← Derm Approved
Derm Approved
How to Get Strong & Healthy HAIR and NAILS!
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<p>Welcome to all things hair & nails! Join me as I dive into the sometimes overlooked topics of hair and nail health. Today we’ll cover everything from the causes of hair loss and my unique in-office consultation process to the latest treatments for hair regrowth. I also discuss common nail concerns like brittle nails, provide guidance on how to enjoy gel manicures without damage, and share expert tips on strengthening and caring for your nails. Tune in for dermatologist-backed insights, practical tips, and the latest on achieving healthy, beautiful hair and nails!</p><p>Connect with me on social media <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dr.sheila_derm/?hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@dr.sheila_derm</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dermapprovedpodcast/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@dermapprovedpodcast</a>.</p><p><em>This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the...
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The following podcast is a Dear media
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production I'm Dr. Sheila Farhang and welcome to Derma Proved, your number one source for all things dermatology from skin and hair health to the latest celeb cosmetic treatments. I'll be providing you with valuable science backed information so you can feel more knowledgeable and empowered as you navigate and
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make decisions about what's right for you and your journey.
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So let's get into today's episode.
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Welcome to all things Hair and Nail
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Health, covering everything from causes of hair loss to my unique in office consultation process to the latest treatments for hair regrowth. I also discuss common nail concerns like brittle nails, provide guidance on how to enjoy your gel manicures without nail damage and share expert tips on strengthening and caring for your nails. Tune in for dermatologist back insights, practical tips and the latest on achieving healthy, beautiful hair and nails.
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But before we get into today's episode,
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this show was made possible from four of my favorite beauty and wellness brands. Here is more about them.
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As a dermatologist, I often get asked if gel manicures are bad for the nails. The truth is it's not the gel polish, but rather the improper application or removal that causes problems. That's why I recommend C and D Shellac to my patients. It's the original gel polish brand tested to ensure no damage to your natural nails when used correctly. There are many brands out there that don't follow the latest regulations which can lead to damage or allergic reactions, so keep your nails looking and feeling healthy. With CND Shellac you can visit cnd.com to find a CND salon near you. As a board certified dermatologist that specializes in integrative derm, I'm always looking out for the most effective clinically tested supplement on the market. Hyacra is a once daily skin supplement clinically proven to reduce wrinkles and fine lines and increase skin smoothness. In 90 days you can start Hyacinth to minimize wrinkles without compromising on clean science. Hyacinth from Ritual is a clinically proven skin supplement that you can actually trust. You can get 25% off your first month at ritual.com Dr.sheila25 you can start ritual or add Hyacara to your subscription today. That's ritual.com doctorsheela25 for 25% off at home devices. I get asked about this all the time, so let's talk about Red Light Therapy. One of my favorites from SolaWave is their 4 in 1 radiant renewal skincare wand that combines four scientifically backed proven skincare technologies for the ultimate non invasive at home skin care treatment. And in addition to the solo wave devices, they also have a skincare line which is a blend of pre and probiotics which helps benefits the skin microbiome. You can visit mysolawave.com and use code doctorsheela at checkout for 25% off your first order. So that's M Y s o L a w a v e.com and you can use Dr. Sheila for 25% off your first order. As a board certified dermatologist, many patients ask me what they can do at home to treat wrinkles. And one of my all time favorite anti aging drugstore brands is Roc Skincare. I've been working with them for years. Every ROC product is science led, developed and tested to ensure highest quality and efficacy. Every single ROC product is clinically proven with over 100 clinical studies, 75 safety studies and 35 patents. Every ROC formula is scientifically crafted and clinically tested to ensure the best results for your skin. For more info on this skincare product visit www.rockskincare.com. all right, let's get back into the episode.
