Which cuticle removal method is better: without cutting or trimming?

Trim or move? - an eternal question that every girl asks before creating a fashionable manicure. On the one hand, it is better to trim. Why is this cuticle needed at all? On the other hand, the forceps on the skin are a little scary. One wrong move and damage cannot be avoided. So what to do? UniLook will tell you how to properly care for your cuticles, whether they should be trimmed or pushed back, and why they are more than just excess skin that needs to be protected and nurtured.

What is cuticle and why remove it

A thin film that constantly appears on the nail from under the proximal ridge is called eponychium . Among nail service professionals - pterygium .

! The cuticle must be removed, otherwise hangnails will form

The cuticle will stretch behind the growing nail, since it is tightly connected to it, causing the ridge to grow to it and thickening the skin in this area. Capillary sprouting will follow for the trophism of living tissue, and the nail will become shorter.

Any manicurist will be happy to tell you how to do this. Better yet, go to an appointment at a salon where they do children's manicures . There is nothing complicated about this, and the mother herself will be able to take care of the baby’s nails.

Cuticula , translated from Latin as “skin,” surrounds the nail plate. This prevents foreign bodies, specks and grains of sand, from penetrating the growth zone of the nail. Damage to the growth zone can lead to disruption of nail formation. This thin skin is removed by itself when moving the hand forward in a loose environment (sawdust, sand, cereals, hay, etc.).

City residents have not made such movements for a long time. When the cuticle is raised up and separated from the nail, it dries out and falls off on its own. That's why it's so important to do a scrub if you give up a manicure.

Cuticle can be removed in two ways:

1. using metal nail scissors or nippers;

2. using abrasive tools that cut it down (mill, files, pumice).

! With the first method, steaming your hands is mandatory.

The more skin has grown, the longer you will need to keep them in water. Hot water softens the skin much faster. In the second method, in order not to damage the top layer of the nail, special keratolytics are additionally used. These are products that loosen the skin and disrupt the bonds between keratin fibers. The treatment itself has two stages: before the remover and after.

Cuticle removal by trimming

This method is time-tested and has been used for many thousands of years. Scissors were previously used to remove skins steamed in a special bath. Later they began to use tweezers. You can remove cuticles using a trimming method either with someone else’s hands or with your own without leaving home.

To perform the cuticle removal operation, it is important to follow a certain procedure. It is different for trimmed and unedged options. This is dictated by the ability of the skin and nails to absorb water and substances dissolved in it. When immersed in water, the skin absorbs significantly less water than the nails. They have a porous structure and expand under the influence of maceration. It will not be possible to file such nails.

What is meant by cuticle removal?

Before we describe how to trim the cuticle correctly, we will tell you what this process actually is. First of all, it should be noted that this part of the skin always consists of dead and living cells. The latter do not interfere with anything. To keep them in good condition, hydration is enough. But dead cells need to be removed, as they can cause a lot of trouble. This will be discussed in more detail below. So, it is clear that in the process of removing the cuticle you only cut off everything that is dead and keratinized and do not touch the living things.

Conditions for cutting cuticle removal

To carry out the circumcision procedure, a preliminary bath is required , which will steam the skin and saturate it with water, thereby loosening it. This will make it easier to separate and cut the cuticle than without maceration (steaming your hands in a bath with soap or keratolic added there).

• Tools quickly become dull when cutting unsteamed skin. Manicure blades have such a thin edge that they sharpen it with a diamond disc. A simple fall from the table can ruin the instrument forever by bending its tips to the side. If you use the tool incorrectly, this may cause the blades to stop closing. Just throw away such a tool. Therefore, it must be stored in a special cap to protect the blades.

• Many girls, having received a manicure clutch as a gift, immediately start doing a manicure without knowing the basics of the procedure. It turns out badly, and they lose interest in this method. It's a pity. Simply keeping the tweezers in working order and constantly sharpening them will give you such pleasure!

! When the cut goes like clockwork, leaving behind a new, beautiful path, it gives you a good mood. Areas of nearby nerve receptors are affected. Manicure becomes stress therapy. The unedged method does not give this effect.

• The greatest pleasure is when a manicure is done by a master. It’s not for nothing that in the movie “Legally Blonde,” Reese Witherspoon’s character goes to a nail salon when her life collapses. This is really a good tool.

The advantage of this procedure is that it can treat even the most neglected hands. The result is visible immediately. After the procedure, the cuticle grows slowly. The downside is that the master may accidentally injure the client. Therefore, you should carefully monitor the sterility of instruments.

How to properly trim cuticles with cuticle cutters, video, removal “European way”

In this section we will write about how to properly trim cuticles with cuticle cutters. We will post a video at the end to make the text information more clear.

