Beauty

[juperier]

For what it's worth, here's info on white spots that are within the nail from Doug Schoon's Facebook page. He's an international nail expert and chemist.

'Here the text that goes with the Cover image;
“The matrix is a rough rectangular area residing mostly underneath the skin at the base of the nail plate which is properly called the eponychium. If a small part of the nail matrix receives a minor or mild injury through impact or other damaging force, that area of the matrix will temporarily produce nail cells that can’t properly mature. These abnormal nail cells will retain their youthful appearance and remain in their immature form, round and white and will not flatten or become translucent, which is what normally occurs. The injury likely occurred many weeks before the white spots appeared. Once the injury is healed, the matrix will start producing normal cells again. These white spots will grow with the nail plate until they are eventually filed away and will not return unless the nail matrix is traumatized again at a later time.

When many immature cells are clustered together it creates the appearance of a white spot “inside” the nail plate. These spots are NOT caused by eating certain foods nor are they an indication of any vitamin or mineral deficiency in the body nor are they calcium deposits. In fact, these spots are NOT related at all to the diet. In general, men tend to have more white spots on their fingers than do women, probably because men are more likely to treat their hands harshly, during work and play. These white spots generally don’t require any treatment, but because of their nature these white spots are much softer than the surrounding nail plate therefore, special care should be taken when abrasive nail files are used to file over these areas. Only in very rare cases are these spots associated with liver disease or anemia, but this is considered unusual. The vast majority of the time, white spots inside the nail plate are caused by minor damage to the nail matrix. If you’re concerned that your condition is not related to minor injury, show these spots to your medical doctor.

Don’t be fooled by those marketing or selling nutritional supplements. These products will do nothing for these types of white spots on the nail. Claims that these spots are cause by zinc, calcium or other deficiencies is marketing hype and not supported by any science-based factual information. ”

Surface white spots are typically caused be inproper removal of gel polish (http://www.schoonscientific.com/eblast/eblast_2012-01-25_Nail-Immersion.htm). I realize you do your own mani's and probably aren't using gel, but perhaps you changed something in your procedure that caused you to use more force while removing your polish? I also agree with Doug and others who feel that the extended contact and additional rubbing needed when using non-acetone remover ends up being a bit worse for one's nails than using acetone.

While an appropriate oil will improve the appearance of damage, it won't make it completely go away. If the white totally disappeared, it could be dry spots

[SilleeMee]

@juperier,

I said that in the beginning...about the dry part.

[juperier]

@SilleeMee It's not necessarily that simple. According to Doug, much of what is labeled "dry nails" is actually damage caused by improper techniques (often due lack of knowledge and/or misinformation that is so prevelant in the nail tech world. I've read enough "horror" stories (both here and elsewhere) to believe that that's true more often than we would like to believe.