Do your nails need to breathe? Let us put this question to bed once and for all!! Also, explain why it is almost true!!!
But it isn’t true!
One can see where it has come from though!
Nails breathing or resperation
Breathing or respiration is something animals do and, for us humans, it is literally the work of the lungs and blood system. It is where essential oxygen is taken in (necessary for life) and the waste product: carbon dioxide is expelled.
If this process is stopped we die as we will not be receiving oxygen e.g. smothering, or drowning
But at the cellular level, yes, in every single of the billions of cells we have in our bodies there is such a thing as cellular respiration. These are very similar but not the same. They involve oxygen and waste products passing into and out of each cell. It is the metabolic method of getting energy to all the cells.
At some point, someone wanting to use an analogy decided that nails breathe. By wearing a solid coating of nail polish or UVGP nails were being smothered and this process was being restricted.
This is not true!! NO coating is solid! small molecules such as oxygen and water can still penetrate and reach the nail plate underneath, so it is not being smothered!!!
It certainly does not breathe as we understand that to be, i.e., using lungs, etc.
Clients nails left to breathe?
All clients and their nails are different and some nails do occasionally benefit from going ‘au naturele’. This will be more to do with using good nail oil to rehydrate the layers than anything else.
However, some clients believe they need to give their nails a ‘breather’ and, if they do, then let them. It’s their nails. Just make sure they understand the facts.
To recap: the implication is totally wrong and incorrect but there is a tiny element of truth in there which are always the marketing spins that are the hardest to argue against!
Trust and believe in the science!
Read more on nail breathing myths here:
We tackle the myth again right here!