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Welcome back to derma proof. I'm Dr. Sheila Farrang, the host and dermatologist. And today's episodes it's going to be all about hair and nail health. We have a lot to cover but I'll basically dive into some different hair loss causes, what a consultation should look like if you see a dermatologist, or what my consultation looks like with patients. Some recommendations on things that you can do at home and at the office that I offer for hair regrowth as well as nail health. And I'll dive into if gel manis are safe for your nails and your nail health. Let's get right into it. First let's talk about understanding the types of hair loss. This is really important. So basically the most common type of hair loss that I see is a non scarring and it's usually genetic, right? And so the fancy name for this is androgenetic alopecia. You can usually male or female pattern hair loss and this is usually in the frontal area, the crown or sometimes the receding hairline. And this is usually genetic. You can see if your parents have had early hair loss or what their hair loss looks like. And there are different things that you can do early on to kind of slow this down. And I'll get into some treatments but basically if you stop the treatments, you're basically nothing is permanent that we have right now. So so these are lifelong treatments. And along the same lines, another common type of hair loss that I see that is also non scarring, which means that hair can come back in those hair follicles includes something called telogen effluvium, which is a stress related hair loss. Normally we see about 200 strands of hair loss a day, 100 to 200. With something like telogen effluvium, it's double that. So it's about two to 400 strands of hair. I've had this before when I've stopped birth control. You can also see it when you give birth with the that decrease in your hormones and hormone change. You can see it after a really big mental or physical stressor such as surgeries or a loss. Or sometimes we see it after Covid or major weight loss. So this is a very common hair loss. I see patients probably in my office a lot for this because usually when it's type of genetic hair loss that's kind of really slow, it's gradual, you kind of see the areas that are being thinned out. But with something like telogen effluvium, which is that hair loss shedding phase, that can happen about three to even four, five, six months after the insult. So you get sick or you had a baby or you stop your birth control. This can happen a couple months after that and it can last a couple months. And that's why something like hair loss is so difficult. Because sometimes coming in to a dermatologist who can really nail down the timelines can be a little reassuring because some of us don't even remember what we did four months ago and don't kind of put the pieces together on that is what could cause it. So that could be really something scary. And I just tell my patients with something like telogen effluvium, it's usually not chronic in many patients. So it's not forever. And the biggest thing is to make sure you have a really healthy scalp. And there are some recommendations that I can make in the meantime to help that shedding phase and to really regrow the hair after to get it back to where it was before. But I tell Pat all your hair is not going to fall out and that it is not permanent. So that can be really reassuring to my patients. If you're dealing with something like that, sometimes it's nice to see a dermatologist just so they can examine your hair and kind of put the pieces together for you. Another type of hair loss that I see for patients are, you know, medical Causes. So the dry brittle breakage usually is due to lifestyles of bleaching the hair, but also, you know, thyroid issues, thyroid imbalances. So I definitely always do a workup and examine the scalp and the hair and run labs just to make sure everything is okay when I see my patients. But if you have a lot of breakage versus when you have something like telogen effluvium, which is that hair loss, or you're just having a hair shedding phase, you're losing a lot of hair that's systemic. It's usually the entire hair strand with a little kind of polyclear bulb on the end. If you're looking at your brush or you're looking at the floor, floor, and it's little pieces, that could be something that is not really systemic necessarily other than, you know, maybe thyroid or dry brittle hair, but it could be damage that you're applying to your hair from hair practices that are pulling the hair, hair practices that are like damaging the hair and just basically like breaking it. And that could be bleaching, styling, heating, things like that. So you really want to see what type of hair loss, because your dermatologist should be asking you that. So take a look at what your brushes look like. Take your hand and put it, you know, pull your hair and you should have some hair coming out just normally, especially if you haven't washed in a while or if it's been up in a ponytail. But you want to look at the floor and you want to see what that hair looks like, right. And then we can get into some of the less common hair losses, but certainly the ones that I do see a lot in my office, and that is autoimmune type hair loss, something called alopecia areata. Alopecia in general means hair loss. So don't be scared if your dermatologist calls your alopecia your hair loss. Alopecia. When it's something like alopecia areata or alopecia universalis or something that is a type of hair loss that your body is attacking the hair follicle. This is not very common. And this is usually the most common type of autoimmune hair loss that I see is alopecia areata, which is the coin shaped hair loss. So basically in men it's