As a recovering nail biter, I’m obsessed with caring for my nails.
Because I change my nail colour often (weekly), my pocket doesn’t allow me to spend a small fortune on manicures like gelish or acrylic nails, so I’ve become pretty good at doing my nails and capable of painting my nails without getting polish all over my fingers. When my nails look good I have less temptation to bite them.
I recently challenged myself to growing my nails as long as I possibly could. I managed to grow them so long that my sister was convinced they were extensions.
I had long nails like the cool girls but I soon realised they were not as cool as they looked.
They became so impractical that simple daily tasks were a challenge.
One of my greatest challenges was texting. Girls with long (Khloe Kardashian long) nails make it look so easy.
I once asked a blogger with long nails, who was constantly on her phone, how she managed to do it with such ease. Her advice was to use the pad of my fingertips.
I tried it many times but I couldn’t get the hang of it. It became so frustrating to type the same word over and over again because I was constantly pressing the wrong letter. It would take so long type out a sentence that I would resort to voice notes where possible.
In fact, typing on anything was a problem.
Even eating had its challenges.
There are certain meals I prefer to eat by hand but using my fingers always resulted in bits of food getting stuck under my nails.
Cleaning leftover food from under my nails was nasty, and this forced me to eat meals using a knife and fork (or spoon).
Have you ever seen anyone eating a juicy burger with a knife and fork? Well, I was that person. A very unhappy person.
Food always ends stays underneaths when using your hands. (Picture: Pexels)
All kinds of stuff would get under my nails.
Soap and body lotion were just a few of those things. Trying to get something like Vaseline out of it's container wasn’t as simple as usual.
Handling small objects was near impossible.
When I dropped a coin I would seriously consider leaving it on the ground knowing that trying to pick it up would be difficult.
Trying to insert earrings or put on any jewelry that involved a clasp was a nightmare. I would even avoid buttons as much as I could.
Trying insert earrings can be a struggle. (Picture: Pexels)
Two months later I was defeated by all these daily struggles and had no choice but to cut my nails.
I was never so happy to have short nails. To be able to type without the frustration and to enjoy a burger like a normal person.
Now that I’ve lived the long nails life, I can say it’s not the life for me.
I’m quite happy with beautifully painted practical short nails.