it is not the first time, but now, that slit in my fingernail has stayed for lots of weeks already!
Whenever that happened before, I cut the nail short as far as needed to get rid of the split, or when it was deeper, as short as I could, and with patience it grew longer and eventiually, with regular recutting the split was grown out.
But now it seems, it always seems to be damaged again after some time, and it feels like it’s been ages I could last use my thumbnail properly for fingerpicking. Now, I’ve just been in holiday without the guitar for three weeks and I’m determined to let this fingernail heal eventually!
What would you recommend?
My ideas are
Gluing some fine tissue and resin to it to strengthen it?
Then I should be able to use it again immediately, but it would probably look strange (?) and I’m not sure where to buy the appropriate material nor if I would do it well enough.
or bridging the time it needs to heal, not using my thumbnail, but…
FInally learn to use a pick. I was never keen on using a pick. Have a few lying around and only watched one lesson with Justin a long time ago and practiced just a few times. My reasoning was something like:
Picks can get lost and I prefer to cope with what I got always with me. I think a great player can sound great just with his own fingers.
Buy a thumbpick. Like the pick, It is something I don’t want to become dependent on it, but it could be worth trying. And then it would help me through my split thumbnail time.
Try advanced strumming techniques? But I think I would miss the picking very soon.
Thanks for reading and possibly any hints!
Cheers,
Dominique
If you’re going to do anything like this have it professionally done with acrylic nails.
My wife worked at a full service salon where they did fake nails and has told me stories of people trying to save money by doing their own fake nails and getting a nail fungus that destroyed their nail bed to the point of having to have the nail removed.
Or learn to use a pick. It’s a skill every guitarist should have. Even if you use your fingers most of the time like I do.
I do not have tested and certain ideas here. I have observed my wife’s battles with a broken fingernail for three decades, and I have a nail myself that started to split starting at the cuticle and it just won’t grow properly now.
I play electric, and don’t claim either pick or fingers for my “style”, just use whatever is either handy or sounds better for the song. I can play some metal riffs without a pick, but it is not as easy as with a pick. I have picked some blues tunes, but they are often easier with fingers.
try to avoid glues and such. These things weaken the nail and you are more likely to need them once you start to use them. I recommend avoiding this approach.
Learning to use a pick is always an option. I think that a good level of comfort using both approaches is good.
I eventually gave in and cut my cracked nail short, which made me feel unbalanced, so all went short. It took only a couple days for me to get used to this. I have sen my fingertips change a bit and adapt so they don’t sound so soft now. Still not as bright as a nail or pick, but better than they initially did. On my thumb, I also shape the side of my nail so I can rotate my wrist a bit and get a little nail into it and brighten the sound. For strumming, I more often use the back of the middle finger nail, so it doesn’t matter how long it is.
Maybe have your thumb out in ft. of your pickin fingers.
That’d make it so you would be using the lower to the side of your thumb than the tip of your thumb or where you’d use your finger nail to pick the notes you want with your thumb.
I like to keep my nails short on the pickin hand too. I also work hard to keep my thumb out in ft. of my fingers so they don’t interfere with ea. other. This makes it so I’m kinda using the side of my thumb than the nail or tip of my thumb.
It’s just a thought.
Take what I say with a grain of salt. I’m no pro.
I just read that the thumb should be out in ft. of the fingers so there’s no interference. When I do that, I’m not using my nail nor the tip of my thumb to pick with.
As for using a pick. It has it’s place.
There’s also hybrid pickin using a pick and your individual fingers to pick out specific notes. I’m thinking that’s where I want to progress to.
Thank you, stitch and sequences!
I’ll discard 1)
I had seen videos and advices of fingerpicking players who did their own nail treatment, but I was reluctant and the experiences your wife made, stitch, made it easy for me to let this idea go.
Thank you for your input, HappyCat! Yes, I learned this also, but I am guilty of not always keeping to it, I mean keeping the thumb in front of the other three fingers, and picking rather with the side of the thumb! So, since the problem with my fingernail, I also tried just playing with the flesh, but when I’m picking a bit stronger, the side of my thumbnail still occasionally catches the string, even if it is cut short. It is some habit to try to catch the string with the nail which is hard for me to get rid of, it seems.
After reading all of your replies, I am really thankful to all of you for telling me your personal experiences and helping me out. While reading your comments, the insight grew in me that I will use the opportunity and try all of my points, not 1) but 2), 3) and 4).
Sometimes, a bad thing that happens can also be an opportunity to get out of the ruts and even improve.
I think I’ll have to post again later how it works out… or doesn’t
James Taylor uses the fiberglass mesh / superglue method. You might check out his video on the subject. I am just about to try this myself, so I don’t have any personal history here:
Hi Domi,
This simple technique may help:
It’s surprisingly important that you file your nails correctly too, or they will always split:
You should use short strokes with an emery board, starting from the outside to the tip ,and
Crucially, all strokes must be in the Same Direction.
smooth out any nicks that develop as soon as you see them
I’m on that journey - highly recommend giving it a go.
