Obviously, anything that would remove water or dry out the nail plate would lower flexibility and toughness. Product removers and polish removers contain solvents that can dry the nail plate. Some examples are ethyl acetate and methyl ethyl ketone. These are usually called nonacetone removers. Acetonec an remove water from the plate, too. However, normal [...]
Nail plates are a unique combination of strength and flexibility. In other words, the nail is tough (see definition for Toughness, above). The nail’s strength comes from the many sulfur cross-links and other types of chemical bonds. Much of the flexibility is due to moisture. Increasing moisture content of the nail plate will increase flexibility. [...]
Analysis of nail clippings shows that besides amino acids and sulfur, the plate contains many other chemicals. Some of these are iron,a luminum, copper, silver, gold, titanium, phosphorus, zinc, sodium, and calcium. Each of these are found in extremely low concentrations. A common myth is that eating calcium makes nails stronger. This is very unlikely [...]
The matrix cells point at an angle toward the cuticle as shown in Figure 2.3. This creates the flat and thin shape of the plate. The length of the matrix determines the thickness of the natural nail plate. Figure 2.4 shows how this occurs. Clearly, the matrix making the longest row of cells will have [...]
As keratin cells are pushed from the matrix they begin to change. They slowly lose their plump, round shape, as shown in Figure 2.2. When they flatten, most of the whitish material inside the cell is lost. They become thin, flat, transparent nail cells. If you recall, the distal part of the matrix is just [...]
The matrix is much like the dermis of the skin. Both are made up of special cells that are locked firmly in place. In other words, a matrix cell never becomes part of the nail plate. The matrix cell are like incubators. They grow the cells that eventually become part of the plate. When the [...]