hi all, hoping someone can give me some advise, I have a client who i have been doing acrylics on for about a year, she is busy so leaves it too long between infills (3/4 weeks) and glues back on any broken nails, before i did her infills she went to another local salon (oriental) and she had a black thumb nail which doesnt seem to be growing out ( she is nearly 60 so nail seem to be slow growing) and now the nail seems to have lifted quite abit from her thumb.. and looks gross, she not keen to leave a nail off as there is hardly any nail left so i have used lots of nail pure and pink masque hoping it will grow back.. do you think this is the way to go.. thanx for listening to my long rambling thread

Has she been to the doctors at all ? if not i think you shuld advise that she dose! it being black could be down to sevral diffrent things but could also be undetected diabetic or worse , untill the doctor has okayed it with you i wouldnt try to cover it over just to be on the safe side you know?

Is she sayin she knocked it or the blackness came after the infills at the lovely salon where they drill into natural nail beds? I totally agree with Mizzy suggest she gets it checked other wise there could be an underlying thing .... by using the pink mask etc you are just covering a potential problem ..... the docs will need to see it in all its glory!!! Sounds like shes not keen but a safe removal and no [product will be the best for the doc to diagnose thhe issues>>>

Hope this helps xx

I had a lady come in like this a couple of weeks ago. Both ring fingers the nails seemed to be lifting off the nail bed. I told her she needed to see her doctor, she wasn't best pleased, but I told her I'd happily do the other nails (put my latex gloves on and binned everything I used on her just in case), but told her to get permission from her doctor before I would do the fingers with the problem. She came back a couple of days later, had been to the doctor, they had had an infection but doctor said it had gone and left the nails like that, so it was safe to carry on.

I'd reccommend this to you too, because I felt so much better having the doctor's say so.

We as nail professionals should never diagnosis a health issue with a client. If a nail is black and is lifting, she should go to the doctor, asap!! Leave it to the doctor to tell her what it is and how best to handle it.

Hi there,
I would also advise her that by sticking her nails back on she could be trapping moisture and dirt in between the artificial nail and the nail plate causing all sorts of problems with mold and fungus etc. So she really needs to stop doing that for a start (easier said than done right!). She needs to get it professionally removed and replaced as she could be causing her own nail problems.
Also OPI have a product called fungus fix that can be used to help with problem nails (helps to fix a variety of nail problems) and can be used with nail enhancements etc. Might be worth a try on her nails too. It may help if she is reluctant to go to a doctor or remove the artificial nails on those fingers.

many thanks for all the replies, i will suggest a trip to docs and see how she gets on,