ON SHAPING

I recently covered several aspects of polishing nails to ensure a high quality professional finish at home. Another trait required for a perfect finish is in shaping the nails. Difficult to accomplish at home and sometimes even overlooked by salons, the creation of a consistent shape across all the nails is a defining factor in clean finished hands, with polish and without.

Perspective:

The most important trick when cutting, filing and shaping your nails requires you to keep an accurate perspective. When turning your palm forward, (or toward your face) and bending your fingers inward to cut and file, perspective shifts and creating consistent shape for all nails becomes difficult. Instead, try placing your hand palm down on a flat surface with finger tips pointing away. This allows you to see the alignment of all the nails and their relationship to one another. Even though it is likely to feel awkward at first, it requires only a bit of practice to perfect this approach.

Shaping Fingernails:

The length of the nail and the nail bed is as individual as each person, and when you start to look a little closer, it can be strikingly different even nail to nail. For example: On my pointer finger I have very little free edge, or white tip, and the tip of my index finger itself (the pink fleshy part) is not visible at all. However, when the length of the free edge on my ring finger is nearly four times that of my index finger, the tip of the ring finger is still visible. This is important because the most frequent mistake that people make when cutting their nails is to assume that all the whites should be the same length. This in fact is not true.

The appearance of perfect nails is created when the nails all fall to the same point on the tip of the finger.

Ideally, just to a length that reaches the tip of each finger. Therefore, try to disregard the white when cutting. Cut and file to create an overall shape and size. The final length of the nail is an individual choice, but nails flush with the tip of the fingers is an appropriate starting goal for most people. Additionally, nails that reach the tip of the fingers are stronger and more resilient, primarily because they are supported and protected by the finger beneath.

Shaping for Toenails:

The above noted method of cutting for the overall shape result should also be applied when cutting toenails. The toenails vary from the fingernails because a toenail will typically be shortened far below the pink fleshy tip of the toe. Yet toenails much like fingernails are rarely in perfect alignment and frequently have a crooked free edge, or white. An excellent shortcut method to shaping the toenails is to do so with the prior nail polish still on. This allows you to follow the overall shape of the nail and reduces the likelihood that you will cut along with a crooked white free edge, or that you simply cut the toenails too short to correct shape. Even though I also prefer very short toenails, some compensation for crooked piggies may require a bit of length here and there. Again, remember to cut with your feet straightforward and placed firmly on the ground. This reveals the angle at which your feet are most often visible and the angle at which your toes bend. Imagine that you are lining your feet up on a starting line (you can even use a horizontal line on a rug or wood floor). Use that line as a guide or an example of a parallel straight line for each toenail regardless of how the nail might bend. Use caution and do not hurt yourself, if your are unsure of how far to cut, or of the practice itself, then try cutting a little at a time.

 Finally:

With just a little practice, these few tips with help you create beautifully shaped fingernails and toenails, a great start to at home care or a brief save in between your manicure, pedicure visits. After cutting, smooth all the free edges with a soft file and then move onto polish. Best luck on your pretty hands and feet.

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