Help please with cuticle understanding..?

[brittone05]

So I can't start training until after the New Year due to personal issues, but I am continuing to digest both Geeg's book and The Enyclopedia of Nails in the mean time.

I have confused myself a little though and hope someone can please help me.

All that I have read tells me that "cuticle" is non-living and is made up of exfoliated skin cells from the folds of skin around the nail. I know that it is not living tissue ( this is the eponychium yes?) and that is should not be referred to as anything other than "cuticle".

Whilst reading the Enc. of Nails today and studying contra-actions to nail treatments, I read that using nippers to cut CUTICLE rather than just nip it away can cause scar tissue and thickening of skin.

This is where I need some help - is the book wrong and meaning using nippers to cut the eponychium can cause thickening?

I didn't think that you could create a scar tissue out of a non-living cell?

Please help as this has thrown me right off what I have already digested

Thanks in advance Geeks :hug:

 

[Jakki27]

Hi I have just finished my foundation course with CND and I believe the eponychium is the water tight seal between the nail plate and the matrix. This should not be damaged as it could cause infections etc.
The cuticle is the bit that is stuck on the nail plate and needs to be removed in prep or you risk lifting.

Hope thats right I'm sure someone else will confirm this or provide the correct answer :hug:

Jakki
xx

 

[brittone05]

Thanks hun - I have pretty much got my head around the cuticle and such what has thrown me is the whole scarring and thickening issue. I just didn't think that a non-living cell could be scarred in such a way although I am probably way out!

 

[DEBI-DEE]

Yes, your right, If you cut the eponychium it can cause thickening and scarring, and it IS the non living tissue you nip away. I found all of this confusing when i started out too because different people have different ideas of what cuticle is. It is only wrong to nip the cuticle if you think the cuticle is the eponychium. IYKWIM.

 

[brittone05]

Thanks hun - this Enc of Nails is totally confusing - it clearly states in it's print that cutting the CUTICLE causes thickening of the skin. Yet it tells you in earlier chapters that the cuticle and eponychium are totally different things!!!

I love learning about nail anatomy and stuff but want to get it all right while I am learning instead of being confused over such a simple thing!

 

[ValencianNails]

Whilst reading the Enc. of Nails today and studying contra-actions to nail treatments, I read that using nippers to cut CUTICLE rather than just nip it away can cause scar tissue and thickening of skin.

This is where I need some help - is the book wrong and meaning using nippers to cut the eponychium can cause thickening?

What page does it mention that? (I've had a quick look in mine but can't see it)
Just curious and I'm wondering if you've read it right :wink2:

 

[brittone05]

Page 157 hun - the 4th one down in the sectino about cutting of skin around the cuticles. I know that the section header is correct but it really threw me when it said cuticle and not eponychium - it shouldn't have really but I got in a right tiz with myself!

 

[ValencianNails]

Oooops, I'm looking at Marian's book (Complete nail technician) and not the Enc of Nails :o
Just read your post again and realised why I couldn't see the bit you mean on that page, duh me LOL

Anyway, as Deb and Jakki said, you don't cut eponychium (as you already know), but good on you for querying it, many people wouldn't have :green:

 

[brittone05]

Thanks hun It will be a long time before I attempt to cut anything other than my children's nails anyway but I am glad my confusion is a bit justified and not just me being soft

 

[redsadie]

Hi hun

It can be confusing can't it!??

Have a read of this http://www.salongeek.com/nail-application/3007-perfect-preparation.html

And here is an extract

The cuticle is an epidermal layer of skin that is virtually invisible. It is shed from the underside of the proximal fold and grows out attached to the natural nail plate from the underside of the eponychium. This is what you need to remove to enable the enhancement to adhere to the nail plate properly.
What most people call the cuticle is actually the eponychium. Cutting, picking, or any other attempt to remove the eponychium should be avoided at all costs. Doing so greatly increases the risk of paronychia (a real nasty and painful bacterial infection of the nail folds). On top of the dreaded P word, the body replaces the cut/torn/eradicated skin with scar tissue. I have this on my right hand third finger (probably due to office work - holding pens etc. but I have never cut any living tissue)
People who often cut their eponychiums usually grow calloused and hardened eponychiums. That said, I do trim the hard skin around the nail which I would call the nail fold though, not the cuticle, otherwise I find that the acrylic on that particular nail lifts.

I'm not sure that this is what you were looking for, but it makes sense to me

Sarah. xx

 

[brittone05]

Thanks Sarah I think it was just the terminology used by the book itself that threw me - I know that a living tissue can scar and regrow thicker and such but 2was baffled how a non-living tissue could do so