mistake I did when I went out and purchased an almost $20 bottle of cuticle oil. Just walk straight to your pantry or cooking (or baking) cabinet, and grab some olive oil.
Yep, that’s all it takes. Every night, before bed, dab a few drops of olive oil on each finger nail and rub it into the cuticle. I like to rub the oil around my entire finger and nail. When enough is soaked in, I rub the rest of the oil into my hands.
Another great at-home product to use in replacement of cuticle oil is coconut oil. Coconut oil has a thicker consistency (almost like a lotion), and it can sit on your nails longer to allow the nail to absorb all of the oil over longer periods of time.
Both of these oils are great ways to replenish your nail beds and smooth all of the skin around your nails. I like to use the oil after I buff my nail-beds and cuticles.
To pack in extra moisture, after you put the oil on your fingers and nails, put on a pair of gloves for anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. This will really help you get your nails soaking in all of the great moisture from the oil.
#3) Dab a bit of Neosporin on nails
Winter is always very hard on my nails. It is even worse on my cuticles and the skin around my fingernails. I get a lot of chapping, peeling, and even splitting in the skin around my nails. I have tried everything under the sun to avoid this from happening.
Still, nothing seemed to work. Until one day when I was sick of the skin around my nails not healing properly. I put Neosporin on every one of my nails, with special emphasis on the fingers that were cracking.
Here is the trick: dab Neosporin, or any other triple antibiotic ointment on your nails, cuticles, and all of the skin around your nails. Let it sit for about three minutes before you massage it into your skin and nails.
Feel the areas around your nails as you rub. If the skin has absorbed all of the ointment, apply a little bit more. Do not wash your hands. You basically want a nice sheen over your skin and nails. I don’t recommend gobs and gobs of it, just enough to soak into your skin and nails, and then lightly coat the surfaces.
If you feel more comfortable with gloves covering your hands, feel free to put them on, but the air will help your nails and skin heal, so it is better to not have the gloves on in this situation.
When you wake up, you will not believe the difference. I am telling you, this is the miracle of all nail miracles. While olive oil or coconut oil will definitely moisturize, the triple antibiotic ointment will quite literally change the appearance of your hands overnight.
Use the ointment for a few nights in a row. As your nails and skin heal, use it every second night. Eventually, your nails will get to the point where you only need to use the ointment once a month.
My winter nails routine
Here’s hoe I keep my nails from getting damaged in the winter:
- buff my nails
- next I rub in a little bit of coconut oil
- before bed three nights a week, I dab Neosporin over all of my nails and the skin surrounding them.
You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars trying to restore your nails. Many of you have the products needed for your nails right at home. What are some at-home products you use for your nails? Share with us in the comments below!
Great tips! Winter is so harsh on our skin and nails that it’s nice to know that there are ways to get healthy nails back without overspending. I wonder if you could also use some of these tricks on your toenails?
That’s a good question, Sarina. I guess it would be the same thing except that the skin and nails on our feet is probably a little thicker and tougher. I’m intrigued by the Neosporin idea.
I don’t just moisturize a little, I have to do it a lot! Full on lotion and thick creams for me in the winter since I managed to get frostbite as a kid. The oddest thing is that even in the winter they still grow like wildfire almost, it happened right after I quit smoking which is great. Now I actually have “girlie nails” and love them to bits!
I like your tips, I use blistex to heal cuticles and hang nails
I’m happy to do this tip. I have a thyroid problem so my nails are so dry and brittle they crack and split all the time, not just in the winter. So thanks for the tip tryed it once and they are looking great.