the little coin shape in the beard area or in the hair. And in women it's a little circle patch that looks like a coin and that's basically a non scarring, which means that once we decrease that inflammation, the hair will come Back, but that usually needs to be seen by a dermatologist to help decrease the cells that are going there that are attacking the hair follicle. And this is usually brought on by stress. It's also kind of genetic in the sense that you're more genetically prone if you're stressed to have it. So definitely keep an eye out on that. It's a very easy fix. Usually do some injections of a steroid or something to help decrease the inflammation and when. And I prescribe a solution for that area, and it usually just requires a couple months of treatment, and then the hair will come back. Not saying that that condition won't happen again when you get stressed out, but that is just something to kind of stay ahead so the coin doesn't get really big. Right. And then. So that was all the non scarring alopecia. As a dermatologist, I also see scarring alopecia, and these are related to lupus or something that's really common that I see called frontal fibrosing alopecia, which is a type of hair loss that attacks the hair follicle and scars it. So basically, the little hole that you have, the little opening that you have that the hair comes out of, it gets scarred over. So you're not able to get hair coming out of there anymore. And that is a very emotional hair loss disease that I have with my patients, because time is of essence and we need to decrease that disease so then we can conserve a lot of the hair. Frontal fibrosing alopecia is something in the frontal area. So if you're dealing with just a hair loss where everything's fine back here, but then you have it in the front and you see red bumps coming out of the hair follicles, and you have some associated itching and irritation. It just doesn't look like what normal genetic hair loss looks like. I would really encourage you to see a dermatologist because this is something that's oftentimes missed. And sometimes I'll see patients who went to maybe even another dermatologist and it was missed. So you really want to be careful about that. And that's something that I treat aggressively because patients are really sensitive about their hair loss with that. It's usually nothing to do with the ffa. Frontal fibrosis and alopecia is usually not associated with anything other than the hair. Usually they're healthy. But again, that emotional aspect of losing your hair and not getting it back is really hard for patients.
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Okay, let's take a quick break from the show. As a board certified dermatologist, I'm only usually recommending products that I actually use and have vetted. Ritual has been one of my favorite supplements for years. I love their science. I love that they're very specific with their claims and when I learned about their new Wrinkle Support skin supplement I had to try it. Hyacra is a once daily skin supplement clinically proven to reduce wrinkles and fine lines and and increase skin smoothness in 90 days. And what I love is that it's rigorously tested and validated by a third party for allergens, microbes and heavy metals. If you're obsessed with reading the skincare labels, this is for you. Hyacinth is made traceable so you know the form supplier and studies behind its key ingredients because not all skincare ingredients are create equal as you know. I love that it's formulated with hyaluronic acid which naturally occurs in our skin but decreases with age. The decrease in hyaluronic acid can cause thinner drier and make your skin more prone to wrinkles. Ritual's Hyacinth supplement is clinically proven to reduce wrinkles and improve skin smoothness. You can start Hyacinth to minimize wrinkles without compromising on clean science. Hyacira from Ritual is a clinically proven skin supplement you can actually trust. Get 25% off your first month at ritual.com drshiela25. You can start ritual or add Hacera to your subscription today. That's ritual.com Dr. Sheila 25 for 25% off from running between my dermatology practice, performing skin cancer surgeries and balancing with my other projects, I notice eye bags. I've been talking about eye bags a lot lately on my podcast and when I'm not getting enough sleep, if my diet is not the way it's supposed to be, with a lot of carbs or salty foods. And if I'm traveling, these eye bags will show up. It's usually due to fluid or sometimes a little fat pad that's showing up there. But there's other things with the eyes too, such as dark circles that can show up if you are again not getting enough sleep if you're dehydrated or fine lines. That can just happen over time as we mature and with some damage. So it's so important to do skin care as part of the regimen to help with the eye and eye issues. And of course when it comes to skincare, I am looking for things that are scientifically backed that are drugstore and affordable. And, and ROCK is a brand that I've worked with with years. They have a Rock dual eye cream. It's a two in one eye treatment really for that age defying result. With this product, in just one week 96% saw the look of lines plus puffiness reduced. And in two weeks 90% experience visibly lifted eyelids and reduced darkness which is really great when it is something that you can do at home. It's affordable. Every Rock product, like I said, is science led and developed and tested to ensure the highest quality and efficacy. And every ROC product is clinically proven with over 100 clinical studies, 75 safety studies and 35 patents. And this is a brand that has been around for over 65 years. For more information you can visit www.rocskincare.com. okay, let's get back into the conversation.
