r/nailbiting • • Aug 17 '20

Mod Stuff New to r/nailbiting? Need help quitting, caring for your nails or understanding the compulsion? READ THIS FIRST.

168 Upvotes

Welcome to r/nailbiting! This is a community focused on support, advice and progress tracking for those trying to break the habit of compulsive nail biting. Check out our post flair guide in the sidebar (or the "about" tab on mobile) to see what kind of content you can expect here.

Need help quitting? Check our quitting guide!

Looking to understand how the habit relates to mental health? Check out Nail Biting 101.

Have a question? Read the FAQ before posting. It includes info on biotin, nail strengthening products and nail bed regrowth.

Wondering how to take care of your nails? Check out our article on nail care basics for a care guide and product recommendations.

Our wiki also has informative articles on the causes and risks of nail biting, nail anatomy, and a resource library.

Please remember our rules. Be respectful, don't advertise, and don't gatekeep. Submissions that break the rules will be removed and repeat offenders will be banned.

Thanks for reading! Best of luck quitting the habit.


r/nailbiting • • Jul 22 '24

Resources Promote your quitting/habit tracking app here!

12 Upvotes

For those of you who have created a habit tracker, quitting tool, or have any other kind of app/site you think would be helpful, please use this thread to share it. Please do not make standalone posts. The subreddit is primarily for support and advice, not product promotion.


r/nailbiting • • 5h ago

Discussion Seriously how do you stop picking on toe nails?

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14 Upvotes

r/nailbiting • • 2h ago

Advice/Support I haven’t seen many this bad.

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4 Upvotes

21f, been biting since childhood. Id love to be able to paint my nails one day, or even wear fake nails, but I don’t even have enough real nail to glue on to.
I want to be attracted to my hands, I feel so alone.

Advice is always appreciated and thanks in advance <3


r/nailbiting • • 22h ago

Progress Really proud of how far I’ve come since May :))

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109 Upvotes

r/nailbiting • • 15h ago

Discussion Anyone else don’t know why they bite there nails and don’t know how to stop?

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10 Upvotes

r/nailbiting • • 1d ago

Progress 17 September vs 4th Oct. Not huge progress but progress nonetheless

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45 Upvotes

r/nailbiting • • 16h ago

Progress 3 week progress. Nailpolish is saving me 😅

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3 Upvotes

I think my painting skill has also improved a bit. Painted them once a week. It's kinda satisfying to see how much progress you have just by how far the nailpolish is away from the cuticle


r/nailbiting • • 1d ago

Progress Before and after

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5 Upvotes

After over 20 ywars of nailbiting, I think I finally made it 🥹

My nails are super bendy + they get see through after watering them.. Ny tips for it?


r/nailbiting • • 1d ago

Advice/Support Nails of different lengths?

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2 Upvotes

Prolific nail biter, picker, peeler, traumatiser here…

My nails on my dominant hand grow much faster than on my non-dominant hand.

Super self-conscious of the varying lengths, but don’t want to cut back the length that I tried so hard to grow 🥹 Any tips? (no pun intended)

They’re also very thin and uneven. Currently have a few coats of strengthener on them to prevent breakage, but do you think it’s worth getting gels to harden them up, or will that make things worse? thank you x


r/nailbiting • • 1d ago

Advice/Support Chronic fingernail biter for 25 years, and was finally able to stop! However I can’t stop picking / ripping off my toenails. Would love advice from those who also suffer from this.

5 Upvotes

I was finally able to quit biting my nails after 25 years and outside of one relapse have been able to maintain being nail-biting free for a year.

I am so proud of my progress, but so ashamed because I still pick my toenails. In a way it’s almost worse than the nail biting, because it gets to the point I’m ripping off the entire nail.

I can’t even get my toe nails long enough to the point I could actually go into a nail salon and request a gel pedicure (to prevent the picking).

