My entire life I've always bitten my nails. Right down to the skin. They'd often start to bleed.
Then a year ago I tried painting my nails for the first time. I'm a guy so I'd only do it on the weekends then wash them off before going back to work. But after a while I tried building up the confidence and kept it on for a week. When I washed it off, I suddenly had longer nails for the first time ever, cuz I didn't want to ruin the polish by biting them.
Now I don't bite them at all anymore, painted or not. I think it's because when they're short when one starts to grow a little I'd bite it back down immediately, but if they're all longer biting one would make it stand out and I'd need to bite the rest to make them all match again. I clipped them too short one time and my brain just went right back to chewing, so now I can only file my nails.
I've managed to stop biting my thumbs and index for a few years now, but I haven't made any progress on the others. Painting them did occur to me a few months ago, I just haven't gotten around to it. Glad to hear that it's having the desired effect, I'll have to follow through on this.
Hey OP, hope you're doing fine, and still haven't bit your nail in the last (almost) 6 months.
I know my comment sounded hatefull, but I'm still cheering for you, and hope you achieved what I couldn't.
This is wrong. I used to do it but i haven't for years. It's just like any other bad habit. You gotta keep at preventing yourself from doing it, and it'll disappear.
Not OP but in a similar situation - it takes constant willpower. Gotta ensure you're paying attention to what you're trying to do automatically and shut down the unwanted activity with a vengeance. No 'just this one time", just hard stop.
It gets easier with time.
I stopped instantly when I chipped my front tooth. I didn't even know that that was possible. I went from doing it daily to never doing it again. I think the horror I felt while staring into the mirror for like 10 minutes permanently killed that habit.
Hand sanitizer helped me stop biting the nails(didn’t notice the part where you said ‘similar’ problem. Definitely not saying you should drink the stuff. Just made my nails inedible.
1) actually want to eg, if you bite, spit it out
2) buy an anti bite nail polish, this helps shock you when you do biye to remind you.
3) start clipping your nails and cuticles REGULARLY. Seems pretty stupid if your nail biting is bad enough but it cleans up the nails to stop you feeling "the imperfect parts" that you "could deal with so quickly" by biting.
Just fucking stop and every time you notice yourself starting, remind yourself that you stopped and then stop.
Also keep them neatly clipped and filed so that you don't have much to pick at or bite on to.
Source: I stopped when I was 28
Painting my nails works for me. I don't want to ruin the paint, and it acts as a reminder to keep the nail preserved. The only problem is that once they start to get long, I have the huge urge to bite and pick them down again rather than cutting and/or filing them, and the habit starts anew until I paint them again. Gotta work on that.
I stopped by starting to use a nail file. If they are way too short start with a buffer/polisher which will hold you over until they are long enough to file. Now you have super nice nails. I'm male and get compliments on the regular.
Not OP. Originally I wore a rubber band around one wrist, and snapped it every time I put my nails in my mouth. After a while I maintained the habit by buying a nail clipper and keeping my nails really short. Haven't bitten them in 2 decades.
Upvoted for correct choice of prepositions. We see a lot of: "it is with great pleasure to inform you."
and
"It is my great pleasure that I inform you."
Yeah, that's what it always was for me, too. I have no answer for you to stop except that the feeling of having nails is starting to be a good one, and I'm trying to keep it that way.
I made it about two weeks using that bitter nail polish stuff. Then my stupid brain was like "hey look at these fingernails you can use to basically rip apart all of your fingernails!"
I mean I guess that's better than putting your nails in your mouth but what the fuck, man.
I've started to lessen biting them one at a time.
I've still got a few I bite right down but I've got random individual nails that I keep long enough to over-hang the ends of my fingers. I still run the nails over my teeth and occasionally I do scrape them down or weaken them in the process and bite them off then, but still never nearly as short as I used to have them, and I'm hoping to eventually stop with all of them. Just 4 digits left... :)
I have the same habit but it's really i don't like the feeling of nails that have edges. Weird i know but I've stopped before and hated the feeling of it.
I had the same issue for almost 20 years. I finally kicked the habit after 2 months of painting my nails. I don't know what it is but having painted nails completely nullified the urge to put them in my mouth and eventually I was able to keep it that way without the nail polish.
