Strong, healthy nails don’t only look great, but also help you move through life in a functional and healthy way. We use our nails for so many things: opening containers, picking up change, and scratching our pets’ ears.
And yet, so many people run into the problem of weak nails. Having soft and bendy nails can prevent you from maintaining a manicure, growing your nails long, and performing some normal living functions without the frustration and pain of broken nails.
So, why are your nails soft and bendy? There are different factors that can affect your nail strength – from daily water and chemical exposure to genetics. Thankfully, most people can take simple measures to build up their nail health and improve their strength.
In this post, we will talk about the reasons why your nails might be soft and weak, what you can do about it, and what surprising activities are making your nails worse.
Paper Thin Nail Causes
Most soft and thin nails have a physical cause that is easily preventable. That’s the good news! The bad news is that it can be hard to figure out which of these things are affecting your nails specifically.
It might take you some trial and error to figure out which of these factors is affecting your nail strength, but once you do – you’ll know how to fix it.
Here are the most common causes of paper-thin and soft nails:
Moisture And Chemical Exposure
One of the most common reasons for soft and bendy nails is too much exposure to water and chemicals.
Don’t worry, washing your hands multiple times a day and taking hot showers isn’t the problem. We are talking about excessive exposure.
For example, if you’re working as a dishwasher at a restaurant and your hands are wet and covered in detergent for hours every day, that may very well be contributing to your weak nails.
Other activities that expose you to excessive moisture and chemicals include:
- Working on a boat
- Gardening or landscaping without gloves
- Washing clothes by hand
- Excessive hand sanitizing, for example, if you work in healthcare
- Dry cleaning
- Creating art like pottery, painting, or metalsmithing
Keep in mind that doing the above activities for an hour a week won’t give you soft nails. Don’t ditch your gardening hobby just yet!
We are talking about participating in these activities excessively – 4-8 hours per day or more.
If you feel like you’ve been spending this much time with your hands in water or chemicals (or both), this is most likely the cause of your weak and thin nails.
Manicure Damage
As much as we love the look and feel of a fresh manicure set, we are aware that it comes with a cost. And no, we’re not just talking about the monetary cost.
Modern manicures, when done professionally, cause minimal damage to the nail. But that does not mean they’re completely safe.
When you get a manicure, whether it’s a gel mani, an acrylic set, or something else, your nail has to get buffed in order for the material to stick to it. Each time your nail is buffed, a layer of its surface is removed.
Over time, this leads to the nail thinning and becoming softer and weaker. Gel manicures also require the use of UV light, which can be damaging to your nails and the skin around them over time.
Lastly, removing gel polish, acrylic nails, or even regular nail polish causes damage to the nails if not done extremely carefully.
Many people peel their manicure off when it starts to chip – there’s nothing worse for your nail health than that! As you peel off your manicure, you’re peeling off healthy layers of your nail with it, causing your nails to become damaged and brittle.
Lack Of Nutrients
Another common cause of weak and bendy nails is malnutrition.
You may think this doesn’t apply to you if you live in a developed country, but it’s actually very common for us to miss out on important nutrients even when we have well-rounded diets.
Healthy nails require good vitamin B consumption, a lot of iron (which many women are deficient in), magnesium, lots of protein, vitamin C, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids.
You’d be surprised how many people don’t get enough of these nutrients from their diets.
If your nails aren’t exposed to a lot of damaging activities that we talked about above (water, chemicals, or manicures), your nail weakness is likely attributed to your diet.
These same nutrients are also important for healthy hair and skin. If you notice some issues in those areas too, that’s another sign that your diet might be the problem.
Luckily, that’s easy to fix! We’ll talk about some simple changes you can implement in just a moment.
Genetics
In some cases, soft and bendy nails are simply the result of your genetics. If your family members suffer from the same problem, it might just be something you inherited from them.
Another way to tell is to think back to your childhood and adolescence. Have your nails always been on the weaker side? If the answer is yes, genetics are likely to blame.
That doesn’t mean all is lost, however. You can take a lot of steps to reinforce your nails and to help them thrive, even if they’re not genetically predisposed to it.
Diet, supplements, and certain nail products can go a long way in making your nails stronger and firmer regardless of your genetics.
How To Strengthen Soft Bendy Nails
Keep in mind that your particular nails might be soft and bendy due to a combination of some or all the factors we listed above. This is why it sometimes takes some trial and error to figure out the cause and, subsequently, the solution.
Here are some things you can start with. Regardless of the cause of your nail weakness, doing all of these things will likely improve your nails:
Wear Gloves
Whenever you’re exposing your nails to water or chemicals for an extended period of time, you should wear gloves.
Whether you’re doing dishes, working at a dry cleaner, dying someone’s hair, or spending the day digging in your garden, wearing gloves will help protect your skin and nails from potential chemical exposure and excessive moisture.
A good pair of reusable rubber gloves is all you need for most of these activities. And they don’t cost much either.
Nail Strengthener
Nail strengtheners, similar to nail hardeners, contain nutrients that help your nail grow healthy and strong.
They also offer physical protection to the nail by providing a protective coating to the nail bed and shielding it from physical and chemical exposure that can further weaken it.
Different nail strengheners have different formulations. Most of them contain some form of resin that covers the nail with a hard, protective coat. Many of them also contain vitamins and nutrients to heal your nail from within.
