How long is it safe to keep artificial nails on?

First of all nails don\'t breathe as they are made of DEAD keratin cells (same as hair) - this information can easily be obtained from any book on human anatomy. Hence there is no need to \'have rest\' from nail polish, gel/acrylic etc. Nail extensions should be maintained every 2-3 weeks, as otherwise they become more prone to lifting and breaking due to product moving forward along with growing nail and the whole structure becomes unbalanced. If the product has lifted from the natural nail do not try to stick it back to the nail with the glue, as you may encapsulate moist and dust and this will create a perfect environment for bacterial infection development. In this case you should ask you Nail Technician to replace this particular nail. Do not attempt to pull off lifting nail. It might lift from one side, but on the other side there might be quite strong bond with natural nail. In this case you will be pulling upper layers of the natural nail, thus causing damage. As long as there is no lifting, the length is appropriate for your lifestyle and you look after you nail extensions, you may have them for as long as you wish.
By: Anna_I

Date of comment: Sun, Mar 6th 2011