Nail peels up in the middle, serious pain

[~j~]

RRGH! From practicing too much and doing upward bends with my middle finger, my nail starts to peel up in the middle.

Regular nail (well, imagine if it was straight)


--------------
--------------

My nail:


****(OUCH!)****
****/-----\*****
----/***** \---
----------------

It's done this to me for years whenever I play a lot, but right now I've decided, I want to find out if there is a way to get it to stop happening. I have thought briefly about squeezing some superglue up in there just to keep it locked down, but that probably won't solve it and/or will hurt more. Any ideas?

[dahn8]

I think Doyle Dykes once talked about getting manicures done with clear nail polish on his picking hand. he admitted it may not be the most manly thing to do, but for him, it made his nails stronger and allowed him to play more, longer.

Dan

[~j~]

Originally Posted by dahn8

I think Doyle Dykes once talked about getting manicures done with clear nail polish on his picking hand. he admitted it may not be the most manly thing to do, but for him, it made his nails stronger and allowed him to play more, longer.

Dan

do you think that would really help the underside where it is peeling off? I'm all for it I'd only be putting it on that one nail, but I am not sure if it will help. I thought of maybe that newskin stuff?

[Rockerbob]

Try some gelatin supplements. In many cases it will help with nail strength in a few weeks.

Superglue can be used for a quick fix, but in my experience it weakens the nails natural strength over time.

[dahn8]

Originally Posted by ~j~

do you think that would really help the underside where it is peeling off? I'm all for it I'd only be putting it on that one nail, but I am not sure if it will help. I thought of maybe that newskin stuff?

i dont know.... i never really tried it because i tend to use a pick more than my fingers. i suppose, its worth a shot if all else fails though?

[david_m]

Is this your picking hand or your fretting hand?

You can get acrylic nails that aren't too obvious. I have acrylics on my picking hand, and they're not noticeable unless you look closely. The acrylics are SUPER strong and don't take too much to get used to.

Hope this helps.

David

[Chicago Sandy]

Longitudinal breaks are extremely frustrating to deal with, because they tend to come from an internal pattern (along the ridges that spring from the nail bed below the cuticle line). The best you can do, according to a career manicurist I once consulted (not a Vietnamese nail-mill tech), is to clip the nail back to below the break, make sure the edge is as smooth as you can get it, and use a strenghtening protein formula for soft weak nails like Nailtiques#2 if the break is more like a "tear" or split, or for brittle nails like Nailtiques #3 if you're getting one side fractured off. "Jessica" also makes products for weak or brittle nails, but most salons I know that are serious about helping people grow their own nails use Nailtiques, which dries matte (not shiny), and is readily available at most beauty supply stores (suck up that male ego <g> and just walk in there). I've used it for over 10 years.

If it's on your picking hand, I would also avoid using an Alaska Pik because those slip underneath the nail edge and put shearing forces on it. Use a conventional fingerpick or get a gel acrylic tip or overlay. If it's on your fretting hand, keeping the nail trimmed back to the quick so that it does not come into contact with the string is important.

Sometimes these splits can be so stubbornly embedded into your nail-growing system that they cause the fake nail to split too! You might want to look into underlying nutritional or even medical causes if it persists--see a dermatologist.

[~j~]

I think there's some confusion because I described it somewhat poorly. There's no tearing of the actual nail, it's more like the nail is coming unattached from the skin right up near the top, but only in the middle of the nail. I have tried in the past clipping the nail up much closer to where it is coming unattached but this actually seems to just make it more painful ?

I'm just not sure how nail-strengthening gels/lacquer or nail hardener will actually help in the skin not peeling off of the nail under there. There's no splitting involved tho.

Thanks for the advice so far though -- as far as the picking hand, never had any trouble and I mostly use fingertips or metal fingerpicks not nails for fingerpicking.

[ljguitar]

Hi ~j~...
I misread your post...and when I realized it's your fretting hand I tried to visualize what you are describing...it sounds like the flesh tearing away from the nail perhaps as much as the nail lifting. Do I read correctly that you suspect the flesh is pushed away from the nail by your bends?