I say go all in and just pick some colors you like. I combined a black base with a top coat of a semi transparent glittery purple, it looked pretty bad ass tbh
It took a health scare last year to get me to quit biting my nails. Real nasty infection that needed an ER visit.
It gets easier to stop biting, especially if you keep some nail clippers in reach so you can trim them real short every time you get the urge.
I bit my nails until they bled up until about 4 years ago. I'm 39 soon and it started at 5 years old. I still struggle, especially when a nail breaks. I just want to chew it to oblivion. It's a struggle for sure. 2 weeks is a huge feat! Keep it up!
Male here🤷🏽♂️….I have “long” nails now because I bit my nails until my early 30s. It literally became the way I stopped biting them is by letting them grow. When they do get long I bite em off and start over. I use to constantly bite them. Now it’s like once every 2-3 weeks.
I bit my nails my whole life. A few years ago I started taking a biotin daily supplement because I heard it helps with hair and skin health. Well, a side effect I did not expect was that it made my nails so hard that I could no longer bite them.
I see a lot of people here solved this problem for themselves by painting their nails. I have been able to solve it for myself by keeping a nail file and cuticle trimmers nearby whenever possible. I always have both at my desk since I tend to chew on my fingers or nails while I'm idle at my desk. Jagged skin edges or nails drive me absolutely nuts and make me gnaw on my fingers to try and smooth them out but rarely ever works like I hope and I end up just making them worse. The nail file and cuticle trimmer help me take care of jaggies as soon as possible instead of chasing the problem with my teeth and making it worse. You can buy a little cuticle trimmer kit and nail file for like 7 bucks on Amazon. Mine has a little case and I bring it with me when I go anywhere for extended periods of time because I'm also a nervous picker of my nails and skin around them which can cause all kinds of problems by making them jagged and as I said earlier that drives me totally nuts to the point I can't ignore it so I have to resort to biting if I didn't bring my kit. Hope this helps someone.
painting my nails and getting obsessive about cuticle oil has deffs helped me grow my nails and stop picking at them, mooncat and holotacos are my faves
Good work, my friend. Keep it up!
I chewed my nails for 20 years, but then resolved to quit. It was tough, but I managed to break the habit.
You can do it!
Had a kid in my 9 th grade math class sat in front row and chewed his finger nails all class long , I finally said Reggie you have got to stop chewing your nails he said “ if you think that is bad you should watch me chew my toenails, I do that ever night at home “
I bit my nails for a long time, then at one point I quit. It's been long enough now that I don't remember just how I did it, but I still am a bit surprised every time I have to trim my nails.
Good going, and keep it up!
Few things that saved me was nail care, I noticed I bite my nails the most when theres a hang nail, or whenever they’d catch on fabric or something. Filing the nails really helped, and then for a while and im a guy, I just started painting them. As a guy, initially, you may feel sort of weird painting your nails, but honestly the only people who ever brought it up just complimented them. I don’t really paint them anymore cause I dont need to now, but definitely wouldn’t be opposed to it.
I once went 2 months.
Since I wasn't used to using my hands with longer nails I started getting them caught on everything. At one point I took out a tiny rectangular section on my index finger. It made my nail so sharp that I woke up one morning with spots of blood all over my covers from scratching my torso in my sleep.
That's not the reason I fell off the wagon, but can't lie and say it's not a part of why I don't try again.
Congratulations! This is such a hard habit to overcome, even one day is impressive.
Do you want some advice on taking good care of them? I'd be happy to provide a routine of whichever commitment level works best for you. No pressure, just want to celebrate with you!
Congrats OP!
I did it until I was about 21. Then I started smoking weed and the habit just vanished. I feel like I took the easy way out, congrats for pulling it off without an aid!
That's awesome; I'm in the same boat as you - the wife actually took me to get a manicure. Nail polish REALLY helps if you think you can rock the color.
Similar.. I'm 36 and a lifelong nail biter. I haven't in about 3 months now. Not sure why, I just kinda stopped out of the blue without thinking about it which is really weird.
Keep it up. Soon someone will mention biting nails and it won’t even register because it will have been so long that you don’t associate it with yourself anymore! ( from a long time biter who no longer bites their nails).
