Cuticle question

[chriscavell]

Hi all

Slightly confused, Ive looked through my text books and asked the question but Im still unsure.
What is the cuticle?
I always assumed it was the clear bit of skin at the bottom of the nail which you pushed back.
The reason Im confused is that my course refers to soft tissue being pushed back or taken off the nail plate with a cuticle knife and that this is different from the cuticle as I assumed it to be.

 

[geeg]

Preparation is one part of the nail service that cannot and must not be rushed. Thorough PREP will take the most time of any part of the whole service; application and finishing will take much less time proportionally. Preparation is all about removing cuticle from the nail plate.

Here is an excerpt from my book, 'nailclass'.

There is much confusion as to just what cuticle is. It is referred to as: True cuticle, non-living tissue, pterygium, and probably many more things, all misleading. Some think the eponychium is the cuticle. Let’s define.

Cuticle is made up of exfoliated skin cells from the folds of skin surrounding the nail unit. Cuticle is non-living. Cuticle is NOT pterygium (which is an over growth of skin cells). Cuticle is not the eponychium (which is living skin surrounding the base of the nail unit). Cuticle is not ‘true cuticle’ as opposed to false cuticle, it IS cuticle.

If the cuticle is not regularly removed or rubbed off in some way, then it will build up and stick together until it almost looks like a membrane which is growing from under the eponychium … but it is not growing and it is not living, it is just building up until such time as it is removed.

So in fact, you are pushing back the eponychium then using a sanitised metal implement to remove the cuticle from the nail plate. HTH

 

[anna592]

the sticky post at the top of the nail geek section mentions about doug schoon...hes just started a range of short videos, the first one being called wheres the cuticle, and a link to his website where you can download a pdf which also explains everything for each individual video. i would invest in his book as well, nail structure and product chemistry, as its a useful reference for years to come and also a copy of gigi's book, nailclass xx