Allergies? There’s a drug for that! What are we doing?

The allergy situation, certainly in the UK, is just growing and growing!!

Daily, on social media, there is yet another instance of nail pros with a horrible reaction with requests for help and suggestions. This doesn’t even include the number of clients with reactions!

Many of the answers involve recommendations of some ‘heavy’ medication that we really should not be doing. But GPs are mostly unavailable or uninterested. Allergy tests are hard to book either on the NHS or privately! But careers are at stake!!

Let us look at what is being recommended:

Many recommend ‘over the counter’ medication that involve a corticosteroid (cortisone or hydrocortisone)

Some doctors prescribe much stronger products such as betamethasone just to treat the symptoms.

ALL of these are drugs that have long term and short-term effects. I am not going to list them and be accused of ‘fear mongering’. You can find this out for yourself! But, at the very least, these topical creams thin the skin!

Why are so many treating the symptoms and not the cause?

Other recommendations involve antihistamines. These can be topical (as above) but can also be in tablet form. Histamine is the body’s reaction to a potential allergy. They have many uses and available ‘over the counter’. But they also have effects! Every chemical introduced into the body will have an effect!

Some recommend neat tea tree oil for such things as onycholysis or hyperkeratosis. This is NOT good to be used neat!! It can be an irritant and an allergen!

Allergic reactions to nail products are almost entirely avoidable! Of course, some unlucky people can develop an allergy to almost anything but not necessarily nail products.

Why? Because they are not meant to touch the skin and MUST be properly cured!

This situation is real and on-going. The cause is NOT being dealt with just the symptoms and this involves drugs!!! What a catastrophic situation! Deal with the cause and not the symptoms! Do not put unnecessary drugs into your body for ‘nails’!

Deal with the cause not just the symptoms. Do not load your body with drugs that maybe needed for far more important uses than having ‘nails’!

• Use safe and compliant products and match the systems
• If you or your clients develop the start of any symptom, don’t just change brands!
• Get an acrylate allergy test however long it takes
• Work cleanly and safely. NO skin contact
• Understand the science!