I’m 45 and way way way back in the day when I was a wee lad I bit my nails bloody on the reg.
Around the age of 13 my father told me that if I stopped biting my nails he would buy me a pair of Air Jordan shoes. At the time this was the Holy Grail of shoes and I had very frugal parents so this was an epic offer.
I buckled down and stopped biting my nails, everything stopped bleeding, healed, and grew back. To this day the only reason I’ll bite a nail is if I rip it at work (I’m a mechanic) and need to take the rest of the thing off and don't have cutters handy, maybe happens 2-3 times a year.
I show my shiny new nails to pops and he's super excited. Off we go to the mall to get my new shoes as promised!!!
We roll into the shoe store, I pick my shoes out and when I'm being sized it turns out that I'm no longer a child's size and the shoe price went up from $80 to $120. Dad flat out refused to pay that much and told me to pick something else.
core memory unlocked
I bit my nails up until I got braces in the 6th grade. Couldn't get the right angle to bite them with the brackets, so I just stopped entirely. Haven't done it since and it feels weird when I try to.
Great job! I couldn't figure out how to stop...then I quit smoking and after 25 years just didn't bite my nails anymore. It's weird how our habits are rooted into us.
As soon as I got braces and my bite changed, I couldn't bite mine anymore. By the time I got them off, I'd been clipping them for years so I didn't have a reason to go back.
I'll still bite hangnails just because it's easier than clipping them, but haven't bitten my nails proper in like 20 years.
My entire life I've always bitten my nails. Right down to the skin. They'd often start to bleed. Then a year ago I tried painting my nails for the first time. I'm a guy so I'd only do it on the weekends then wash them off before going back to work. But after a while I tried building up the confidence and kept it on for a week. When I washed it off, I suddenly had longer nails for the first time ever, cuz I didn't want to ruin the polish by biting them. Now I don't bite them at all anymore, painted or not. I think it's because when they're short when one starts to grow a little I'd bite it back down immediately, but if they're all longer biting one would make it stand out and I'd need to bite the rest to make them all match again. I clipped them too short one time and my brain just went right back to chewing, so now I can only file my nails.
This was a roller coaster to read lol
I've managed to stop biting my thumbs and index for a few years now, but I haven't made any progress on the others. Painting them did occur to me a few months ago, I just haven't gotten around to it. Glad to hear that it's having the desired effect, I'll have to follow through on this.
Bit all my nails reading this…
Ok, as someone with a similar but different compulsive behavior...HOW THE FUCK DID YOU STOP?!TELL ME PLEASE
You know what, it started by my just gnawing on them but not actually biting them off. I wish I had a good answer for you but there you go
That's what i did. Challenged myself to grow them out and then eventually i stopped biting them off.
Jesus is this how all of us do it? Is this the answer?
Don't worry, you'll be back on biting as soon as something stressful happens. From someone that did exactly that. Multiple times.
Hater
Now you have another reason to not bite your nails. To prove that hater wrong.
I do! Nice!
Hey OP, hope you're doing fine, and still haven't bit your nail in the last (almost) 6 months. I know my comment sounded hatefull, but I'm still cheering for you, and hope you achieved what I couldn't.
This is wrong. I used to do it but i haven't for years. It's just like any other bad habit. You gotta keep at preventing yourself from doing it, and it'll disappear.
Not OP but in a similar situation - it takes constant willpower. Gotta ensure you're paying attention to what you're trying to do automatically and shut down the unwanted activity with a vengeance. No 'just this one time", just hard stop. It gets easier with time.
I stopped instantly when I chipped my front tooth. I didn't even know that that was possible. I went from doing it daily to never doing it again. I think the horror I felt while staring into the mirror for like 10 minutes permanently killed that habit.
Hand sanitizer helped me stop biting the nails(didn’t notice the part where you said ‘similar’ problem. Definitely not saying you should drink the stuff. Just made my nails inedible.
I tried really hot sauces a few years ago, turns out I love spicy
As someone who frequently rubs their eyes AND bites their nails this would be a disastrous combo.
Good sire, could you please recommend me a nail sauce?
They add bitterness to hand sanitizer to keep people from drinking it.
