Nails and fingers

Nails are shaped for grooming

Your nails are a product of evolution, they have evolved from claws.
We've been told we had them to protect our fingertips, to help us pick small objects or to climb trees.
I have a hard time picking small objects with them, unless they are trimmed short, and claws, such as those of a squirrel, seem quite appropriate for climbing.
In fact, humans didn't know what their nails were for.
Nails are specialized tools for grooming.

Nail length

There is a range of ideal lengths your nails should have in order to groom.

When your nails are too short, the sensory signals from the nail and the fingertip get mixed.
Worse, the nail doesn't extend long enough to secure any hold on the folds it passes and, of course, cannot reach the bottom of deep crevasses and pits.
Too long, nails become brittle and loose some rigidity. They get curved and crooked.
Nails have to be kept in the grooming range, which is longer than most people have them now.

Cutting your nails

Trimming your nails with scissors or a clipper is essential if you want your grooming to be productive.
Now, you don't want to cut them too short.
They should be brought back to the briefest of their grooming range.
This is a time to be very attentive. It's so easy to go crookedly.
Be especially careful not to create dents because they are hard to file

Nail style

It is the corners of your nails that you will be using most.
For this reason, I recommend not trying to give your nails a rounded style.
Cut or clip each one almost straight.

This operation leaves the corners of the nails too sharp.
In a second operation, give a slight finishing cut on both sides of the nail.

Finishing cut

Removing these pointy tips helps the nail to flatten and makes your grooming less hazardous.
The third step involves using a file to remove sharp edges and to perfect your work.

Your nails can feel

We don't think of our nails as sensitive since we cut them painlessly.
This is because the nail plate, made of hard, translucent keratin, cannot feel.
Yet, below the plate lies the nail's bed.
As the nail grows, the bed adds material to its undersurface, thickening and refining their junction.
The nail's bed is, as you would expect, packed with nerve endings and blood vessels, giving the nails their pinkish color.
Sensations received by the nail itself are amplified by this system.

Nail sensitivity experiment

While you are reading this, move your fingertip and nail over your clothes.
The idea is to compare the sensations you get using just your fingertip with those using just your nail.
Try to determine how these two probes differ by passing them alternatively over the seams of the clothing.
Notice how much more detailed the nail feel is.
You can reach inside and explore the fabric's structure.

Bad habits

Many people have acquired uncontrolled behaviors in this part of their body.
Nail biting, peeling skin removal and auto-mutilation are common.
Continuing or stopping these practices says a lot on the control you have on yourself
Take responsibility for these actions.
Though I advocate removing chapped or flaking skin in most areas of the body, the nail-fingertip junction demands special care.
If you pull on the hanging peelings, you may rip the skin and hurt yourself.
Cut them clean instead and groom the area very delicately.

The natural nail look

Your nails, like many other body parts, reflect your health.
Keep an eye on any growing malformation.
Nails are hair are both created by your skin.
It seems to me that hair plays a more aesthetic function than nails do.
With grooming, your nails become essential to your well-being and looks, as well as being indispensable in your everyday life.
Take a proud care of them, wear gloves when doing risky or damaging work.
Don't apply any nail polish, you wouldn't want to groom with nails covered with dubious chemicals.
Stop thinking of nails as useless decorations.
They are naturally beautiful, with nothing added, when their length is in the grooming range

Long nails and everyday life

I had a hard time getting used to having long nails.
They make simple things, such as picking a coin, more difficult.
Typing on a keyboard becomes an adventure.
We need a new line of instruments made for long nail bearers.
But, in any event, keeping your nails long is not an option.
It is part of being a primate, part of being human.

Nails and grooming fingers

Some fingers are used much more than others while carrying out grooming operations.
You may decide to keep some nails longer than others as your grooming technique develops or for personal reasons.
Ideally, all four nails on your fingers of both hands should be kept in their grooming range.
Your thumbs are optional since less than 0.01% of the grooming is done with them,
Cutting them also makes your life easier, but having them, in those rare moments when they are needed, is quite enjoyable.

Lefties and righties

Grooming promotes ambidexterity but, unless you're a master at it, you have developed a great deal of specialization for each hand.
Writing usually tops the list of such activities with its need for precision and detail, much like grooming.
You will be using your writing hand, be it the right or the left, to perform most of your grooming.

Finger sensitivity

In my case, sensitivity is greater on the fingers of my writing hand than those on the other.
Also, my fingers decrease in sensitivity as they get farther from the index.

This creates a finger sensitivity map.

Your grooming finger

When digging and cutting deep into your own skin, you want to use the most dexterous and sensitive finger you can.
Grooming is very precise and delicate work where any mistake provokes immediate pain and possibly injury.
The finger to use is your index finger of your writing hand.
It is called that way because it was used to flip index cards.
Now, I am offended by such an artificial name and prefer naming it after its natural usage: grooming.

The nail at the end of that finger is particularly important.
The second digit of your hands and feet has possibly followed a different evolutionary path than your other fingers, as a toilet-claw.
Avoid using this nail in any damaging way.

A wonderful tool

Your nails are formidable tools for grooming.
Sensitive and tough, they can be pressed strongly against your skin without harming it.
Their shape and dimensions are just right for the task they were conceived to achieve.
Humans are branded as a tool-making race, but these have been designed by God , so they feel and grow.