You Might Be Damaging Your Nails Permanently: Gel Manicures & UVA Real Talk

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Dr Ellie Rashid (0:45)

Really taking it as a supplement. I'm not sure how much benefit there is that people are going to get, but it can potentially do harm.

Dr Emma Craythorne (0:52)

You should think of your cuticle as the watertight, waterproof seal that is protecting the part that's actually making the nail itself. She went and had a gel nail done and they pushed all of her cuticles back. And just even from that one time, she now actually has ridges on two of her nails as a consequence of that.

Hello, and welcome to the After Hours Skin Clinic. I'm Dr. Emma Craythorne.

Dr Ellie Rashid (1:16)

And I'm Dr. Ellie Rashid. And we're both consultant dermatologists here in central London.

Dr Emma Craythorne (1:21)

But this is our favorite clinic, where we unpack the evidence, challenge the trends, and answer the questions you always wanted to ask your dermatologist, but you don't have time to.

Dr Ellie Rashid (1:31)

And if you don't have one, you do now.

Dr Emma Craythorne (1:39)

I thought we would do this subject today because it's interesting for two reasons. Do you know that there's been a ban now in the UK on a chemical called TPO that's used in nail hardening? Yes, but also TPO means something else if you look it up.

It means not rude.

Dr Ellie Rashid (1:59)

Why do you always think that? I don't know, I totally see it, don't be rude.

Dr Emma Craythorne (2:02)

It also means a tree preservation order. And I'll tell you why that's important is because just today, you know, my beautiful cherry tree in my front garden, it has a tree preservation order on it, but the council came and condemned it.

Dr Ellie Rashid (2:16)

Oh, so what happens now to your beautiful tree?

Dr Emma Craythorne (2:18)

It had to be chopped down urgently today.

Dr Ellie Rashid (2:21)

But what was the issue with it?

Dr Emma Craythorne (2:22)

So it has a fungus that grows up the inside of it and the whole base of it was dead. So the top part of it that was heavy, that was almost going over the street, was deemed to be dangerous because it had dried out with the hot weather. And so it's now been completely chopped down.

Dr Ellie Rashid (2:39)

It does mean that you can like read your front garden now without without any restriction. And then you can replant a beautiful tree without the fungus.

Dr Emma Craythorne (2:47)

I know, but it's so sad.

Dr Ellie Rashid (2:49)

It is so sad. But if it had a fungus, I mean, it did have a fungus that can spread to other content.

Dr Emma Craythorne (2:55)

I think so.

Dr Ellie Rashid (2:56)

Yeah.

Dr Emma Craythorne (2:57)

And so I did think that was rather interesting when I looked up a TPO and then it came up with the chemical that interestingly has just been banned this month. Yeah. So I just thought, well, let's do it on nail and cuticle care and TPO.

Dr Ellie Rashid (3:10)

Yes. Let's get into it. Shall we start by talking about what the cuticle is?

Dr Emma Craythorne (3:15)

Yeah.

Dr Ellie Rashid (3:15)

Yeah. So people often mistake the proximal nail fold for the cuticle, because lots of salons will refer to that little ridge that you have, essentially at the top of your nail as the cuticle. But the true cuticle is this little band of scale, essentially, like a little, they push it up when you have your nails done. It's a little band of scale. And that ridgy bit is actually called the proximal nail fold. But everyone refers to it as the cuticle.

And the reason why cuticles are important is because now with lots of people's nail care, that proximal nail fold or cuticle is removed in its entirety.

And that can cause some problems. So infection can get in, you can get bacterial infections, you can get fungal infections, you can actually even like propagate viral warts if you've got them around your fingers, or you can develop viral warts around your fingers. So I think that proximal nail fold or cuticle is actually an important part of our nail. And it sort of overlies where our nail matrix is, so the little factory that makes our nail plate. So it's got a protective role. But whenever you go to the salon, unless you ask them not to remove it, they will remove it.