Some ideas that come to mind immediately are lighter strings, or repositioning the fingertip for bends (building up a different spot &/or angle of attack on the tip where it contacts the string), and/or using either a different finger to bend or two fingers in the fret to accomplish a bend (just brainstorming here). Are the ''lines'' formed on the fingertips by string pressure oblique to the finger tip or parallel to it?

Have you video taped yourself playing to see if you can spot any potential changes you can employ or flaws/bad practices to correct?

If you are a frequent bender, and the problem continues, a short scale guitar may be an answer in the future. There is substantially less string tension on a short scale guitar.

[~j~]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi ~j~...
I misread your post...and when I realized it's your fretting hand I tried to visualize what you are describing...it sounds like the flesh tearing away from the nail perhaps as much as the nail lifting. Do I read correctly that you suspect the flesh is pushed away from the nail by your bends?

Some ideas that come to mind immediately are lighter strings, or repositioning the fingertip for bends (building up a different spot &/or angle of attack on the tip where it contacts the string), and/or using either a different finger to bend or two fingers in the fret to accomplish a bend (just brainstorming here). Are the ''lines'' formed on the fingertips by string pressure oblique to the finger tip or parallel to it?

Have you video taped yourself playing to see if you can spot any potential changes you can employ or flaws/bad practices to correct?

If you are a frequent bender, and the problem continues, a short scale guitar may be an answer in the future. There is substantially less string tension on a short scale guitar.

you've got it, it's mostly the technique I am using. on an electric, no problem -- on my acoustics, I use the same bending... I have realized that when I used my ring finger for bends, I always help it out with at least one other finger -- the middle finger is my goto strength finger for one-string bends however. I don't think it's a bad technique, I am more worried that bending from the side of the finger upwards would be even worse overall for my technique. the spot in my fingernail that's bending up is orthogonal to the direction I bend, so I'm bending straight up towards myself and just pushing the string up. Maybe I should try to bend downwards in stead? that seems like a bad solution b/c the most bending is on the higher strings, not enough room. I'd like to hear your thoughts with this info in mind.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by ~j~

you've got it, it's mostly the technique I am using. on an electric, no problem -- on my acoustics, I use the same bending... I have realized that when I used my ring finger for bends, I always help it out with at least one other finger -- the middle finger is my goto strength finger for one-string bends however. I don't think it's a bad technique, I am more worried that bending from the side of the finger upwards would be even worse overall for my technique. the spot in my fingernail that's bending up is orthogonal to the direction I bend, so I'm bending straight up towards myself and just pushing the string up. Maybe I should try to bend downwards in stead? that seems like a bad solution b/c the most bending is on the higher strings, not enough room. I'd like to hear your thoughts with this info in mind.

Wow ~j~...you have your hands full with this one! The best techniques are the ones which work and don't injure us.

Direction of bends...
The two times I bend downwards are when bending on the 3rd through 6th strings, and when I use a double capo setup for some Irishy stuff. It's because bending with a capo, the strings tend to get moved out of position bcause of the capo, so I reverse direction on the bends about every other time (it's kind of fun actually) to bring them back into position. The only string I can't do it well on is the 1st. I can only accomplish half step bends downwards on the 2nd string.

Have you considered video taping your playing and inspecting it?

[~j~]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Wow ~j~...you have your hands full with this one! The best techniques are the ones which work and don't injure us.

Direction of bends...
The two times I bend downwards are when bending on the 3rd through 6th strings, and when I use a double capo setup for some Irishy stuff. It's because bending with a capo, the strings tend to get moved out of position bcause of the capo, so I reverse direction on the bends about every other time (it's kind of fun actually) to bring them back into position. The only string I can't do it well on is the 1st. I can only accomplish half step bends downwards on the 2nd string.

Have you considered video taping your playing and inspecting it?

a mirror is probably the best I can do.. It seems like someone I have played with over time would have said, "you bend weird"... I could play with a slide also to help out some. see this is only happening because I started playing about 2+ hours a day... it's a bummer b/c I was doing that to get better chops but the fingernail pain makes it so I can't even bend as much. I appreciate the advise from all, hopefully some combination of better nail care and technique analyzation can yield a middle ground.