Disclaimer: Anything written in this blog represents the opinions of the author, and no one else. Each blog is written lightly, and is not intended to offend any of the mentioned businesses, locations, students, or staff.

There’s nothing worse than going in to shake someone’s hands to find gnawed-down, dirty fingernails in your grasp. Failure to pay attention to the hygiene of your fingernails is a failure to pay attention to not only your image as a cleanly human being, but also your representation as a professional worker. Particularly in the business world, appearance, even the smallest details, is important. It tells your boss, coworkers and clients that you care about yourself and what you are doing. you wish for others to perceive you as a worker who cares enough to spend the extra time.

If cleanliness and professionalism are not reasons enough for you to change your nail maintenance, then the health benefits may push you to take some of these tips. Research shows that nail-biters’ hands and fingers easily become infected. From infection, they are far more prone to contract colds and other illnesses. The constant action of nails to lips and mouth promotes the spread of germs into nail-biters’ bodies.

Many people, even doctors, are beginning to describe nail-biting as more than a habit. It is more often being referenced as an addiction. As such, it should be tackled just as intensely as any other addiction. Tactics in curing the “addiction” include putting lemon juice of hot sauce on fingers. Another drastic measure includes wrapping nails in tape or Band-Aids. If this seems too extreme, there is also a new clear-color nail polish, specifically for nail-biters, that tastes particularly gross when bitten/eaten. This nail polish is specifically successful for nail-biters because when they go to bite their nails, their body remembers the gross taste of the nail polish and their habit slowly diminishes.

In today’s world, there is no excuse not to pay attention to your nails.(If your job includes manual labor then you are an exception.) Lowell, specifically has a superfluous amount of nail salons in its downtown. Upon entering “nail salon Lowell, MA” into Google, 35,500 results appear. Not only are there a ridiculous amount of nail salons in our local area, but it is very inexpensive to get nails manicured, cleaned or buffed. The average cost of a manicure is only twenty dollars, and it is only necessary to get a full manicure once ever two weeks. Even after getting a manicure, a polish change can often do the trick and in Lowell a polish change comes to an average of ten dollars.

For guys, manicures, I realize are a little excessive. I also realize that not everyone has the money to spend to maintain a full manicure all the time. In these cases, personal maintenance comes into the picture. Every household does – or should – contain nail clippers and filers, and there is no reason, besides laziness, to not utilize those tools.

It may seem dramatic to find fault in such a minuscule detail, but it is the small things that matter in our big world.