The best way to look after one’s toenails is by taking good overall care of the feet, especially as regards hygiene. Lorella Fava gives some tips.

It’s almost December, you look down at your feet and all you see is chipped nail polish, unevenly cut nails and hard skin… a bit different than what you remember them looking like back in summer, right?

What most of us do not realise is that if we do not take proper care of our toenails, we may suffer some very painful consequences.

For instance, the in-a-rush trimming style most of us adopt can lead to hangnails – a piece of torn skin at the root of the nail – and ingrown toenails. Cutting the cuticle rather than gently pushing it can lead to infection and the sheer laziness of leaving chipped nail polish on for months can lead to fungus and may actually make the nail brittle.

With a little bit of effort, you can have gorgeous, healthy looking feet and toenails all year round

The good news is that it doesn’t take much to prevent all these scenarios from occurring. One must first of all keep in mind that foot care and nail care go hand in hand.

Primarily, one must look at what is required to keep one’s feet in good health. To start with, you should always wash your feet thoroughly. Feet tend to get dirtier and sweatier than other parts of the body, so it’s important to have good sanitary habits.

Taking good care of your feet and toenails may prevent some possibly painful consequences such as ingrown nails or fungus.

Wash them with soap and warm water to cleanse off sweat, dirt and bacteria. Then it’s important to moisturise and keep your feet hydrated. One way to do this is by applying lotion to your feet before you go to bed and slipping on a pair of socks. This eliminates the dryness, from which your toenails would benefit greatly.

You can then move on to the actual toenails. There are many ways to moisturise your toenails even further to make them flexible, supple and less likely to split and break: you can use cuticle cream, petroleum jelly or vitamin E oil. Put it over the entire nail, including the cuticle, and gently rub it in.

When it comes to trimming the nail – to avoid the hangnails and ingrown toenails – you can use ‘nippers’ which have a curved handle and a cutting jaw shaped to follow the natural curve of the nail, therefore eliminating any risk of damaging the nail by mistake.

So you see, with a little bit of effort, you can have gorgeous, healthy looking feet and toenails all year round.