First of all, it should be noted that there are two removal methods. One is used for classic manicure, the second for European manicure. Both methods are good. Having learned more about everything, you can choose for yourself what is easier and closer to you.

How to properly do a manicure, trim the cuticle: preparation for the procedure

Regardless of how you tidy up the skin around the nail, it is important to prepare your hands for this. This way, all procedures will be easier to carry out. In addition, on trained hands, removal leaves minimal trauma.

What do you have to do? Soften your feet and the skin around them with a warm bath. You should add salt, olive oil or mineral aromatic oils to the water. Each of these ingredients provides a specific effect:

1. Salt is a good disinfectant. It kills germs, which reduces the possibility of infection during the procedure for removing dried parts of the skin.
2. How to trim the cuticle to avoid hangnails? Olive oil will help you. It softens the skin, which thus becomes more supple and elastic. A bath with olive oil will prepare your hands well for the procedure.
3. If you already have hangnails, then in addition to bath salts, you can use tea tree oil. It will relieve inflammation.
4. For brittle nails, it is good to use a mask with grapefruit. This is important so that the nail plates are less vulnerable and are not damaged during manipulation.

After the bath, dry your hands, wait 10 minutes, and then begin the cuticle trimming procedure.

Photo from the site: Medvoice.ru

How to cut cuticles for the so-called “European” manicure?

With this method, the skin around the nail is removed not physically, but chemically. You have to buy a special product to soften the cuticle. Apply it to clean, prepared hands for approximately five minutes. After this time, the skin around the nail becomes very soft and can be easily cleaned with a wooden stick.

Chemical cuticle removers often come in the form of a gel. On the tube you can see a special brush that will make it easy to apply the product. Be careful when applying, as the product may slightly damage the healthy skin around the nail, which is absolutely not what you want.

After the procedure, wash your hands with warm water and lubricate with moisturizer.

It is worth noting that this method of treating the skin around the nail is suitable only in not advanced cases. If there are a lot of cuticles or they have even grown onto the nail plate, you cannot do without mechanical trimming.

Photo from website: NogtiPro.com

How to trim cuticles at home, video (classic manicure)

For a classic manicure, cuticle removal occurs differently. Excess skin is simply trimmed off. This method is dangerous, so it is better to entrust it to a specialist. But it can also be used at home. To do this, first disinfect all instruments. Also take care to disinfect your hands.

How to trim cuticles without burrs? To do this, put your hands in a hot soapy bath, which will soften the skin to such an extent that scratches on the skin will not appear.

Use an orange stick to push back the skin around the nail. After the bath, this will not be difficult to do, since the skin will be soft and very pliable.

Next you will have to trim the raised part of the skin. How to cut cuticles correctly? The main thing is not to do it quickly. Start removing from the side areas. Then move on to the periungual arch. This way, you will be able to do everything smoothly and not get hurt.

The cuticle can be trimmed with regular nail scissors or nail clippers. You must choose what is most convenient for you to work with.

If after trimming there are some fragments of skin left, you can remove them with the help of gel, which is used for a “European manicure”.

After the procedure, apply moisturizer to your hands. It is important to know how to trim cuticles carefully. After all, the less you damage your hands, the less pain you will feel after applying the cream.

On the Internet you can find a lot of videos that tell you how to properly trim cuticles with cuticle cutters; the video lessons are quite good. In them you can see with your own eyes how everything is done.

At the end of our article you will also find a video that tells you how to trim the cuticle correctly; the video is of quite high quality.

Removing cuticles by untrimming or pushing back

This progressive method appeared in the last century and is based on the use of special means. By applying them to the cuticle area, the master achieves a steaming effect ; the skin in the area of ​​the drug’s action loses its bonds and prepares for removal. Having moved the proximal roller, the master will simply clean the dissolved cuticle from the nail with an orange stick . But you don’t have to run to the salon every time to see a nail technician; you can do a great job with your cuticles at home.

! The disadvantage of the procedure is that advanced cases are not subject to such treatment. Plus, there is no possibility of skin injury, which could lead to infection.

This method requires regularity. It is suitable for those who constantly monitor the condition of their hands. People of such professions as bank workers, waiters, and other public people can successfully use this method. For those who do manicures no more than twice a month, we can recommend the trimmed version.

Cuticle removal with unedged tools (hardware manicure)

There are many special files that allow you to remove slightly overgrown cuticles. This is done on dry skin. Recently, a ceramic file has appeared that has a very fine abrasive. When tested on the skin it is not felt.