We love this Butter nail strengthener that contains biotin, vitamins, and calcium. This one by OPI is also great at reinforcing and strengthening the nail with hydrolyzed wheat protein.
Nail strengtheners are a perfect way to treat soft and bendy nails. They’re usually the first line of defense regardless of the cause of your nail weakness.
If you determine that most of your nail problems come from a bad diet, for example, you can still use a nail strengthener while you transition into a more nutritious eating style.
Nutrition
So much of your hair, skin, and nail health comes from within. Make sure you are getting all of the right vitamins and nutrients that support healthy, strong nails.
Here are some of the important vitamins and their natural sources you can get from food:
- Biotin – This is a type of B vitamin often found in beef, eggs, salmon, sweet potato, and sunflower seeds.
- B Vitamins -Aside from biotin, other B vitamins are also important. Get them from meats, fish, eggs, beans, and peas.
- Iron – Found in fortified cereals, beef, shellfish, dried fruit, beans (especially kidney beans), lentils, dark leafy greens, dark chocolate, quinoa, and mushrooms.
- Magnesium – Found in leafy greens, lentils, soybeans, chickpeas, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and potatoes.
- Protein – Protein is important for so many of your healthy bodily functions – good sources of protein are: eggs, fish, chicken, pork, beef, beans, lentils, dairy, and quinoa.
- Vitamin C – Vitamin C is found in citrus fruits, sweet yellow peppers, kale, kiwis, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and strawberries.
- Zinc – A good sources of zinc are oysters, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, lamb, chickpeas, lentils, cashews, yogurt, mushrooms, spinach, avocado, and almonds.
- Omega-3 – Most people don’t eat enough omega-3 fatty acids, so it’s important to eat more of: fatty fish like mackerel and salmon, seaweed and algae, chia seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, edamame, and kidney beans.
As you can see, a well-rounded diet is extremely important when it comes to getting the right kind of nutrients to support healthy nails.
Your diet should include all food groups in moderation, and whole foods (rather than processed, nutrient-deficient foods) should be prioritized.
A diet that contains a wide range of lean meats, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and whole grains is required. You can look into the Mediterranean diet for some recipe ideas because most Mediterranean diet recipes follow that framework.
If you feel like you cannot get all of these nutrients from foods, you should try to get them through supplements.
Supplements
Most of the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals we listed above can also be obtained from supplements. You can usually find a good multivitamin at the store that’ll give you most of these in one pill.
In addition to these nutrients, you should consider upping your collagen intake.
Collagen is naturally produced in your body, but you can also get it from food and supplements. Collagen is very important for strong nails – it’s the building block that adds structure to your nails, skin, and hair.
The best way to get extra collagen in your diet is to get collagen supplements. This Vital Proteins collagen powder is highly-rated as it contains highly bioavailable collagen peptides as well as hyaluronic acid and Vitamin C.
If you’re a vegan, regular collagen is off the table for you since it’s made from animal products. But there are some great vegan supplements that increase your body’s own collagen production, such as this Wild Fuel Vegan Collagen Builder.
Other supplements you might want to look into are multivitamins that are specifically designed for hair, skin, and nails, such as this Viva Naturals Hair, Skin, and Nails formula.
While it’s ideal to get all of your vitamins from food, it’s not always possible in our modern world. Try to embrace a more well-rounded diet and include important nail-strengthening nutrients, but don’t hesitate to use supplements where needed.
Non-Acetone Nail Polish Remover
Another important step you can take to help your nails become stronger is take better care of them. This includes using safer and gentler nail polish remover.
When selecting a nail polish remover, you often have two choices: acetone and non-acetone. While acetone tends to work quicker, it’s pretty harsh.
It can dehydrate your nail and lead to the thinning and flaking of the nailbed. If your nails are already weak and soft, it’s your best bet to replace that acetone nail polish remover with a non-acetone one.
Non-acetone nail polish removers are just as effective at removing polish, gel polish, and glue. Sometimes you might need to give a little more time to get it to work, but considering how much safer it is for your nails – it’s worth it.
Non-acetone polish removers sometimes come infused with vitamin E or other good nutrients that can help boost the health of your nails.
Never Peel Your Nails
This probably goes without saying, but any physical damage you do to your nails is going to make them weaker and softer over time.
That means peeling, biting, and buffing are all activities you should minimize if you want stronger nails.
Sometimes it’s hard to get rid of a bad habit like nail biting or peeling off old polish, but it’s going to be worth the effort.
Use Cuticle Oil
Healthy cuticles lead to healthy nails. They help your nails grow strong, long, and healthy. So, keeping them in top shape is important.
Use a good cuticle oil that delivers hydration and nutrition to the nail bed. You can use cuticle oil as often as twice a day if you feel like you need it. During the winter months, you might even want to use it more frequently.
We love this Cuccio Naturale Revitalizing Cuticle Oil with its natural hydrating ingredients like almond oil and a nail-strengthening anti-breakage complex.
Final Thoughts
Soft and bendy nails can be caused by a multitude of things – from moisture exposure to genetics – but in most cases, there are things you can do to strengthen them.
Taking care of your nails will help them grow stronger and longer. This means physically protecting them (with gloves or nail strengtheners) and healing them from within (with a good diet and supplements).
Even if your nails are naturally softer than most due to genetics, you can still help reinforce them and be extra gentle with them to make them stronger.
If you find yourself with soft and bendy nails or if your nails break all the time – don’t lose hope! Try a few of our tips and you’ll notice a difference.
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