Have you ever tried to push back your cuticles only for them to look bunched up? Or worse, you try and trim them back only to leave a painful cut? Taking care of your cuticles is a great way to care for your nails and create a healthy nail bed. But doing it the wrong way can leave your nails looking and feeling worse. Here’s how to safely push back and trim your cuticles.
What Are Cuticles?
Cuticles are that thin piece of skin towards the bottom of your nail and the skin around it. It acts like a seal to prevent dirt and bacteria from getting under your nail. If you’ve ever bitten your cuticles, and they’ve gotten sore and swollen, bacteria has gotten into the nail bed. While you may want to trim your cuticles, you don’t want to go overboard and leave yourself with an infection.
How Do I Push Back My Cuticles?
If you want to push back your cuticles, all you need is a bowl of warm water, some gentle soap, and a cuticle pusher. A cuticle pusher is a small thin metal rod with a shovel-like tool at the end intended to push back at just your cuticle rather than press into your nail. There are also cuticle pushers made from wood with an angled point, but they’re not a great tool for beginners.
Wash your hands with soap and water, then place your fingertips, up to your cuticle, into a bowl of warm water and let them soak for 10 to 15 minutes to get the skin to soften up. Once you’ve done that, take your cuticle pusher and gently push back your cuticle without using too much pressure. With this technique, your cuticles will push back easily, and you can prevent that ugly cracking fold that occurs if you push them back while they’re too dry.
How Can I Trim My Cuticles?
To trim your cuticles, you’ll want first to follow the steps mentioned in the previous section. Getting your skin loose and relaxed is the easiest way to remove dead skin without damaging fresh skin cells. However, you’ll also need a cuticle trimmer. It looks like a nail clipper, but the end is smaller and angled to go around your nail while still getting at your cuticle. Just trim your nail’s surface skin a little bit at a time. The dead skin should trim off easily, and you should not feel any pain because it’s dead skin. If you do, you’ve gone too deep into the skin and should stop and clean any cut you might have made.
Once you know how to push back and trim your cuticles safely, you can have manicure-ready nails anytime and keep your nails looking gorgeous, even without polish.