I’ve made the best progress by not making it into a big deal, anyone can do it, it’s not just for advanced players
OK, thank you for that hint! I’ll pay even more attention to the right nail maintenance. Above all, I think I sometimes did take up the guitar after work while my nails had been a bit damaged. Never had a major problem with that but now I do!
Ok, that’s also a hint - don’t use bad tools! I got a quite good file, but sometimes I used another when it was available first. Thank you!
And that James Taylor video - now I remember having seen it.
But I decided to give alternatives a chance, using a pick for example and not use my thumb the way I did in recent months.
Ok. Thank you. Took note of that!
I’ll start with a pick, and a thumb pick, and also, I’ve seen a thumb pick, that also works as a normal pick and that seems to be easy to use with that hybrid picking - but just watched a video, I can’t really comment on anything regarding picks right now, not having tried them on my own.
And today I played the uke again and the thumbnail seems less prone to attach while picking, maybe the hand position is slightly different… it’s a lot of fun anyway and I’ll use the uke more in the upcoming weeks, or months…
Many thanks everyone once more,
I feel much more confident than I did two days ago, with all the helpful replies!
Cheers,
Dominique
I bash and slice my figertips and hands all the time in my garage shop, I also get road rash and other minor injuries to hands when skating and rock climbing. It is very much a hassle.
I have done the super glue in an emergency but medical skin sealer is best we use it in the Operating Room a lot and also in locations that reduction of scarring is important.
Myself I would avoid the super glue and buy the medically rated product from a pharmacy, its cheap so not really a big deal for most.
My other thought is, this is a great time to learn to use a pick. I really enjoy finger style myself as well but I sort of feel there are a ton of songs that dont sound good unless using a pick. That could be just me of course. I have always been in the camp of learn all techniques to a useful level even if I dont use them much.
I had a split thumbnail and for a year tried everything. In the end I went to my local nail salon who did a Biab nail finish, also known as rubber gel, which helped the split to grow out. It’s expensive, but it was the only thing that worked for me. On the upside my longer nails are great for ginger picking as long as they are shaped correctly. Worth trying if all else fails.
The Wolfram nail file leaves my nail edges absolutely smooth, like glass. I have been using it for a several years and have noticed the nicks in my nail ends have not happened nearly as often (on both hands). The back side of the Wolfram is rough, and is suitable for rough-shaping artificial nails. I’ve had so many nail nicks that I keep one at home (worked from home, now retired) and another on my sailboat (for emergency repairs).
I have been using Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Nail Hardener (nail polish) and it has been very effective in reducing injuries to my nail ends. However, I have begun to have splits in my nails and breakage (caused by one of the prescription drugs I started taking this year), which leads me to try the fiberglass mesh / superglue method. I noted that JT is only applying this to the ends of the nails. Perhaps that will reduce damage to the nail as it grows… I will give it a try.
Regards,
Bob
Just to update you on Biab gel, although it looks great when done, my damaged nail did not grow out when it was taken off. Also the process seriously damaged my nails so I honestly can’t recommend this. Now keeping nails short while the damage grows out and using a pick when playing. After some research I found some helpful videos from Anna on her channel The Salon Life on YouTube, which explain how to deal with nail issues caused by nail salons so am now following her advice. Hopefully it works.
Oh no! Thank you for the information - and I hope that your nails will recover soon!
In my very own personal case, pretty much when I opened the thread (one and a half months ago), I started to keep my thumb nail even shorter - as short as I could and frequently cut it down again and filed it carefully each time, so it didn’t get any hits any more and - playing guitar - was getting more used to using the flesh on the side of my thumb. I still didn’t get around to buy the thumb pick or using the pick - lazy me! (I definitely still will, as I came to see it as an opportunity)
But I have to report that my nail is still quite short, while it feels good now, the split is gone and I can start picking with it. So keeping it very very short so it doesn’t get hit accidently, but the force usually is taken by the flesh around the nail and not the nail itself helped in my case!
Thank you! It’s a good idea to eat healthy and get all the vitamins one needs. I will note Biotin then and possibly search for other food components that could affect naiil health, maybe I’ll find some credible article on that?
All the best to your nails and the rest too,
Dominique
I worked hard for proper nails with classical guitar and… my goodness what a pain in the butt nails are.
I just let it go and enjoy the very slightly warmer sound of playing without nails. Works fine on my fingerstyle steel string and classical guitars. Turns out more folks than you think play this way.
In my mind, it just isn’t worth worrying about nails all the time. If I was playing steel string guitar unamplified in public, I might try a thumb and fingerpicks. But otherwise I don’t see the need.
