Beauty Culture (Woodbury)/Chapter 2

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The care of the nails has been for ages one of the surest marks of every serious collective attempt at civilization. Far beyond the period when regular history begins to merge into tradition and folklore, the women of the East paid great attention to the cultivation of their nails; took pride in the shape, color, and lustre of their "phalangeal appendages," as one learned writer terms the pretty things that originally were claws.

As Oriental civilization became more artificial and complex, many took to coloring their nails by insertion of organic dyes into the matrix of the nail at its upper or free edge, where the cuticle ends. Before then they had been content with external painting or staining of the nail with various pigments; black, red, and purple being mostly used, though gilding was also done—a fashion or a fad we have been expecting for some time to see revived.

In some countries the shape of the nail signed the social status of the individual. Long nails denoted persons of high birth or those who had themselves achieved such high rank as to entitle them to especial length of nail. Extreme care was taken by such to protect each nail, the finger tips being enclosed in a gold or silver ​sheath, lined with soft material, when the long-nailed personage was not receiving visitors of equal or greater importance or attending social or official functions.

In Mexico and China to this day long-nailed grandees are frequently met who observe these precautions, and, even in this country, Chinese "merchant princes" are occasionally encountered who are thus distinguished. The writer met one some years ago in San Francisco who had nails about three inches long. Dr. Wolff, a famous traveller in the Orient seventy-odd years ago, reported that the dervishes in some parts of Asia were in the habit of letting the thumb nail (the strongest of our nails) grow long, and then paring it to a point so as to use it for a pen. Ile repeatedly saw this done and secured copies of things written that way—"thumb-scripts."

Evolution of the care of the nails has not been rapid with us in the mass, although many individual Americans from colonial times have been noted for the elegance of their finger tips; being, in the phrase of the Roman poet, Horace, describing a man of high social finish—politus ad unguem—polished to the nail point.

But, although popular manicuring is a comparatively recent art, it has been growing so rapidly that soon there will hardly be a hamlet in the land where a manicurist cannot be found.

One of the evils attendant on so rapid a spread is, and must be until correct instruction is thoroughly disseminated, that a vast number of incompetent manicurists will inflict injury, in some cases irreparable damage, on the nails of the rising generation of beautiful girls and well-handed young men. They are already doing it in many quarters.

About the time the first manicuring parlors were es​tablished in New York, a man who perhaps knew more about hoofs than hands engaged a bevy of good-looking girls, taught them what he called the art, and set them to scraping and thinning down the nails of customers just as horses' hoofs are pared for shoeing. Needless to say, the nails of the customers were ruined, while the blockhead with his bluff amassed a considerable fortune.

Such cruel crudity, of course, would not succeed now, but it is unfortunately true that a vast majority of present manicurists have no true understanding of their business, being deplorably ignorant of the fine points that make for a speedy and a permanent success and apparently believing they have fulfilled their mission when they make their patron's nails retain for a few days a noticeable shine. They ought to take down their sign "Manicurist" and hang up instead one labelled "Nails Shined Inside."

Anatomy of the Finger Nail. First of all the manicurist should have a thorough knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the nail—just what its structural relations are to the finger, how it receives its nourishment, and what is its process of growth.

The nail is continuous with the cuticle or scarf skin of the finger and closely bound to it beneath the free edge, back of the nail, and at the base or root in front of the nail. It is a horny product, made up of flat scales of great number, arising from the matrix or true skin situated below its body and root.

It varies in shape and length according to the build of the finger, upon which it is placed at its outer and upper extremity. It is elongated from the root outward and terminates in the free end.

​ Just above the lower attachment begins the cuticle or scarf skin, which surrounds the horny or protective layer at its sides as well and beneath the free border. The ​

derma or true skin is highly elastic and tough, containing blood vessels and nerves.

The matrix, that part of the skin below the body and root of the nail, is the part from which the nail is produced. This is thick under the body of the nail and thinner at the root. Under the root will be seen a pale halfmoon-shaped area called the lunula, varying in extent in every individual and finger.

The nail is convexed outward over its body and slightly flattened at the root and free edge.

Figure 2 gives an idea of the association of the various parts of the structures to the nail proper, as well as shows the wonderful construction of the finger at its tip.

Shapes of Nails. The shape of the finger nails differs in individuals according to the peculiar shape of the finger tips. Some are broad and short and thick; others thin, long, and narrow. In some we find claw-like nails, ​

pale in color or of a yellowish tint, while in others the nails are ridged from root to edge or across the body of the nail. Some present thick bone-like brittle nails, and others thin flexible ones. These various forms are the result of physical conditions, some due to recent illnesses, others to chronic discases.

The nails readily indicate the physical state of the owner thereof, and the manicurist of experience soon recognizes the value of such indication. Her observations are often invaluable to her welfare, and while she is not in a position to treat the patient medicinally, she has the advantage of knowing whereof she speaks, a fact never overlooked by her patron.

The care necessary for such abnormal nails, as far as the manicurist is able to overcome the defect, will be discussed after instructions in the general treatment of the nail.

The manicurist can do much to beautify the hand by ​properly shaping or rebuilding the form of a nail. She must know that a short, stubby or fat finger is improved by having the nail long and oval, and that a sharp or tapering finger should have a shorter and less curved nail.

The fanciful shapes of nails so much in vogue a few years ago have, fortunately, gone out of fashion. The rose-leaf and talon shapes had to be given up, because of the constant danger of breaking the delicate points. The oval edge, almond or filbert shape, with the modification of curvature necessitated by the shape of the fingers, is used only at the present time.

In the figures 3 to 8 the correct and incorrect ways of shaping the nails are shown.