Am I destroying my future with gel manicures?

December 2, 2023 4:08 PM

I have been getting gel manicures for the past 6-ish months. I have read online that I'm supposed to take breaks after every 2 polish changes, which I have not been doing. This advice is typically dispensed by dermatologists, who don't strike as the most knowledgeable about this. My nail tech was noncommittal when I asked her. Am I destroying my entire future or even just my nails? Do I need to take breaks, and if so how often? What do I need to look out for in terms of problems?

I love getting the gel manicures - I have always had a lot of problems smudging with regular polish. I get them removed and redone about every 2 weeks. I spend about an hour in the nail salon and have great looking, very strong nails for 2++ weeks with no effort on my part.

I am concerned about damaging my nails over time though. My salon's removal process is:

• Use e file/nail drill to remove the polish top coat
• Use acetone on cotton in the foils for 10-15 min
• Scrape off polish with the metal cuticle pusher tool
• Remove any remaining polish with the e file (this is done briefly and only on areas with straggling polish
• Nails are buffed with the buffer block

I have noticed that my nails are a little rough after this process (especially before the buffing). They also seem pale after the polish is removed, but the regular color returns after a while.

Nail experts - what kind of breaks do I need to be taking? How do I tell if my nails are getting damaged in a concerning way?

posted by jeoc to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (17 answers total)

dermatologists, who don't strike as the most knowledgeable about this.

I think you need to seriously reconsider this assumption. Dermatologists are literally doctors who specialize in the dermis (which includes the nails and their surroundings).
posted by heatherlogan at 4:29 PM on December 2, 2023 [79 favorites]

I mean, after I spend about 4 months straight with just regular pedicures in the summer, my toenails are pretty damaged and I spend the winter getting them back in good shape. The gel process seems extremely damaging for your nails over the long term.
posted by TwoStride at 4:50 PM on December 2, 2023 [10 favorites]

I have never received any concerns about gel manicures from my primary care physician or my dermatologist. The most my derm would say was that there was a chance I'd be aging/upping my cancer risk on my hands with the exposure to the UV light.

I had gel on my nails almost 24/7 for several years and suffered no permanent damage to my nails or hands. I did make a point to go to a higher end salon only about once a month. I would "stretch" my manicures by selecting styles that would grow out gracefully or where I could add a little regular polish to keep them looking good on that last week.

Also, I really disliked the rough method most nail techs use to remove gel. So, I chose to do that at home myself. I'd scruff the clear coat with an emery board, soak in the acetone with foils and then remove the polish. If I needed to do any slight buffing to remove stubborn polish, I would use a buffer block. I felt like that made a big difference in the quality of my nails, even when they were "naked".
posted by annaramma at 4:52 PM on December 2, 2023 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: To clarify, I think the advice dermatologists give on random internet articles is probably conservative and maybe not aligned with people’s experience in the real world.
posted by jeoc at 4:55 PM on December 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

not aligned with people’s experience in the real world.

Dermatologists advice will be based on research which is based on information about the real world collected and analyzed in a systematic way as opposed to by anecdote and impressions.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:28 PM on December 2, 2023 [33 favorites]

Gel polish trashes my nails. But it looks so good and lasts for ages! Confession: often I peel gel polish off myself after a couple of weeks once it starts to peel away on its own rather than getting it removed at the salon, which is apparently a big no-no. So I limit myself to doing it only a couple of times a year. After a gel polish, my nails are noticeably thinner and rough and bumpy but do eventually grow back to normal. I think it really depends on whether you notice any issues with your nails. If so, then take a break until they grow back healthy again.
posted by emd3737 at 6:54 PM on December 2, 2023

I'm frankly astonished to see all these concerns about the long term effects of gel nails. I've had my nails done for 30+ years now, without a break, and the gel seems so much easier on my nails than the acrylic I used to get. My nail tech, who I've used for 20+ years, peels the gel off down to my natural nail every few months to starts fresh and I don't see anything alarming when my own fingernail is exposed. I have always assumed that when I wanted to take off the gel for good, my own nails would be thinner and weaker initially but would restore themselves as they grew out.
posted by DrGail at 7:07 PM on December 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

The dermatologists don't want you to develop contact dermatitis.

Good nail techs, for instance Nail Career Education on YouTube, talk about the risks of contact dermatitis from frequent exposure to acrylic monomer all the time. (Gel = acrylic, it's just a difference of formation to change the curing agent.)

It's not about your nails. Nails grow out, you can fuck em up bad and after a year of growing and filing it'll be like it never happened. It's about the contact dermatitis.

Once you get a taste of contact dermatitis you can never return to the trigger without causing yourself a world of hurt. They encourage you to take breaks so your skin doesn't have such regular repeated exposure to the chemicals, so you can keep getting your manis forever.

(A good nail tech should never be sloppin the product on your skin anyway, so you're probably fine in that regard, too.)
posted by phunniemee at 7:08 PM on December 2, 2023 [9 favorites]

If you are interested in research vs anecdote, this looks like a pretty good article from the journal Clinics in Dermatology. Abstract:

Six of the reports described ACD [Allergic Contact Dermatitis] (62 cases, 70.5%), 3 concerned mechanical nail damage (23 cases, 26.1%), and 3 reported UV-induced skin lesions (3 cases, 3.4%). ACD developed an average of 30 months after GNP initiation. The most frequent culprit allergens were 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate. Pterygium inversum unguis was the most frequent mechanical lesion (n = 17). Squamous cell carcinoma was reported in 3 cases. The delay between UV exposure and the diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma ranged from 11 to 15 years. Scant literature and a lack of education among consumers and beauticians have led to the uncontrolled use of GNP.