This was not the case with the previous generation - pumice for European manicure. In addition, the pumice quickly became clogged with skin flakes and required replacement. In this sense, the hardware processing option is more profitable, because it has replaceable nozzles and caps. Such pumice also did not process rollers for long. A professional 180 grit file on a plastic base is well suited for processing rollers. The file movements are made in one direction - both for nails and for rollers. Manicure machines are good at removing dry skin.

• An attachment with a diamond cutter, a “spherical diamond bur,” is suitable for this.

• The speed is no higher than 15-20 thousand revolutions per second.
• You can use a polygonal cutter to remove cuticles.
• Afterwards – a corundum cutter used for grinding.
• The rollers are treated with another nozzle, a needle-shaped one. It has a cross cut and copes well with hardened skin.

• Near the rollers, reverse is turned on so that the direction of rotation is always away from the nail.

Why trim your cuticles?

You may be wondering why you need to trim your cuticles at all. Well, there are certain keratinized areas on it, but is the danger they pose really that strong?

First of all, the dried parts look ugly. They ruin your manicure. But this is not the biggest problem.

An unkempt cuticle dries out and then cracks. The result is burrs. They may become infected, which will cause even more problems. It is easier to regularly maintain the cuticle in normal condition than to later eliminate hangnails and wounds, which cause a lot of unpleasant troubles.

The cuticle also interferes because it grows on the nail, thereby inhibiting its growth. If you want a long, beautiful manicure, then you can’t avoid trimming the extra layers.

It is important to know how to properly trim cuticles at home. After all, inept actions can often cause harm. Instead of cutting carefully, some beginners chop, leaving uneven spots and even wounds. So be careful. Pruning is not an activity that can be rushed.

Photo from the site: makeit-up.ru

Review of products used for unedged manicure

Products used for unedged manicure are divided into three large groups: 1. Alkaline (KOH or NaOH), which must be thoroughly washed off to avoid allergies; 2. Acidic (AHA or BHA), which should not be washed off - they nourish cells and accelerate their synthesis; 3. Based on urea (used mainly in pedicures). The active ingredient of the first group is caustic soda or caustic potassium, used in the production of liquid and solid soap. They themselves are very dangerous, they corrode skin and tissues. They are found in small proportions in manicure preparations. Legislative documents establish a 5% threshold. After application, the alkali corrodes the surface of the skin, destroys its composition and kills living cells. To avoid any troubles, the exposure time stated by the manufacturer ranges from 15 seconds to 1 minute . After this, you should thoroughly rinse the product from the skin. Manufacturers themselves insure themselves against undesirable consequences that their product may cause to consumers. A decrease in the percentage of the active substance leads to a loss of remover properties. The shelf life of such products is limited, and by the end of it the effect after use is no longer the same.

Alkaline removers are usually used for salon procedures, and acidic removers are used for home manicures.

The second group of drugs based on fruit acids has a higher cost and quality. Alpha and Beta hydrophilic acids included in these products penetrate deeply into the skin thanks to their small molecules. They destroy the connections between living cells and dead ones, enhancing their peeling. Living tissues that have absorbed ANA (water-soluble) or BHA (fat-soluble) acids enhance trophism and synthesis. Tissue renewal guarantees even and smooth skin in the cuticle area. There is no need to wash off this product.

If you nourish the cuticle with these acids between manicure sessions, it will not grow.

The third group does not belong to alkalis or acids . Urea is a product of protein breakdown. It loosens keratin very well, so it is used mainly to combat calluses. This is a strong substance that can completely dissolve a nail in 2 days. It is used in the treatment of fungal infections. ! Preference should be given to brands with acidic compounds.

• This is primarily the anticuticle “Avoplex from OPI” , which contains AHA.
• Pencil remover “SOPHIN, 0531” based on BHA and oils, with constant use, does not allow pterygia to grow.
• Among alkaline products, anticuticles from CND and Be Natural . The latter brand is known for its excellent pedicure compositions.

Which removal method is better?

The unedged method is faster, but requires special equipment (manicure machine, special files, keratolytics). It is often used in salons. It is almost impossible for them to injure the client, which cannot be said about trimmed manicure. Accordingly, disease transmission is minimal. But there is one drawback: if the nails are very neglected, then without a trimmed manicure there is no way to get your hands in order. For home manicure, a device with replaceable attachments is well suited. They are standard and can be constantly changed. You will also need remover and oil. If you treat your nails weekly, your nails will look like they came out of a salon visit. This procedure will take about 20 minutes. Anyone who wants to use a trim manicure kit will get a good effect after taking a bath. The more the nails are steamed, the better all the excess will come off. Just don’t forget to file them down before taking a bath. Both methods are worthy, the choice is yours.