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So say you are getting some genetic type hair loss or you're just dealing with telogen effluvium, your hair loss, what a consultation with me looks like as a dermatologist. And this is something, even though it's hair loss, we can cover it by your insurance if you have health insurance. So what I usually do is I get medical history, I ask you a lot of questions about when your hair loss started. Is it gradual? Is it really quick? I examine the scalp very thoroughly. I looked at the health of your scalp, make sure you don't have like really bad dandruff in the area, redness, irritation, other hair diseases, fungus, you know, the scarring, alopecia. Do I like a hair pull test where I just kind of like pull the hair. And usually if it's telogen effluvium, I get like a pretty big handful and I look at the health of your actual hair strands and everything. So I'm able to really get a basically a diagnosis. And usually the genetic out, you know, male or female pattern hair loss is usually a diagnosis of exclusion. Like I've kind of ruled everything else out because everyone kind of has a
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little bit of that.
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But as long as I rule out all the bad things, then we can really focus on it improving that. And then I run blood work on most people if they haven't already had it done because low vitamin levels or other things can certainly contribute to hair loss. I've seen a lot of low vitamin D. So with vitamin D, you definitely want it in the 60 to 80 range and that's a little higher than actually maybe some labs that say it's normal. Sometimes I'll run vitamin D on patients and it'll be like 12, I'll be like 20, it'll be really low. So you definitely want that to be in a more optimal place. And me myself, I have noticed that when I've I'm currently on supplement for vitamin D that my hair regrowth has been a lot more optimized. Another thing that I run on patients that a lot of doctors don't do, like part of the primary care panel with you see your family doctor is a ferritin and that's your iron stores. And so with that you want it to be up to a certain level as well. And so just because you're taking iron, maybe your body's not storing it properly. So you really want to make sure that you're doing that. And I see that in a lot of like vegan, vegetarian. I just want to make sure that they're supplementing well. And then of course I rule out any type of thyroid issues that can contribute to hair loss. So that's really important. I usually don't and I would say it's not very common to run hormones on patients. I know sometimes people request that unless they have like pcos or something like that. And I usually have their gynecologist really cover that. But if you have genetic hair loss and hormonal acne, usually checking your like testosterone, estrogen, it won't do too much. I think it's a lot better to maybe treat the cause and maybe the hair and the acne first. Although a lot more providers like myself are running more extensive labs and I think it's going to be easier to hopefully run through your insurance one day. But I don't think that running and checking what your estrogen, progesterone and your testosterone is is going to necessarily necessarily help your female pattern hair loss or your acne because we usually have to treat those pretty similarly. We assume kind of they're a little unbalanced, so what can you do? And we're going to be focusing mostly on genetic, female and male pattern hair loss, although you can still do this for that stress related hair loss called telogen effluvium. This doesn't really work for some of the other types of hair loss as much because they need a certain treatment that is specific to their hair disease. One other hair alopecia, I guess I didn't mention that's more lifestyle is traction alopecia. And that's where it's some of the styles that are like pulling up or braided up and pulled up and that can cause a little bit of scarring alopecia. So first it's like breakage and then it can cause some scarring alopecia where it's pulling so much that hair is not able to come back. So I definitely have some patients where they're dealing with some of that hair loss from possible hairstyles that they've had like that in the past. So some over the counter things that you can do that are great. First step, include something like Rogaine, which is minoxidil. This has been very well studied and it works. It takes time for it to work because it's just a solution or a foam.