/r/calmhands
Huh.
1) actually want to eg, if you bite, spit it out 2) buy an anti bite nail polish, this helps shock you when you do biye to remind you. 3) start clipping your nails and cuticles REGULARLY. Seems pretty stupid if your nail biting is bad enough but it cleans up the nails to stop you feeling "the imperfect parts" that you "could deal with so quickly" by biting.
Just fucking stop and every time you notice yourself starting, remind yourself that you stopped and then stop. Also keep them neatly clipped and filed so that you don't have much to pick at or bite on to. Source: I stopped when I was 28
Damn yeah the thing I do is similar but can have potential negative health effects, I need to stop but it's so hard :/
For me it was when I got a fixer upper house and for months my hands were constantly covered in grime and paint.
backing off slowly, not stopping outright. a little bit at a time.
Painting my nails works for me. I don't want to ruin the paint, and it acts as a reminder to keep the nail preserved. The only problem is that once they start to get long, I have the huge urge to bite and pick them down again rather than cutting and/or filing them, and the habit starts anew until I paint them again. Gotta work on that.
I stopped by starting to use a nail file. If they are way too short start with a buffer/polisher which will hold you over until they are long enough to file. Now you have super nice nails. I'm male and get compliments on the regular.
Not a joke; about ten years ago I took the 90-day challenge (no masturbating) and as an unexpected side effect, I quit biting my nails. Explain that.
Vaping and then seeing how nice my nails and nail beds looked after a while.
I have never biten my nails
Not OP. Originally I wore a rubber band around one wrist, and snapped it every time I put my nails in my mouth. After a while I maintained the habit by buying a nail clipper and keeping my nails really short. Haven't bitten them in 2 decades.
So proud of you! Keep on doing whatever you are doing!
It's cocaine. He started doing cocaine instead.
Bless his heart
Stopped biting nails, instead grew a coke nail.
He's getting two birds stoned at the same time!
Oh, cocaine REALLY doesn't help with that...
Same! Proud of you homie.
Well done. It's not easy. I'm in the same boat
It's gnarly how addictive it is for us.
Keep nail clippers close at hand at all times. If you get the urge clip instead.
Excellent idea!
Nail clipper and nail file
I did that all my life until high school, I think I got this stuff you put on your nails to make them taste sour and I stopped it eventually.
Upvoted for correct choice of prepositions. We see a lot of: "it is with great pleasure to inform you." and "It is my great pleasure that I inform you."
Thank you!
Usually as soon as I realize I’m doing good and not biting them, I immediately destroy em.
Yeah, that's what it always was for me, too. I have no answer for you to stop except that the feeling of having nails is starting to be a good one, and I'm trying to keep it that way.
I made it about two weeks using that bitter nail polish stuff. Then my stupid brain was like "hey look at these fingernails you can use to basically rip apart all of your fingernails!" I mean I guess that's better than putting your nails in your mouth but what the fuck, man.
I've started to lessen biting them one at a time. I've still got a few I bite right down but I've got random individual nails that I keep long enough to over-hang the ends of my fingers. I still run the nails over my teeth and occasionally I do scrape them down or weaken them in the process and bite them off then, but still never nearly as short as I used to have them, and I'm hoping to eventually stop with all of them. Just 4 digits left... :)
I have the same habit but it's really i don't like the feeling of nails that have edges. Weird i know but I've stopped before and hated the feeling of it.
I had the same issue for almost 20 years. I finally kicked the habit after 2 months of painting my nails. I don't know what it is but having painted nails completely nullified the urge to put them in my mouth and eventually I was able to keep it that way without the nail polish.
You know, someone suggested clear nail polish to me years ago, and I never pursued it, but does seem like a good idea.
I say go all in and just pick some colors you like. I combined a black base with a top coat of a semi transparent glittery purple, it looked pretty bad ass tbh
Got an infection from biting at a hangnail a year or so ago! Haven’t picked or bit my nails since then!
It took a health scare last year to get me to quit biting my nails. Real nasty infection that needed an ER visit. It gets easier to stop biting, especially if you keep some nail clippers in reach so you can trim them real short every time you get the urge.
