About the Natural Nail

The Natural Nail
You may not realise it, but your fingernails reveal a lot about your general health. Take a look. Are your nails strong and healthy looking? Or do you see ridges or areas of unusual colour or shape? Many less than desirable nail conditions can be avoided through proper care.Your nails grow from the area under your cuticle know as the matrix. As new cells grow, older cells become hard and compacted and are eventually pushed out towards your fingertips.

Nails grow at an average of one-tenth of an inch a month. The nails on your dominant hand grow faster then the other hand, and they grow more in summer than in winter. Nails are also porous, which means they absorb liquids that come into contact with them.

Nail Anatomy
Nail Bed:
The nail bed is made of two types of tissue, dermis and epidermis. The dermis is the lower portion which is attached to the bone, while the epidermis lies just underneath the nail plate. The epidermis moves forward with the nail plate and is attached to the dermis by tiny ‘rails and grooves’ that allow the nail plate to move much like a train rides on its tracks. As we age, the nail plate becomes thinner and we see evidence of the ‘rails and grooves’ as vertical ridges in the nail plate.

Nail Plate:
The nail plate is made of keratin protein which is formed by amino acids. These proteins are a strong, flexible material made from many layers of dead, flattened cells. Hair and skin are also keratin protein, however, they are much softer and more flexible.

Cuticle:(Eponychium)
A thin crescent of colourless skin that partially overlaps the lunula.

Hyponychium:
Refers to the soft skin that is the distal end of the nail unit and the nail bed. It lies directly under the ‘free edge’.

Matrix:
The matrix produces the cells that become the nail plate. The size, length and shape of the matrix determine width and thickness of the nail plate. It is the shape of the fingertip bone that determines if the nail plate is flat, ski-jump, arched or hooked.

Lunula:
The opaque pale white ‘half moon’ at the base of the nail, and forms the emerging immature, plump nail plate cells. As these cells grow forward, they lose their inner material and become flat, hard and transparent.