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And what this does is it dilates
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the blood vessels going into the hair follicle and it basically puts all more nutrients, puts the hair into the antigen phase, which is the growing phase. So this can take a couple months for it to really start working. You know it's working when you see little small, tiny hairs, like little flyaways, almost looks like especially in the front and the areas that you're treating, which you would only apply this to the areas you're treating. So I usually have my patients do that first and usually they've tried that before they've come in because I have a higher dose or of kind of a prescription strength level that you can use for that. And with that being said, there's a lot of people applying like tretinoin on their hair for hair regrowth. While there aren't that many studies to support like just tretinoin, it can help a little bit. But the best studies are when you're applying tretinoin plus minoxidil because that increases the absorption of the minoxidil. So one of my compounds at my office actually includes both of those things. So I know a lot of people are saying like tretinoin for hair loss, but you really want to be careful because if you were to choose rogaine or tretinoin, you want to use the Rogaine. Just the tretinoin hasn't been shown really to improve hair growth by itself so much. You have it, you're using on your face, fine, you can bring it onto your hairline. But there's like other ingredients that are far more superior with minoxidil or any topical or any treatments in general. A lot of my patients with male pattern hair loss ask me, I don't want to do this because then I have to do it for the rest of my life. And that is something that probably you have to do other than the fact that if you have the stress related hair loss, then maybe you don't have to do it your whole life. You just get it back to where your hair was at baseline before the telogen effluvium. But when you're dealing with something like genetic type of hair loss, we're not changing your genetics with these prescriptions. We're basically like kind of trying to push against the genetics a little bit and decrease that hair loss. So what you want to do is just think about it as brushing your teeth and see it as kind of a lifelong. Even if you get hair transplant, I have a lot of male patients and some females that get hair transplant. They still have to do a lot of these topicals, PRP and oral medications because their hair is still falling out too. But it's in different areas and they need to maintain the hair that was transplanted in. So right now we don't have any thing. I know there's some stuff in the works and I just met someone that I was lecturing at a conference and he's working on some stem cell therapy, working clone hair. But I think that'll be a really long time, at least five years until we have a way to do that. And so for now, what we have are these topicals and oral medications. So starting with that topical is usually negligible systemic absorption. A lot of people talk about the shed that you get in the beginning. A lot of my patients don't see that. It's not something that you really do see. So I wouldn't be worried about starting the medication because of this like initial hair shed. Because what that does is the Rogaine is putting your hair into the growing phase. So there is going to be some slight change in your hair cycle. And that's why some people say that you can get some hair shedding with that. That's not something that you really see. It's just like normal hair loss because we're losing hair all the time anyway, so don't be scared about that. But I will say if you're going to commit, you have to commit. Because if you're getting that possible potential hair loss from starting it, you don't want to keep doing that and stopping it and doing it and stopping it. So you really want to commit to once or twice a day with that. Some studies have shown that if you do the minoxidil, which is the Rogaine, with the tretinoin, you can decrease that twice a day to once a day. So that's kind of nice. And then there are some other Treatments such as spironolactone, that's topical for patients, or finasteride, which is propecial, that that's topical for my patients. So when someone comes into my office, I basically offer them supplements that can be very helpful. Nutrafol is a really good brand that's scientifically backed. There's topicals that I usually recommend and usually I compound them. So they may have higher dose of Rogaine, they may have spironolactone, they may have finasteride. So these are types of ingredients that you can take orally that will work better, but, you know, it's nice to start topically. Number three, PRP is a great option for hair regrowth. And that's something that I offer my patients in my office, especially if they don't want to do like a medication, oral medication. And as you know, PRP is like stem cell therapy. It pulls in those stem cells from those growth factors. So that is a really great option. To get the hair stimulated. I usually recommend about three sessions, one month apart. And then if you're getting good results, we do maintenance. And then we have the oral medications, which I have a whole workup for my patients and I really talk to them about it. But essentially you could take oral minoxidil, which works better than the topical. And this is for male and female. For females, spironolactone also works well. For female pattern hair loss, especially if they have acne, I'll put them on that. And then for men, I usually put them on finasteride or dutasteride and I go over side effects with them and things like that. But that's probably the best thing that they could be on is that oral medication. And then there's some alternative things like low level light therapy, like red light caps. There have been some studies to show the improvement for that, and I have one too. So that's something that you can do. Some of the other things that are more alternative, such as pumpkin seed oil or rosemary oil, have less of a improvement. So if you're really worried about your hair loss and it's getting pretty drastic, I would probably start with some of the medications. But if maybe your hair regrowth isn't as drastic, you could start with those. They're just a little slower. Me personally, I'm not a huge fan of the derm rollers. I think that they can really kind of like mangle up the hair and break the hair in this area.