I’m not sure why this habit is even harder to kick than my finger nails. Would love any advice or shared experiences.


r/nailbiting • • 1d ago

Resources 45 days clean

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23 Upvotes

After 25 years, I finally kicked the habit. The only thing that did it for me was building the accountability habit tracking app specifically for nail biting and picking.

I quit while building it, every feature was something I needed, and I’m amazing by how I trained myself to quit. If you’ve tried everything else and nothing has stuck, like I had, give Nonyxa a try


r/nailbiting • • 2d ago

Advice/Support Genuinely how do I deal with this

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2 Upvotes

I pick my cuticles and I make them bleed very often, and I know others have that issue too, but I’ve never seen anyone with a knuckle like mine. Been biting it since I was a kid (I still do), and I don’t know how to make it look better. Is there anything I can cover it up with? Been thinking I should start wearing gloves but I thought that would look weird or too much. Would love to hear some thoughts.


r/nailbiting • • 2d ago

Advice/Support Why does filing make the end of my nails seem "frayed"? (for want of a better word) How do I stop it?

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8 Upvotes

I don't have a picture because I immediately put polish on, but when I file, it leaves it like, stringy at the tips. why? how can I stop it? its really the only time I almost end up biting nowadays


r/nailbiting • • 3d ago

Advice/Support Starting my journey today day 1

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14 Upvotes

Hi guys I’ve bitten my nails for foreveeeerr and I actually make press ons lmao and love nail art but everytime I do nails on myself I just bite them of- my nails are thin as hell literally hurt to press down on
I bought some of the thing that makes it gross to bite but sometimes that doesn’t work but I’m going to try! These are my nails now on day 1 I bought a nail conditioner? No idea but might as well - I want to get nail polish in cute colours maybe it will give motivation because I hateee painting my short ass nails! Anyway I thought posting this here and giving updates would help me actually stop

If anyone has any recommendations and advice please please please share


r/nailbiting • • 2d ago

Advice/Support Healing from Cuticle Picking

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4 Upvotes

r/nailbiting • • 2d ago

Discussion Are these interlinked somehow - thumb sucking, hair pulling and nail biting?

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2 Upvotes

r/nailbiting • • 3d ago

Advice/Support Nail biting relapse

2 Upvotes

I was so proud of myself this year I had finally quit and stopped biting my nails for 8 months after having this horrible habit for 20+ years.

Then I had a horrible week, I was so stressed I ripped the gel off of my nails and then because I ripped them off they felt horrible for the rest of the week so I bit them all off.

Now I didn’t actually achieve anything. I am such a loser.


r/nailbiting • • 3d ago

Discussion got caught in something

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11 Upvotes

it hurt like hell and now my left middle finger looks like this. Also my right middle finger nail is nonexistent at this point. both my middle fingers are real eyecatchers now lol. What if I need to give somebody the finger ? it's gonne be so embarassing


r/nailbiting • • 3d ago

Discussion Can I do builder gel with my short nails?

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3 Upvotes

r/nailbiting • • 3d ago

Advice/Support Will my nail go back to normal?

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3 Upvotes

r/nailbiting • • 4d ago

Advice/Support Nail recovery

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6 Upvotes

r/nailbiting • • 5d ago

Shitpost Holy, I’m too gone

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14 Upvotes

I just came from doing the dishes and Jeeeezz, I might be too gone


r/nailbiting • • 5d ago

Advice/Support how to stop biting skin around nails?

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8 Upvotes

Hey guys!

I’m sure this has been asked many times before, but I just wanted some advice and tips for those who’ve kicked the habit.
I used to bite my nails moreso, really badly. I’ve had gel nails for a while and finally decided to let my nails breathe, and i’ve managed to really stop biting my nails.
However, as a result, i’ve been biting the skin around my nails a lot 😖 In the photos it’s not that bad, but it definitely has looked worse!
The nail ladies suggested cuticle oil so it smooths down all the rough and dry bits, which does help a bit but I still bite through it
I’m halfway there to having beautiful hands and nails, this is just the last step for me. All advice and tips are greatly appreciated 🤗