"A girl without beautiful nails is like a night without stars." - Tammy Taylor

Dry, brittle and weak nails can make your hands look unpresentable! There can be various reasons behind what causes weak nails, e.g. - over exposure to water, lack of nutrients in the body, fungal nail infections, etc,.

Nowadays, you may find many products in the market that promise to strengthen weak nails. However, you don't need to spend your money on those fancy nail treatments! You can heal them by having a nutrients rich diet and by following some nail strengthening tips and tricks.

Read the top 7 tips and tricks below to know how you can strengthen your nails at home.

How To Strengthen Your Nails At Home

DIY Nail Strengthening & Hardening Soak

In our previous post - How To Maintain Healthy Nails, we shared a quick DIY nail soak for removing stains from the nails and moisturizing the cuticles. The one which we are going to share with you today is ideal for strengthening and hardening the nails. This DIY nail soak will also help to strengthen weak nails after acrylics and gel manicure. 

• 1/2 cup Boiling Water
• 1 tablespoon Gelatin Powder

Take the gelatin powder in a glass bowl and pour about 1/2 cup of boiling water over it.  Stir the mixture well and let it cool off for a while so that its temperature is safe enough to dip your fingers in.

Don't let it cool off completely because the gelatin becomes solid quickly. When you feel that the mixture is warm enough to be touched, soak your fingertips and nails in it for 5-7 minutes. After that, take your fingers out of the mixture and massage the left over product on your cuticles and nails.

Gelatin is the ultimate natural + inexpensive weak nails remedy that you will ever find. You can include it in your diet as well to see better results!

Avoid Cutting The Cuticles

Cutting cuticles is very common in nail salons. Some people do it at home too because they feel that it gives their manicure a cleaner look. Dermatologists are totally against this practice as it can infect the area surrounding the nails.

“The small area of skin is there to protect your nails from infection. When this skin is removed, your nail is left unprotected from bacteria and fungus. Cuticles should never be cut or trimmed as it leads to infections and ultimately damage to the nail.” tells Joel Schlessinger, a dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon, to StyleCaster.

While painting your nails (or even when you are getting them painted at a salon) you should only push back your cuticles using an orange stick and not cut them! Cutting off hangnails is a different thing, but that also needs to be done with caution and properly sanitized tools.

Toss The Nail Clippers

This might come as a surprise to you, but it's true that nail clippers are bad for your weak nails! World famous YouTuber and nail artist, Cristine Rotenberg from the YouTube channel "SimplyNailLogical" tells not to use nail clippers to trim down the size of the nails because they can cause trauma to nail bed.

So in place of nail clippers, she recommends using a glass nail file to gently grind and shape the nail edges. Don't go for metal nail files because they are just too abrasive for natural nails.

Remember That Your Nails Aren't Tools! 

Whenever we are in a hurry to open cans, packages or drawers, we absent-mindedly end up using our nails as tools which is really bad for them! Putting such kind of pressure can weaken the nails. It can also make the nails lift from their nail bed which is a condition medically known as Onycholysis.

If you have weak nails, then try not to do any kind of activities that may put excessive pressure to your nails.

Be Smart While Choosing Your Nail Polish

The type of nail polish that you use plays an important role in the health of your nails. You will find many nail polishes being sold in the market for just Rs.20 or Rs.50, but such polishes contain harsh chemicals that make your nails dry and leave a stain on them.

They do more harm to your nails than they do good! Use a nail polish that strengthens your nails while making them look good.

Debelle Gel Nail Lacquers are natural based. They contain seaweed extracts that are known to promote nail growth. You can check out our post - Natural Seaweed Extracts for Nails to learn about their benefits in detail.

Have A Weekly Cuticle & Nail Masking Ritual

Women who love growing long nails should give utmost importance to the usage of nail care products on a regular basis.

Cuticle oils are the most common nail care products that can either be bought or DIYed. But these days, cuticle masks are getting really famous. They are just like face masks which you need to put on your nails and cuticle area for 20-30 minutes and then rinse off. Here goes a quick DIY nail and cuticle mask recipe -

Ingredients -

• Honey
• Aloe Vera Gel
• Jojoba Oil

These three ingredients are known for their moisturizing and hydrating properties. Jojoba Oil is extremely helpful in repairing dry brittle nails caused by vitamin deficiency. 

Feeling Too Lazy To Make A Cuticle Oil Or Mask? Use Your Lip Balm Instead!

A lip balm can be found in every woman's beauty stash. It's the most versatile beauty care that has ever been invented! Here is a quick hack - use a non-tinted lip balm on your cuticles every day at night or whenever they feel dry. The lip balm will keep your cuticles moisturized for a really long time!