Lacking of Oxygen - Nail Problems Message Board

Dani Girl 78 · 11-02-2005, 12:49 PM

I have kept my toenails painted for many years now, I don't like unpainted ones. When I take of the nail polish my 2 big toe nails have a white/yellow spot on them and now both second toes do too. It doesn't look like a fungus (done some research about that, and my dad suffers from it so I know what it looks like). So is it the fact that the nail polish is depriving them of oxygen? Now after I take the polish off how long would it take to get back to normal, if it will?

hobogirl · 11-03-2005, 08:56 AM

What you are seeing is the polish has stained your nails. I usually only wear polish during the summer months and right now my nails are stained. After not wearing polish for awhile your nails will go back to the normal color.

Marti · 11-03-2005, 09:14 PM

Your nails are not deprived of oxygen; they don't have lungs, therefore they do not need to 'breathe'. The nail plate is very porous and will absorb a certain amount of whatever is applied to them. when highly pigmented polish is applied, the nail plate will absorb some of the pigments and will usualy become stained with a yellowish to a light orange color. You can easily remove the stain by buffing the nail plate surface with a 240 grit white buffing block. You can get these at any bueaty supply house like Sally Beauty Supply. Lightly buff the surface until you can see that no stain remains. Clean the nails with alcohol to remove all traces of nail dust. Apply a good quality base coat, two thin coats of color and a good quality top coat. You should only have to buff to remove stains every 3-4 months. For more information on your natural nails, please visit my website www.hooked-on-nails.com (link approved by Moderator 1).

Dani Girl 78 · 11-11-2005, 10:20 AM

The spots don't just look like a color stain. It is a very deep white/yellow stain and it chips away if I were to pick at it. It's not my whole toe nail, just a portion of each big toe. I have tried to file it down and it helps a little bit, but not much. But then I just paint them again, so I'm sure that it doens't help any.

I would love to be able to take the nail polish off in the winter and only paint them in the summer, but I live in TX and there is hardly ever a winter, there is a few weeks of chilly weather then it's warm to hot again....it sucks here. I will try to keep them unpainted...it's so hard to do.

Thanks for the replies

Marti · 11-11-2005, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dani Girl 78

The spots don't just look like a color stain. It is a very deep white/yellow stain and it chips away if I were to pick at it. It's not my whole toe nail, just a portion of each big toe. I have tried to file it down and it helps a little bit, but not much. But then I just paint them again, so I'm sure that it doens't help any.

I would love to be able to take the nail polish off in the winter and only paint them in the summer, but I live in TX and there is hardly ever a winter, there is a few weeks of chilly weather then it's warm to hot again....it sucks here. I will try to keep them unpainted...it's so hard to do.

Thanks for the replies

From your new description, it sounds like a toenail fungus to me - especially since it is chipping away AND it is discolored a yellowish tint. I live in Texas as well, so I know what you mean about the weather. Polish will dry out the layers even more and cause more problems than you already have. You can either go to your Doctor and if he says it is fungus, you can take Lamasil tablets, or you can go to the pharmacy and get some Reclaim AF and use it according to instructions. Either way, it will take MONTHS to see improvement and you will need to refrain entirely from applying polish as this will allow for moisture to build up in the nail plate layers and the fungus spores need the moisture to survive. They feed off the proteins in the nail plate which is why it crumbles.