Nail Biters Anonymous

Hi, my name is Jocelyn and I am a nail biter. I don't remember when I started biting my nails, but it's possible I began around the time I learned how to chew. I've never known a me without ragged, too-short fingernails and learned to accept it as a fact of life. Here and there, I've attempted to paint my nails or grow them long or even give up on my natural nails altogether and cover them with acrylics. But for the past few years, I've been in a state of "I don't give a hoot" when it comes to my nails.

That is until I got engaged and realized I'd be taking pictures of my hands and showing my left hand to people on and off for the next couple of years. That kind of thing makes a girl self-conscious, especially when it's a problem you've recognized/ignored for a lifetime. I've long admired girls with nice, shapely long nails painted in a rainbow of chic colors. I'd love to accessorize my nails to my outfits and plain feel good about my hands. My hands have always made me a bit self-conscious, nails withstanding, because they're small yet pudgy and look a bit like a child's despite being the hands of a 23-year-old woman. I'm kinda freaked about how weird our hands will look next to each other when Terrell and I get the standard ring photos taken and that people will think he married a little person or something... silly, yes, but fears are fears.

I realized that the only thing stopping me from ending this habit was lack of initiative... like with so many other problem areas in my life. So as I browsed around the grocery store this afternoon, I turned down the cosmetics aisle and picked up a few new supplies:

A fellow forum member at Wedding Bee suggested Sally Hansen, so I did as I was told and picked up a bottle of Maximum Growth, which is intended to reinforce my nails and protect them against splitting and peeling. Another gal suggested I paint my nails something dark enough to cover up the white part so I'm not tempted to bite. Strange as it sounds, that is an extremely helpful piece of advice: it is almost irresistible not to chew off my nail when the white end grows out. I don't understand why, but it's true though I hadn't put much thought into it before today. I picked out a nice pink shade and added a bottle of Vitamin E-enriched polish remover then headed to check out.

After putting the groceries away, I took everything out to the porch and sat in the remaining daylight to attend to my poor, underloved nails. Seriously, this is what I have to work with:

Pathetic, I know.

I fixed my cuticles as best I could without a buffer or any of that other fancy stuff that several E-How articles have instructed me to buy, then applied a coat of the growth formula. Oooh, shiny. So far so good. Painting with the polish was a lesson in why I haven't painted my nails more than 5-6 times over the course of my life: I suck. True, I'm better than I probably would've been a few years ago thanks to the relative steadiness mascara application has given my right hand, but the results of today's efforts are still closer to what I'd imagine a kindergartener would produce than a girl my age.

But for a first effort, it's not so bad. I'm going to take the polish off tomorrow and stick to the clear growth formula for a couple of weeks until my nails grow out some more. As you can see, some of them are frighteningly short right now due to recent biting binges. Hopefully I'll be able to keep from gnawing... o_o

My goal is to eventually get them to a point where I can go get a nice professional manicure done, then keep up on them from there. I'll possibly get acrylics put on for our engagement photos in June, though it might be possible to simply get the professional mani done before that - if I'm good!

Are you a member (or alumnus) of Nail Biters Anonymous? What tips and tricks can you offer to stop biting and start growing?

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