Nail treatments on recovering anorexic?

[charbelle]

Hi everyone, my best friend is recovering (not sure on correct terms!) from anorexia.
She's very embarrassed about her nails at the moment. They are very brittle and the other day half of her toenail fell off.
I have tried l and p with tips but they don't last even a week! Have tried gelish and it chips and peels off very easily!
Is there anything else I could try? Any different techniques?
She hates the way her nails are looking although they are growing out and that part is nice and healthy!
Shes also applying solar oil about twice a day.

 

[Wooshka]

I would stop trying to apply any type of enhancement until her nails are in a much healthier state.
You must have a good foundation for any kind of enhancement to be built upon and right now, that is not there but it will be in time.

For now, keep the nails short and well shaped and up the Solar Oil to at least 3 times a day if not more.

Depending on her own body, her nails could take 6 months or even more, to grow out the damage and become healthy enough to apply enhancements but if her nails are that bad right now, putting enhancements on them will only cause more damage so avoid them for now.

Make a plan with her and work towards a goal of her having nice nails by XXX time next year or something. Find a picture she likes of a set of nails and put it up somewhere where she can see it daily and remind herself what she is working towards as most people who suffer from disorders like anorexia are very rigid in their thinking and very goal orientated and this will give her something to work towards.

Once her nails have grown out a bit and she has used the Solar Oil for a while, you could offer a gel polish service to offer some extra strength but I would only do this if there were no signs of peeling and chipping on her nails for a while cause if they peel and chip, the gel polish doesn't stand a chance in staying put.

Try to get her to see that it took xxxxx amount of time for her nails to get to this bad point, now it's going to take xxx amount of time for them to heal and grow out.

When/if you do put enhancements on her in the future, keep them short to start with and work up length over time as she gets used to them.

Good luck to both of you, it's not an easy time for her at this stage of things.

 

[leannelily]

First of all well done to your friend for recovering! My best friend also used to be anorexic and recovering when i first met her, so i seen the huge struggle & it is tough!

Second of all i totally agree with Wooshka you could also get her to start taking some hair & nail vitamins which could help make them stronger (they did with mine)

Good luck! Xx

 

[charbelle]

Yes I don't like putting them on her but I will show her this so she knows she needs to let them get in better shape.
Thank you for your help ladies x