The problem is, trying to grow your nails is a lot harder than it should be. You might find that you’re only managing to grow one nail to a decent length before it succumbs to the same fate as the rest of your nails and ends up snapping clean off.
While this might just be down to your lifestyle – if you do a lot of cleaning or washing up, for instance, or your job involves typing on a keyboard all day – it could equally be a sign that you’re not managing to take in the nutrients that your nails need for healthy growth.
Luckily, promoting nail growth is really easy, and usually just requires a bit of diligence and patience on your part. There’s no need to resort to spending money on expensive nail growth products – which probably won’t work, by the way – when you could take matters into your own hands using ingredients you most likely have lying around in your cupboard.
If you’re looking for natural home remedies for fast and effective nail growth, you can’t go wrong with any of the following:Not many people have heard of horsetail, but it’s actually been a key ingredient in natural medicine for years. It contains a whole host of beneficial minerals, like calcium and silica, as well as essential vitamins that are necessary for improving the overall strength of your nails.
Horsetail is also rich in folic acid, which we all need for healthy cell growth. The easiest way to benefit from the herb is to make horsetail tea – but don’t worry, there’s no drinking required!
Simply boil the horsetail for thirty minutes, strain, and then wait for the water to cool before soaking your nails into the solution. Try to do it at least four times a week.
You might be more familiar with nettles as being the little devils that used to sting you if you accidentally touched them as a child, but nettle is actually incredibly beneficial to our health. It’s known for its impressive mineral content, which promotes skin, hair, and nail growth.
Like horsetail, nettle is rich in silica, which is essential for strong nail formation. You can drink nettle tea to get the most out of the herb, by boiling two tablespoons of nettle in water for twenty minutes, adding honey if you need a bit of flavour, and drinking at least once every day.
Vitamin E is an effective remedy for all number of nail issues, and while we can find it in some of our foods, if you’re looking to improve nail health, the best way forward is to purchase vitamin E oil. The oil works as a powerful antioxidant and has been shown to protect the nails from aging, which is a factor that can cause breakage.
Not only that, but vitamin E can heal weak and brittle nails, and because it’s quickly absorbed, it’ll produce promising results fairly quickly. Give it a go by combining a spoonful of vitamin E oil with another oil, like tea tree, and soaking your nails for up to an hour.
If you’re after oil for promoting nail growth that’s a little less niche, you can’t go wrong with olive oil. If your nails are brittle, you’re going to really struggle to get any sort of decent growth from them – which is where olive oil can help. It contains natural components that have been proven to keep nails strong and healthy.
If you want to try olive oil out yourself, it’s best to preheat it to make sure it penetrates through your nail with the best effect. Try soaking your nails for half an hour, or wearing gloves over the oil and leaving them on overnight.
Who’d have thought that our morning orange juice might help in any way with nail growth? Because it is known for encouraging collagen production, an essential protein in our hair and nails, orange juice is great for improving nail strength.
This is another one that’s best done topically – try soaking your nails in some freshly-squeezed juice for between ten and fifteen minutes. Give it a go twice a day, and you should notice some pretty impressive change.
Another incredibly beneficial nail oil that most of us have probably used by now is coconut oil. Aside from being one of the most useful oils used today, used in everything from cooking to skincare, coconut oil promotes nail growth, fights fungus, and keeps your cuticles healthy.
One of the biggest causes of slow nail growth is a biotin deficiency. It’s been scientifically proven that biotin increases nail hardness, which makes them less prone to splitting.
We know by now that silica is essential for rapid nail growth, and bananas are loaded with it. They also contain an impressive amount of zinc, for nail strength, and vitamin B6, which is thought to encourage healthier shinier nails.
There are plenty of benefits to be had from including banana or two in your daily diet. If you’re not such a fan of the texture, try adding it to your smoothies, or baking it into desserts for a healthier twist.
Garlic is one of the most incredible vegetables on the planet, which is only made better by the fact that it tastes so good. It’s unsurprising that garlic is thought to be great for strengthening brittle fingernails. It’s also been proven to protect nails from infections, all thanks to its impressive antifungal and antibacterial properties.
The best way to make the most out of garlic for nail growth is to make a paste from crushed garlic cloves. It’s not the most pleasant of home remedies, but it’s certainly the most effective – and you only need to apply it once a week to see real results.
The last of the beneficial nail oils we’re talking about today is flaxseed oil. Bursting with antioxidants, magnesium, B vitamins, and essential fatty acids, flaxseed oil is fantastic for promoting stronger nails and ensuring faster nail growth.
The nutrients found in flaxseed oil are vital for helping the nail plate to develop properly, ensuring a faster and healthier growth. It’s also thought to be useful in treating nail cracking and brittleness. Try massaging flaxseed oil onto your nails, and leaving it on for as long as possible (overnight is best).
What do you normally do with your eggshells? Throw them away? They might be worth keeping around because eggshells are actually a nutritional powerhouse of elements like calcium, protein, iron, potassium, and magnesium.
To use them for nail growth, first, clean them, then break them up and add them to a blender with pecans, almonds, and flaxseeds. Blend them all together and add a tablespoon of the powder to a glass of milk to drink with your breakfast. It’s a slightly more complex home remedy, but the results make it more than worth it.
Tomatoes are not only essential for adding flavour to a variety of dishes, but they’re good for you, too. They contain nutrients like vitamins A and C, which are essential for collagen production and nail growth.
They’re also a good source of biotin, which encourages thick, shiny nails. Try combining tomato juice with your essential oil of choice and soaking your nails for up to thirty minutes. After a few weeks, you should notice a difference in your nail growth.
In the same way that regular haircuts can encourage hair growth, the best way to avoid nail problems and maintain consistent growth is to trim them often. You should find that regularly trimming your nails protects them from weakening and breaking.
Try to get into a habit of trimming your nails once a week, and then filing them into shape to promote the quickest natural growth.
Our nails are made up out of keratin, an essential protein that prevents cells from damage and stress. It’s important that we get as much naturally sourced protein from our diets as we can to support healthy nail growth.
You can get your protein from a number of different foods, including fish, eggs, meats, and cheeses. If you don’t include meat or animal products in your diet, you can still get more than enough protein from other sources like dry fruits, beans, sweet potato, quinoa, and whole grains.
So, growing your nails really isn’t as hard as it might seem. Many shop-bought nail growth products are simply providing your nails with the exact same nutrients as those mentioned in this video, which you can use for far less money and exactly the same effect.
Like with hair growth, you shouldn’t expect any changes to your diet or lifestyle to lead to such an immediate growth than cutting your nails becomes a daily necessity – but you should notice a definite improvement over time.
Supplements are also worth checking out and this is one of the best ones - Nature's Bounty Optimal Solutions Hair Skin & Nails Extra Strength
Stronger nails that grow longer and break less easily are not only an appealing feature for many women, but they’re a sign of overall health, too. If you think it’s time you did something about your nail quality, give these remedies a go, and with a bit of motivation and perseverance, you should end up with the long nails you’ve always dreamed of.
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