Cutting hair or biting nails

[CurlAhead]

I have just discovered a bad habit of mine. Lately I've been noticing that when I cut my hair a lot, I bite less on my nails. When I cut the worst I actually managed to grow my nails out, they had never been that long before. But when I decided to try stop cutting my hair for real, I began to bite like crazy on my nails... And of course, if I had to choose I'd rather have long, pretty hair than good looking nails (fake-nails 'til it grows, hello? :D)
But I don't want to bite OR cut, both makes me feel bad... How should I stop? Any tips? :(

[Velvet Dreamer]

I remember reading somewhere (here?) that someone would write on their hands "don't bite" or something like that so they wouldn't bite their nails. The person had a habit of looking at their hands before they bit their nails, so that helped them.
For the hair cutting, maybe put a picture of you with shorter hair and a picture of you with longer hair near the shears/scissors, so you can remind yourself what you're doing.

[mathnerd]

I've only succeed in growing my nails once (last year) and they started to break, so I had to cut the remaining nails. My problem has never been biting, but picking my nails off (not the whole thing, lol just the top.....). The only thing I found to help me out was to keep them fully painted...i.e not french manicured. For some reason, if I couldn't actually see the nail growth, I was more likely to not pick it off. Once they got quite long, I found that I wouldn't pick them just because I wanted to keep the look, to see how far I could go.

Hope this helps!

[Buggheart]

If you're at all germophobic, maybe it will help to think about all the gross stuff living under your fingernails that doesn't wash off unless you use a nail brush. I don't bite my nails but sometimes I get a snag and don't have a file handy so I'm tempted to sort of file it with the edge of my tooth, then remember how many disgusting germs are under there.

[MoonLover]

I started biting my nails in elementary school and didn't stop until a couple of years ago.

This is what has helped: try some "no bite" nail polish. It tastes so bitter and icky and I think it will make you feel bitter and icky. Of course, this only works if you consistently apply it. Also, DO NOT lovingly feed your SO a morsel of food with your fingers. They will get a terrible surprise!


The thing that worked best for me was getting regular, expensive manicures. Every week to ten days I would get my nails done so that I would stop biting them. If I bit them, I would ruin all the money and time I spent to have them done. It was like guilting myself and it worked very well.

The good news is that I have gotten to a point where I have started to take care of my nails myself (poor student status LoL) and that also helps me not bite them because of the time and effort I put into it.

hope that helps and good luck!

[Delila]

My own nail biting habit didn't end until my nails started growing in thicker for whatever mysterious reason.

Is it possible that the gentler treatment and heavier conditioners I was giving my hair as it grew out made a difference in the quality of my nails over time? Perhaps.

Now that I've managed to keep them grown out for the last few years, I've learned that a good hardener really can help keep things happy.

Here's a link to a good blog with lots of nail care advice that's done me some good.

http://loodieloodieloodie.blogspot.com/

[Merewen]

If you have visible splits, you can try S&D. I find that snipping off splits distracts me somewhat from picking at myself, which is a bad habit of mine. It doesn't address the nail-biting thing specifically, but it might be a way to cut your hair (letting you bite less), without losing length.

[MemoryXIII]

Yeah I get all freaked out when I find split ends, but only sometimes do I trim them.

[Alaia]

Here's a link to a good blog with lots of nail care advice that's done me some good.

http://loodieloodieloodie.blogspot.com/

Wow amazing! That's really useful.

I don't really have any advice for the OP I'm afraid. I'm a nail biter. The bitter tasting stuff didn't work for me.

My problem is my nails get really flaky. I paint them with nail hardener but then I peel it off which ruins the nails so I bite them off. I've gotten into a cycle of growing them out nicely, then they get too long so I cut them, but I can't cut them straight so I end up biting them off. :rolleyes:

[CurlAhead]

Thank you all for the advice. Whenever I put nail polish on my nails, I and up biting it of and sometimes I even eat the nail polish from my nails.. Yup, disgusting, I know.
I don't want to try that thing that tastes icky because I eat a lot of food etc with my hand, and they will probably taste just as bad.. :( And when I grow them out, I bite them off.. So maybe expensive manicures would be worth it.. Like those with acrylic nails.



If you're at all germophobic, maybe it will help to think about all the gross stuff living under your fingernails that doesn't wash off unless you use a nail brush. I don't bite my nails but sometimes I get a snag and don't have a file handy so I'm tempted to sort of file it with the edge of my tooth, then remember how many disgusting germs are under there.

I've tried that :( People even comment on how nasty nailbiting is but it doesn't effect me.. :D



My own nail biting habit didn't end until my nails started growing in thicker for whatever mysterious reason.