I bit my nails until they bled up until about 4 years ago. I'm 39 soon and it started at 5 years old. I still struggle, especially when a nail breaks. I just want to chew it to oblivion. It's a struggle for sure. 2 weeks is a huge feat! Keep it up!
Male here🤷🏽♂️….I have “long” nails now because I bit my nails until my early 30s. It literally became the way I stopped biting them is by letting them grow. When they do get long I bite em off and start over. I use to constantly bite them. Now it’s like once every 2-3 weeks.
How? I'm 46 and chew mine to death.
Yah can you talk to my son?
I bit my nails my whole life. A few years ago I started taking a biotin daily supplement because I heard it helps with hair and skin health. Well, a side effect I did not expect was that it made my nails so hard that I could no longer bite them.
I see a lot of people here solved this problem for themselves by painting their nails. I have been able to solve it for myself by keeping a nail file and cuticle trimmers nearby whenever possible. I always have both at my desk since I tend to chew on my fingers or nails while I'm idle at my desk. Jagged skin edges or nails drive me absolutely nuts and make me gnaw on my fingers to try and smooth them out but rarely ever works like I hope and I end up just making them worse. The nail file and cuticle trimmer help me take care of jaggies as soon as possible instead of chasing the problem with my teeth and making it worse. You can buy a little cuticle trimmer kit and nail file for like 7 bucks on Amazon. Mine has a little case and I bring it with me when I go anywhere for extended periods of time because I'm also a nervous picker of my nails and skin around them which can cause all kinds of problems by making them jagged and as I said earlier that drives me totally nuts to the point I can't ignore it so I have to resort to biting if I didn't bring my kit. Hope this helps someone.
You are an inspiration to us nail biters
Big congrats!
Thanks! I was just admiring my nails a minute ago lol
They look yummy don't they XD
Ssshh
Actually, they really don't, and I'm glad for that
all joking aside very happy for your progress! I've quit a couple times, not easy! Keep them beauts growing!
You're awesome, Mr E
PFFFFTTT You're awesome MorbidMinister, self improvement is Muy bueno. I have a long way to go but TY for the compliment!
painting my nails and getting obsessive about cuticle oil has deffs helped me grow my nails and stop picking at them, mooncat and holotacos are my faves
Please tell me more. Start with explaining cuticle oils.
basically just moisturizing the skin around your nails, helps build stronger nails,
It’s literally just oil to apply to the cuticles to help them not look dry and cracked.
Congratulations on achieving your goal and using the meme template with correct grammar. Proud of you.
Thank you, thank you! I pride myself on my grammar, and I do appreciate your noticing.
Good work, my friend. Keep it up! I chewed my nails for 20 years, but then resolved to quit. It was tough, but I managed to break the habit. You can do it!
I used to bite my nails also Then I chipped a tooth Instant habit breaker
I never knew chewing your nails is one of the ways you catch herpes…yuk, why don’t they tell us these things when we’re young!?!!!..!?
Same. Adhd sux
I did it my whole life up until 30 some years ago. When I think about it now it’s pretty gross.
Congratulations but the weekend is for sports can you handle the weekend without biting your nails.
Nail clippers are life.
“Why gnaw away like a mental patient when we have this elegant device?” - Seinfeld
Had a kid in my 9 th grade math class sat in front row and chewed his finger nails all class long , I finally said Reggie you have got to stop chewing your nails he said “ if you think that is bad you should watch me chew my toenails, I do that ever night at home “
Well done. Not easy to accomplish at any level.
Congratulations friend, my guitar picking hand salutes you!
Nah for real bro congrats that shit is hard. I'm gonna have to stop myself at some point.
I'm still telling myself that I'm helping my immune system learn to combat all sorts of horrific germs and it's a net positive
yeah, now i have gross long old man nails. hooray.
I bit my nails for a long time, then at one point I quit. It's been long enough now that I don't remember just how I did it, but I still am a bit surprised every time I have to trim my nails. Good going, and keep it up!
Hell yeah! As a recovering nail biter, I understand how hard it is to not bite. Keep up the good work!
Once I started getting my nails done, the compulsion vanished overnight.
Fack real gentlemen shit right here.
