Before you berate me for having such petty First World Problems, I ask that you just hear me out.
For most people, the shape of their nails is not the hot topic of attention on a day-to-day basis. For me, they are the highlight of my insecurities. I’ve always had a habit of biting my nails down to the stub. I’ve tried every method at my disposal: bandaging/taping them up, wearing gloves, painting them, using formulas that taste awful, dipping them in spicy stuff or lemon juice… You get the idea. I know that my nail biting is attributed to stress, and there seems to be more cortisol than blood pumping through my veins. I am also an extreme perfectionist, and having chipped nail polish leads to mental breakdowns. So, I turned to getting my nails professionally done at salons.
But this doesn’t hide the fact that my fingers are still short and stubby. Although I’m a healthy weight, my hands look like they belong to the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Having long nails naturally makes your fingers look longer, but up until recently I didn’t know that there is more to it.
Today, I am going to share with you how to accentuate your hands by simply adjusting how you wear your finger nails. (Boys, feel free to tune into this as well.)
Firstly, these are the five most common nail shapes: oval, round, almond, squoval, and square. There aren’t many extreme differences between the different shapes, and all can be achieved with a simple nail file. How do you know which shape will flatter you hands the most? Follow this flow chart below.
For me, my fingers are short, my nail beds are short and also wide. How can you determine this? You don’t exactly need a ruler, but if you enjoy being very accurate (like me), feel free to pull one out.
Your finger length should be quite obvious, but if you can’t tell, compare your middle finger to your palm. If your finger is shorter than your palm, then you have short fingers. If it is longer than your palm, then you guessed it, you have long fingers.
To determine your nail bed size, look at the distance between your cuticle and where the whites of your nails start showing. There’s no special trick for this one, but you’ll be able to tell by looking. I have included a picture to help you better determine.
Now, to figure out whether you have wide or narrow nail beds requires measuring again. Measure horizontally across the width of your nail bed, and compare it to the length of your nail bed. I think you guys have figured the next part out already. If the length of your nail bed is greater than the width, you have narrow nail beds. If the length of your nail bed is less than the width, you have wide nail beds.
This concludes how to find your perfect nail shape. But having shapely fingers doesn’t stop here. There are tricks with proportions, such as keeping longer nails if you have shorter fingers and making sure that your nails are longer than they are wide.
Obviously, these things are also a judgement call. If your nails look pretty square, it’s up to you to decide whether you have long or short nail beds. With these tips, it doesn’t mean that you can’t wear your nails a different way. It doesn’t mean your hands will be ugly if you don’t follow the tips listed above. But they will make your hands and fingers look a bit nicer, if you want.
Hopefully this article (and the others embedded into it) helped you out. Nail health is very important and often overlooked, but your nails can actually be one of the first signs of imbalances in your body. Having my nails look good definitely gives me a confidence boost, although it’s understandable that nails aren’t everyone’s first priority.
Lastly, I leave you with “15 Things You Never Knew About Your Nails,” (that you do now) to further your journey to healthy nails!