But experts say it's basically impossible.
[post_ads]British beauty blogger Amelia Rushmore-Perrin regularly posts photos on social media of her flawless manicures. But, she recently revealed, those manis come at a price. Rushmore-Perrin told the Daily Mail
that she’s been getting acrylics for six years. She says she has them
done professionally and usually has them removed by professionals, but
she recently didn’t have time to visit the salon and decided to DIY.
“One nail had come off, and I didn’t want to have nine nails on, so I
started peeling and snapping them off,” she said. “I then soaked the
remains off in acetone.”
Unfortunately, that didn’t end well. Rushmore-Perrin posted a photo on Twitter of her torn, cracked, and bleeding nails after she removed her acrylic manicure
herself. In another tweet, she said the pain was excruciating. “Nearly
cried in the shower at the hot water touching my nail beds and I'm
pretty sure there's still loads of shampoo left in my hair," she replied
to the tweet. “Don’t even care how they look, it’s the physical PAIN
dear lord.”
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Rushmore-Perrin posted another photo
of her much healthier-looking nails less than a week afterward. “Five
days later, after taking two different kinds of biotin every day,” she
captioned the photo. “Still not amazing or beautiful, but LOOK AT THE
DIFFERENCE.”
According to the Mayo Clinic,
biotin is necessary for the formation of fatty acids and glucose, which
fuel the body. Biotin is also a B vitamin that helps provide the
necessary building blocks for healthy hair and nail production, Joshua Zeichner,
M.D., a New York City-based board-certified dermatologist and director
of cosmetic and clinical research in dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical
Center, tells SELF.
When it comes to
Rushmore-Perrin's case, doctors doubt biotin helped repair her nails.
Your nails are only really alive at the base, Doris Day,
M.D., a clinical associate professor of dermatology at the New York
University Langone Medical Center, tells SELF. By the time nails grow
beyond the cuticle, they’re just dead cells, similar to your hair. Therefore, any potential benefits from biotin supplements will be seen from the base on up, which is why Gary Goldenberg,
M.D., medical director of the Dermatology Faculty Practice at the Icahn
School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, tells SELF that although biotin is
helpful in the development and growth of nails, it can take six to 12
months for people to see results. Day is skeptical Rushmore-Perrin's
progress is due to the biotin, adding that the beauty blogger's nails
likely got better because she stopped putting acrylics on and they had
time to heal.
[post_ads]It's usually not
necessary to take biotin for hair and nail benefits because it's rare
for people to be deficient in biotin, Day says. That means people’s
bodies typically make healthy hair and nails just fine without
additional supplementation. If you do use a supplement, Zeichner says
you won’t see any changes to hair and nails you already have. What you
can expect, if your body is deficient in biotin, is new hair and nail
growth that's potentially stronger and healthier than you're used to.
Jill Waibel, M.D., founder and owner of The Miami Dermatology and Laser in Institute,
tells SELF that biotin has been found to be especially helpful with
brittle nails, which makes sense since that's a common sign of biotin
deficiency.
Another thing to keep in mind: Supplements are unregulated and can definitely be dangerous or cause unpleasant side effects (many biotin-supplementing people complain of cystic acne
online) if you take too many of them. Instead of popping a supplement,
Goldenberg points out that it's better to get the vitamin from foods
such as avocados, fish, and legumes.
If
you're still intrigued, check in with your doctor or
dermatologist—they'll be able to determine whether you have some sort of
deficiency affecting your nails or hair, then be able to figure out an
action plan from there.
Related:
- Don't Count On Supplements To Make Your Hair And Nails Grow Faster
- These Awesome Succulent Nail Designs Are Made With Living Plants
- These Hypnotizing Videos Show How Nail Polish Is Made