Is it possible that the gentler treatment and heavier conditioners I was giving my hair as it grew out made a difference in the quality of my nails over time? Perhaps.

Now that I've managed to keep them grown out for the last few years, I've learned that a good hardener really can help keep things happy.

Here's a link to a good blog with lots of nail care advice that's done me some good.

http://loodieloodieloodie.blogspot.com/

I've noticed that despite that I am in a nail-biting period now, my nails (well most of them) is actually longer than they usually are, and possibly stronger? Recently I started CO-washing. :rolleyes:

Thank you for the blog-link, much helpful information there.


If you have visible splits, you can try S&D. I find that snipping off splits distracts me somewhat from picking at myself, which is a bad habit of mine. It doesn't address the nail-biting thing specifically, but it might be a way to cut your hair (letting you bite less), without losing length.

I have cut so much that I don't have visible splits yet tapering ends etc. Sometimes I just go nuts and cut it off because the ends look crunchy, which is stupid because I could have tried an SMT or some castor/olive oil or something. But I mostly cut when I have straightened my hair either with a straightener or ribbons. So, I try not do to that since I am wearing my hair up anyways.



Wow amazing! That's really useful.

I don't really have any advice for the OP I'm afraid. I'm a nail biter. The bitter tasting stuff didn't work for me.

My problem is my nails get really flaky. I paint them with nail hardener but then I peel it off which ruins the nails so I bite them off. I've gotten into a cycle of growing them out nicely, then they get too long so I cut them, but I can't cut them straight so I end up biting them off. :rolleyes:

Same here, only I do it with nail polish instead. :rolleyes:

[MoonLover]

I don't want to try that thing that tastes icky because I eat a lot of food etc with my hand, and they will probably taste just as bad.. :( And when I grow them out, I bite them off.. So maybe expensive manicures would be worth it.. Like those with acrylic nails.

You can try acrylic nails and you won't be able to bit them off because they are really hard. But just know that your real nails can get very damaged underneath and when you do decide to take them off you will probably start biting again (this happened to me.) What I meant by expensive manicures is on your real nail. Go for the parrafin or sugar scrub option once in awhile, you will appreciate the beauty of your hands more.

[Khiwanean]

Evey time I quit chewing my nails (and I've been known to do so for months and then end up going back to it), I would find myself replacing biting with some other habit, be it cleaning my nails or something else. Right now, probably my longest stint at not nailbiting I've taken to running my nails across the table (they're filed into a square shape).

What seem to get me to start again is chewing off hangnails, because nail clipper just never cut them close enough. Then I either accidentally bite my nail or do so because I feel a tear or chip in my nail and want to even it out.

[ennuideluxe]

I stopped biting by putting superstick bandages on every single one of my fingertips. It looked funny, but it worked.

[lapispimpernel]

I've *mostly* stopped biting my fingers/nails after about oh, 15 years & all the regular stopping techniques. I type all day at the office, and my hands feel gross to bite until I've showered. Isn't it strange how ingrained these nervous habits are?

If you can stand nail polish at all, I'd go for the manicures.

[MoonLover]

What seem to get me to start again is chewing off hangnails, because nail clipper just never cut them close enough. Then I either accidentally bite my nail or do so because I feel a tear or chip in my nail and want to even it out.

out of place cuticle bits used to get me back too! They're like the gateway chew item LoL

But I've found that keeping them moisturized helps for two reasons:

1. It's icky and harder to chew through moisturizer (I use plain oil)
2. It keeps cuticles soft enough do they don't crack, snag on things, puff out and look gross, get out of control, etc

[CurlAhead]

I'll see if I'll consider getting manicure, it feels like it is just not me. But it might be the only option, but I would have to go for the acrylic since I bite off the home made manicure-nails as well. Oh, Lord, why am I so nasty? :D

[Yozhik]

Something that really helped me was some advice I got -- from a guy (boy was I surprised and chagrined to find out he knew more about nail upkeep than me :o)!

I told him how I was frustrated about my nailbeds being really short -- as in the white part of my nail starts further down the nail. He had one of his fingertips accidentally cut off as a child, so he had to regrow the whole fingernail. What he told me was to only ever trim 1/2 of your nail growth off -- this really helped me, because I would go from cutting/biting/peeling my nails really short out of absentmindedness or anxiety to growing them out long again, only to repeat the cycle once they got long enough. By cutting them immediately when they got what I'd consider to be "long," this meant that I couldn't bite anything because they weren't long enough, and I didn't have the excuse that my nails were too long and needed to be shortened by any means.

I don't know if this will help you, but it sure was a revelation for me, and I've been successfully growing and cutting my nails (no nibbling in between) for about 2 months now!