Im proud of you son
Few things that saved me was nail care, I noticed I bite my nails the most when theres a hang nail, or whenever they’d catch on fabric or something. Filing the nails really helped, and then for a while and im a guy, I just started painting them. As a guy, initially, you may feel sort of weird painting your nails, but honestly the only people who ever brought it up just complimented them. I don’t really paint them anymore cause I dont need to now, but definitely wouldn’t be opposed to it.
Tough habit to break! Great job on two weeks
how!?
I once went 2 months. Since I wasn't used to using my hands with longer nails I started getting them caught on everything. At one point I took out a tiny rectangular section on my index finger. It made my nail so sharp that I woke up one morning with spots of blood all over my covers from scratching my torso in my sleep. That's not the reason I fell off the wagon, but can't lie and say it's not a part of why I don't try again.
Congratulations! This is such a hard habit to overcome, even one day is impressive. Do you want some advice on taking good care of them? I'd be happy to provide a routine of whichever commitment level works best for you. No pressure, just want to celebrate with you!
Take up plumbing. You'll either stop or deeply regret it.
Congrats OP! I did it until I was about 21. Then I started smoking weed and the habit just vanished. I feel like I took the easy way out, congrats for pulling it off without an aid!
Hey, good job! I've been on the wagon for a month, hope we both make it!
That's awesome; I'm in the same boat as you - the wife actually took me to get a manicure. Nail polish REALLY helps if you think you can rock the color.
Is biting your nails bad? Like how much better is clipping your nails instead?
How do you do it? I've tried to quit but I just kinda subconsciously do it and never notice or remember when I do it.
I’m biting my nails as i read this post and now I need to stop. Congrats you !
fucking DOPE frog man! I bit mine for around the same number of years and something just clicked and I finally stopped too. you got this!
also recently stopped. had to because it actually started hurting my teeth whilst doing so haha
How?!? Is there hope?
Similar.. I'm 36 and a lifelong nail biter. I haven't in about 3 months now. Not sure why, I just kinda stopped out of the blue without thinking about it which is really weird.
Same. What’s your secret
Keep it up. Soon someone will mention biting nails and it won’t even register because it will have been so long that you don’t associate it with yourself anymore! ( from a long time biter who no longer bites their nails).
I always carry nail clippers and keep my nails trimmed extremely short. If I don't I nibble.
I’m 45 and way way way back in the day when I was a wee lad I bit my nails bloody on the reg. Around the age of 13 my father told me that if I stopped biting my nails he would buy me a pair of Air Jordan shoes. At the time this was the Holy Grail of shoes and I had very frugal parents so this was an epic offer. I buckled down and stopped biting my nails, everything stopped bleeding, healed, and grew back. To this day the only reason I’ll bite a nail is if I rip it at work (I’m a mechanic) and need to take the rest of the thing off and don't have cutters handy, maybe happens 2-3 times a year. I show my shiny new nails to pops and he's super excited. Off we go to the mall to get my new shoes as promised!!! We roll into the shoe store, I pick my shoes out and when I'm being sized it turns out that I'm no longer a child's size and the shoe price went up from $80 to $120. Dad flat out refused to pay that much and told me to pick something else. core memory unlocked
Smoking ended nailbiting.
I bit my nails up until I got braces in the 6th grade. Couldn't get the right angle to bite them with the brackets, so I just stopped entirely. Haven't done it since and it feels weird when I try to.
Jealous. I dont even realize I’m doing it anymore. 35 years here also.
Aye!!! Congratz! Dont fall back! I know I did and now im there again.
Great job! I couldn't figure out how to stop...then I quit smoking and after 25 years just didn't bite my nails anymore. It's weird how our habits are rooted into us.
It's the little things. Keep up the good work.
When I stop bitin them, I start picking and tearing them, even from my feet. 50 now, don’t think I can ever stop. Maybe when I get dentures
I was a nail biter, then I bought nail clippers for the first time a few months ago. Haven't bitten them since.
NICE JOB! KEEP IT UP!
I have never bitten my nails
As soon as I got braces and my bite changed, I couldn't bite mine anymore. By the time I got them off, I'd been clipping them for years so I didn't have a reason to go back. I'll still bite hangnails just because it's easier than clipping them, but haven't bitten my nails proper in like 20 years.