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So unless it's.
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If it's a stamp, I Wouldn't recommend derm rolling. I don't even do that in my office. And I know some people like that. And I've talked to a few really good hair specialists and transplant surgeons, and they also agree that they don't really agree with the hair rolling with the micro needles. So definitely be careful about that because I know it's all over the Internet. So that is basically a hair consultation, causes and some treatment approaches. In a nutshell, again, this is a topic that I actually did on my YouTube. I spent an entire hour on just discussing that. So definitely refer back to that if you want some of the details. But at least now you know what types of hair loss there are some treatments and what a consultation looks like with the dermatologist. And if your dermatologist is not doing that, perhaps maybe finding another one. And I'm happy to see you as well. And really important, some lifestyle adjustments that you can do for hair regrowth and keeping your hair healthy include, of course, decreasing stress. That stress, as we know, can really affect our hair quality as well as our hair density. And then there's a few things that we can do. You don't want to go too long without washing your hair because that inflammation of the scalp can cause a really poor environment for hair regrowth. So definitely make sure you're not adding too much dry shampoo, not more than two days or so, that your hair is being clarified and cleansed appropriately so your scalp is healthy. So then you can get healthy hair. And then I love silk products, so it's super soft, makes it less frizzy.
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It's not bending the hair as much,
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so you can use a silk pillowcase. There's tons on Amazon. I'm always putting my hair in a very light ponytail, kind of a little higher up with a silk scrunchie, which is really, really important. And heatless curls are my favorite thing. So definitely look into those if you want, like a little bit of a curl. They're basically all over TikTok and Instagram and all of that. But basically they're creating a little bit of a curl with just time overnight sleeping without adding the heat, which is so important because that heat can really cause breakage, so you want to keep an eye out for that. And definitely, if you are using heat, you want to use a heat protectant. I just did my favorites for hair health products on my Instagram, so you can check those out. And then, of course, just maintaining a healthy, balanced diet so you can naturally get those great nutrients in, so you're not relying on supplements, and that's going to be one of the most important things as well. Okay.
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I'm sure you love getting your nails done as much as I do, but we want to ensure we keep them healthy in between salons, on visits. One of the best ways to do this is by incorporating a cuticle oil into your daily routine. My absolute favorite is CND solar oil. It's actually an award winning cuticle oil that will transform your nails and cuticles and all it takes is applying a few drops every day. I literally keep mine at my nightstand. Make sure I use it every night before I go to bed. The CND Solar Oil formula is a blend of naturally light oils such as jojoba oil, vitamin E, rice brain oil, and sweet almond, which get right into your nails, the skin and the cuticle. It penetrates deeply by entering through the layers of nail polish in the tiny spaces in the nail plate, filling them with nourishing oils while pushing out any damaging moisture. So this keeps your nails moisturized, supple and looking healthy. There's no more peeling, there's no more dryness or no more breakage. Plus, it can help your manis last longer. I've been using C and D solar oil for months now and my nails have never looked better. They're stronger, they're shinier, and the skin, skin around my nails look moisturized pretty much all the time.
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Whether you're at home or at the
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office or on the go, you can use C and D solar oil as your perfect little companion for maintaining beautiful hydrated nails. You can head to Amazon.com and try C and D solar oil for yourself. Okay. As a dermatologist, one of the top questions I get is how to stimulate collagen at home using devices. So first let's get into what collagen is. Collagen is so important. It's basically what gives our skin structure and we start losing 1% of the production of starting the age of 20 every year and then 30% the first five years after menopause. So it's super important to really think about collagen in your anti aging skincare routine. What I love to recommend is Solo Waves 4 in 1 Radiant Renewal Skincare, one that I've been using for years now. It uses a red light therapy technology. It also has galvanic current, a warm therapeutic massage, which is really nice because it helps decrease that inflammation, maybe that fluid retention that's there. And then of course, the red light stimulates collagen. And then what's Also nice about the red light. It helps decrease breakouts and discoloration. And as a dermatologist, I'm always looking out for what patients can do at
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home and in the office.