Unfortunately I can't find the full text of the article anywhere, though you can request it through Elsevier's patient access system. Be sure to also check the references at the bottom of the article - they link to other articles with more details and information. Also check the list of related articles here.

It looks like the main risks are contact dermatitis and skin cancer caused by the exposure to high-intensity UV light used to cure the gels. Squamous cell carcinoma is pretty treatable if caught early but still, something you definitely want to give consideration to. Prevention steps would include applying good quality sunscreen to any areas that might be exposed to the UV light (hands & fingers?) and covering most of your hand & fingers with a UV-light proof glove.

Be aware that the UV light almost certainly increases the incidence of several types of skin cancer, not only squamous cell carcinoma.posted by flug at 8:38 PM on December 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

You can find a number of different research articles on this topic by searching Google Scholar for key words like "gel nails".

Just for example, here is one that discusses the contact dermatitis issue:

(Meth)acrylates in gel nail polishes are increasingly recognized as important sensitizers, capable of provoking a myriad of clinical presentations . . . Mismatches between the (meth)acrylates used and the curing light sources may increase the risk of developing this type of ACD. The light sources themselves, i.e., UV-lamps, may equally cause skin and nail problems, including solar urticaria. . . ."

posted by flug at 8:44 PM on December 2, 2023

A competent nail artist will prevent you having any issues, even if you go in every three weeks. The fact your current person e-files and then still soaks off is a good indication you have not found that competent nail artist yet.

Developing contact dermatitis can happen because of certain cheaper materials that exist in inferior gels, but again a competent artist isn’t going to be smearing those cheaper materials all over your cuticles. So it wouldn’t matter.

And if you are peeling/picking your gels off like someone else commented, then yeah no shit your nails are going to be fucked; because you are directly fucking up your nails. In any case, you are at risk at getting fired as a client if you keep doing that.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 9:40 PM on December 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

I did gels for a year. I loved them. I would not do them again. The UV and solvent exposures are terrible. My nails were torn up for a couple months after the last gel session.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:46 PM on December 2, 2023

It depends. I had gel once and it definitely screwed up my nails. They were weak and flabby. Hard to say if that would ever happen to you if you're fine so far. If your nails ever feel weak, take a break.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:40 AM on December 3, 2023

Hey so if your nail person is e-filing the top gel layer and soaking, that's a good sign that they are working to prevent damage. People blame the e-file for everything, but often its the acetone soak, which is inherently drying -- acetone is a dehydrator.

If you ever want to stop getting gels, prepare to clip down and re-grow because that dehdration may well cause weak nails prone to breakage. That is superficial damage that will grow out, not lifelong damage to your nailbeds.

Meantime, get a pair of UV nail gloves. They are cheap and worth it.
posted by DarlingBri at 6:08 AM on December 3, 2023

I had gel nails for a year+ then stopped doing it after the last removal. My nails were weaker and peeling more but after the whole nail had regrown (YMMV for how long this takes) they’re back to the same state as before gel.

It would have been difficult to wear regular polish without redoing it every few days immediately after stopping gel if that’s your plan (since weak nails bend more and chip more easily).
posted by ellieBOA at 12:59 PM on December 3, 2023

ok so my nails were a bit trashed after doing gels, but i was hard on them and totally peeled them off. I also think the acetone soak was really the culprit. When I got bored of them i got rid of the gel and I just kept my hands moisturized and my nails short until they grew out.

I do builder base gel nails now (here is a description, they arent arcrylics. I like that when i got to change the nail polish and get a fill, there is no acetone and the efile is never really on my own nail. They take a smidge of getting used to but I really like them and feel like this is the better option for me.

As others have said, I think this also comes down to your tech and salon and how clean and professional they are.

Are keeping your nails natural probably better for you? Sure. But like, it's a pretty minimal downside for something that makes me happy.
posted by zara at 1:09 PM on December 3, 2023

I've been getting structured gel manicures every 4 weeks for 2 years with no breaks. Structured gel is harder than just a gel manicure; a hard gel formulation is used to build up the thickness and form a shape with an apex that helps prevent bending (and subsequent lifting at the cuticle).

Now, I might be biased because my natural nails are SHIT. They have always been weirdly shaped and thin and bendy and broke/tore easily. I realized I could never keep regular polish on because the nail underneath it would bend and that would always cause chipping. Now that I get structured gel every month, my natural nails are long, grow in the right shape, and don't bend down around the tip of my finger because of the strength that the gel provides.

I do not peel the gel off, ever. (I've had maybe one or two nails over the last 2 years start lifting and fully peeled off of their own accord but I never pick at them if lifting starts.) This happened with one of my nails last month, and my natural nail was bare for one day and it seemed fine/normal. Dry, sure, but not damaged.

My nail tech uses an e-file to file down the old manicure but is very careful to not file the natural nail itself. Some techs can be careless about this and cause the dreaded "ring of fire" - usually when someone files too far down along the cuticle and creates a half-ring of damaged nail bed.

You do need a nail tech who knows what they are doing to lessen the chance of developing contact dermatitis. The gel must not be left on your skin, and every layer needs to be FULLY cured. You should both be wearing masks at least during the e-filing part, in my opinion, even with ventilation and a dust collector.

I truly do not think that my natural nails have been harmed by my manicures. I try to be good about keeping my cuticles moisturized and using gloves to wash dishes/clean which seems to make a big difference with retention, and retention is the name of the game for nail health - if your gel isn't peeling off and you have a good tech, you aren't losing the top layer of your natural nail.

I love my structured gel manicures and don't know if I will ever go back to not having them!
posted by misskaz at 4:07 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]