I’ve always loved nails, even as a child I was fascinated by them and I always found myself looking at peoples nails. I’ve always loved doing nails as they give me some sense of calm and of course having long beautiful nails. I started having acrylic nails when I was in my late teens and loved them so much I became a qualified nail technician in my early twenties. By my late twenties, I had sadly become allergic to most nail products and was very, very upset by it.
I found a Vietnamese lady who did my nails for years and years but after getting frustrated with them being unable to do the sort of intricate nails that I wanted I decided to find a nail technician that could. After looking around I found a lady called Debbie who was amazing. She was more expensive but the quality and complexity of her nails were worth it. Debbie did some incredible nails for me and I fell more in love with them every time I looked at them. Every time I saw her I would have the most incredible, colourful, long, sparkling and detailed nails. Debbie was a dream come true for me.
Over time my acrylics started lifting quicker than they should have, so I had them shorter to try to help. Then one day my fingers started to itch. I didn’t think much of it until I was waking up scratching my fingers really badly. I took my nails off and had a few weeks break before trying again but the same thing happened. When I looked closely at the skin on my fingers around my nails I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was as though I had hundreds of tiny blisters under my skin and over my fingertips that made them feel numb and as though they were going to burst.
As it turned out I have something called pompholyx or “ants nest eczema”. It’s pretty gross and makes me feel sick whenever I look at it. As it is triggered by nail products I am not able to wear almost anything on my nails. I left my nails bare for a couple of years and eventually, through the process of elimination, found out that I can wear OPI Nail Envy to treat my nails and Sally Hansen Miracle Gel.
A few months ago I had one nail done my Debbie to see if I was still allergic to the product and I didn’t appear to react so I thought I would buy myself a Polygel kit (if you don’t know the difference between nail extension types check out this link) so that I could have nice nails for the ladies night we had last weekend. I managed to do a full set of nails with some practice and I was really chuffed with what I achieved as they looked really good.
The tips of my thumbs started to feel a bit weird over the last couple of days and when I looked at my fingers today I had a big pompholyx flare up so I had to spend this morning filing off my nails. I was not a happy bunny, to say the least.
I get that I have EDS and numerous other health problems, but this allergy is one that pisses me off the most. One thing that I LOVED having and doing, I can’t. I’m not even able to do nails as I start to react so all of my nail kit, including my hundreds of nail varnishes are basically useless. Having my nails done made me feel more feminine and made me feel like me and spending hours doing my nails was something that I loved to do. I was known for having different, colourful nails and people always wanted to see what I had done, but that has all been taken away from me. Having to file my nails off this morning really upset me because I had really hoped that I was ok again. My natural nails are in such bad condition because of my medication that I really, really wanted to have nice nails again. To top it all off I have ruined my already rubbish nails even more because I have basically peeled the Polygel off rather than soaking it. I know that when there is a trauma to your nail it can increase growth rate but I am still going to have to wait at least 6 months for this damage to grow out.
I am using CND’s RescueRxx, Nunale Strengthening Cream and Hydrocortisone cream to treat my fingernails and the skin around them, hopefully, this will help to get rid of the Pompholyx and help my nails to recover. No matter what there is nothing I am going to be able to do about this allergy and I am just going to have to put up with it like I do everything else. I think it’s fair to say that there is at least one occasion every day where I wish I was ‘normal’ and not the way that I am.
arbezlife 