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But I think finding something that's affordable, that they can use, that actually a science behind it is so important. I think if you're looking for a safe and effective way to improve your skin's appearance and you want to do something at home, Solawave is worth considering. Its product combines multiple technologies all in one device. So it really saves you time and money on that aspect. And it's pain free, no needles or anything. Also, don't sleep on their skincare line. They have pre and probiotics in their skincare line, which I'm all about. A good balanced skin microbiome. Probiotic skincare is really nice to help hydrate and boost the skin barrier. You can visit mysolawave.com to use Dr. Sheila at checkout for 25 off your first purchase. That's mysolawave. M y s o l a w a v e dot com and use code Dr. Sheila for 25 off your first order. All right, let's get back into the episode.
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Alrighty. Now let's get into some nail health. Okay, so as dermatologists, we're skin, hair and nail experts. I don't think a lot of people know that, and I do have a lot of patients coming in for nail concerns. Biggest thing is when they have like dry, breakage, brittle nails or if they have spots on their nails, the nails can tell us a lot about what's going on on the inside, but they can also tell us a lot about what you're doing as far as your lifestyle. And that's like more of what I think people see and have on their nails. So, for instance, yellowing of the nails. Usually let's do to nail polish that. If someone's not applying a base or they're not going to a place that's maybe doing their nails appropriately, that's usually a cause of that. And so I have some people coming in for that. Of course, yellowing and whitening and thickening can also mean onychomycosis, which is nail fungus. And so if you have thickening of the nail, especially one and there is like some flaking underneath, it's just getting thicker discoloration. That could possibly mean it's a little fungus in there and you want to definitely get that treated so it doesn't spread to the other toenails or fingernails. It's definitely more Common in the toenails. One common thing that I see in my office a lot is little white marks, especially in kids on the nails. And that's actually just trauma related. Just hit their nail somewhere, get a little white mark there. So there's just a lot of little things on the nails. For instance, some of the ridges that someone can get that kind of look like a washboard. Sometimes that's just traumatized cuticles, like you're pulling on your cuticles, maybe you didn't get a good manicure. And so you really want to be careful about that sometimes. A lot of these nail changes are age related as well. So just keep an eye out on your nails. Most of the time though, it's from dry nails, like over washing the, you know, the hands and getting dry brittle nails, which I'll talk to you about some recommendations, both some products and some ingredients. And as we age, our nails get a lot more dry and brittle too. So you want to be make sure that number one, your vitamins are really in place and your probably on a multi just to get some of the selenium and iron and everything like that into place. But also that you're using a nail strengthener, which is really important. If you have a brown stripe going down your nails, you definitely want it to get examined by a dermatologist to make sure that it is a benign melanonychia and not something like melanoma that can appear as a stripe on your nail. So there are certain things and I've done tons of nail biopsies to make sure we're not dealing with a melanoma. And I have diagnosed a melanoma on the nails. So you definitely want to keep an eye out on that. So the biggest question I get when we're talking about nails is are gel manicures safe for your nails? Because a lot of people do get gel manicures, including myself. And I'm sure we've all been to the point where we've kind of went on a break a little bit and our nails were so brittle and the breaking and that is really mostly due to the removal process and the application of the gel. So for instance, I've been getting a lot of shellac recently and my nails are really strong. And that's really because of that technology and the gel. So basically you want to look for a gel polish that is breathable. So shellac is breathable. And then you also want to make sure of course it's like free of a lot of the toxins out there and that's usually the case with a lot of bigger brands. But if you're going somewhere where you're unsure, just check the brand and then like, Google it and see that doesn't include a lot of the toxins, which a lot of the brands aren't. Now, the removal process is the biggest thing that can cause the dry, brittle nails. So for instance, you don't. And I have done this before, but you don't want to, like, pull off your gel because that will cause damage to the nail. When you're getting your nails, like redone and you have gel on there, they really shouldn't be drilling it off. So when I get my nails redone, they'll soak it in acetone and then they just take like a little tool, not a blade or drill, and then they'll just lift it off and it lifts off so nicely. And then when whatever's left, I look at my nails and they're not damaged, they're not flaky, they're not super thin, they're not drilling it down. And that is the way you should be getting your gel removed. So that's super, super important. And then let's go now to the gel curing itself, which you need some type of LED or uv. So traditional UV lamps have a wider range of uv. And if you are sticking your hand under, under there for like over 90 seconds or something like that. Yes. Over time you certainly can get aged hands, increase the risk of skin cancer. So the number one thing is you want to make sure where you're going. They're using an led, which is a newer type of device, to cure the gel. And the newer ones, such as, like the CND ones, and with the newer ones, you're only putting your hands under the light for about 10 to 15 seconds. That's really all you need, which is way less exposure. You have more exposure like walking to your mailbox or like driving. So you really want to be careful with that exposure over time, especially if you're going every three to four weeks. Some things that you could do is apply sunscreen, have them not, like, wash it off. You know, usually they like to, like, massage and wash it off. So keeping your sunscreen on. Some people use UV gloves, which is nice for, like the dorsal hand so you don't get sun damage there from the UV exposure. So you really wanna be careful about a lot of those small ones. But keeping an eye on a newer LED lamp, which has a very specific wavelength and very little time, is gonna be the most important thing. Especially if you're getting your nails done a lot. So there is definitely a way to get your nails done, but in a safer way. So now let's talk about some products that you can use to strengthen the nail. So CND has a really good strengthener. I believe it's like just $20. And it has a lot of great ingredients in there to help strengthen the nails. And so that is really nice. That one's nice because it comes in like a little polish. There's another brand, it's double the price. It's isden and it's $40. And that comes in like a little brush and that also has something to strengthen the nails. And so those are two really good options. And then you use this under your nail polish or when you're kind of on a break or you're not using nail polish at the moment or you don't want to, you just put that on by itself. And some of them have like a little sheen to. Cuticle oil is so, so important not only for the cuticle, but really for the nail health itself. So if you're dealing with the ridges, if you're dealing with what's called like habit tick deformity, which is just from like messing with your nail, you want to make sure that your nail is like moisturized just like your face. So using a cuticle oil is so important. CND has one that's called solar oil. This one's nice because it has a whole bunch of oils in there like jojoba oil and just, just really great. Replenishing the moisture in that area is so important. You can just use it daily, Just apply it. I have it on my nightstand. And it also makes your nails look nice because it gets like nice and glistening. So you definitely want to keep an eye out on that. And then if things are not improving, even after some of the topicals and some of the lifestyle things, you can definitely see your dermatologist sometimes vitamin deficiencies, vitamin D, iron, selenium, magnesium. Some of those need to be replenished just to get the health of the nail as well. But again, some of this is sometimes aging, especially like mo postmenopausal, when everything's kind of getting a little bit more dry, your nails could get dry too. And those are my recommendations on nail health. So I know we talked about a lot. If there's any follow up questions, definitely send them over to me on Dr. Sheila Derm Instagram or Derma Proof podcast. And if there's any topics that you want me to touch on a little bit further in detail. Definitely drop them down below and hopefully that was helpful. See you next week. Thank you for tuning in and taking time to invest in yourself.
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Be sure to catch new episodes of Derma Prooved every Thursday and I'd love
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to hear from you. Drop any questions or comments on social media at DrShiladerm and Derma proved Podcasts. Don't forget to follow and leave a rating and review. See you next week.
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This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. The discussion and opinion shared by the hosts and guests are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have a specific medical concern, please consult your licensed dermatologist or a healthcare professional who can provide personalized advice and treatment tailored to your situation.
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Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.