You have most likely experienced using a nail cutter before or witnessed someone trimming their nails either by biting them or clipping them, right? If your answer is yes, have you ever wondered how long it takes these fingernails to grow back?
If that question has wrapped around your interest and intrigues you, and you are now searching for answers, then you might have come across the perfect article.
We will tackle the common questions and inquiries people have about the duration of fingernails to grow back after biting them or cutting them short, the factors responsible for the growth speed, and how to make them grow faster.
How Long Does It Take For Finger Nails To Grow Back?
We will dive deep straight into the answers, so for the first question, how long does it take for nails to grow back? On average, fingernails grow monthly at around 3.47 millimeters (mm), which means they grow about a tenth of a millimeter every day.
Keep in mind that this is just the average growth rate of a fingernail, and multiple actors may affect their growth. These factors may speed up or slow down the growth process.
What are the Several Factors Influencing the Speed of the Growth of Your Nails?
As mentioned, several factors are affecting the growth speed of our fingernails. The first factor is the time of the day. Several studies state nails grow faster with sunlight during the daytime and, most significantly, during summer compared to nighttime and winter.
There is also a noticeable difference between the location and growth speed of the nails of your dominant hand compared to your non-dominant hand. Similarly, this is also the case in your longer fingers, compared to the shorter ones, especially the fingernail in your pinky finger, which grows the slowest.
This speed is because you use your dominant hand more frequently, which opens the room and the possibility of your body to give this area more nutrients, which explains the growth.
After the location factor, another factor that also affects the growth speed of the nail is age. Age has something to do with how your nails grow; being younger includes the perks of having a faster nail growth rate than when you grow older. The reason behind this is that blood circulation gets more gradual with age.
Aside from the sunlight, location, and age, hormones also play a significant role in our nail growth rate. For pregnant women, they experience fluctuating hormones because of the rise and fall of estrogen and progesterone.
These fluctuations and increases also result in faster nail growth. Meanwhile, after pregnancy and during the start of the lactation period, this growth rate slows down and eventually comes back to normal. This period is also a factor for teenagers experiencing and undergoing puberty, as we consider puberty the peak of nail growth because of peculiar hormonal changes.
Aside from these, it is crucial to remember that the significant factor for nail growth rate is a person’s overall health and well-being. The growth, shape, size, and color of your nails can reflect your overall health and if you have underlying health conditions. With this, some disorders may slow down the rate of your nail growth or your general ability to recover your hair or nail growth.
How Long Does It Take For Nails To Grow Back After Cutting Them?
Be careful not to damage your nail cuticle and nail bed when using regular nail cutters or nail clippers. These can influence how long your fingernails grow back after cutting them. However, for standard cutting, you can fully grow your nail back in about a month or a month and a half.
How Long Does It Take For Nails To Grow Back After Biting Them?
If you are a person who has this habit of biting off your nails, you may have a condition called onychophagia. People who have this habit have a faster nail growth rate because of the nail trauma it causes, thus the reflex of the influx of bodily nutrients in this area.
Compared to the regular trimming or cutting off nails, biting them makes them grow a little faster. However, if you want to have longer nails and minor trauma for your nails, you may use a regular nail cutter.
How Long Does It Take For Very Short Bitten Nails To Grow Back?
Even short bitten nails can grow back to normal or how they used to, especially if you do not cause too much trauma in your nail bed and cuticle. These nail parts are pretty sensitive, as they contain tissues that can deform or reform the nail. A nail grows each day, but if you have bitten your fingernails short, it may take around a month to six months to grow them back fully; it all depends on how severely you have bitten them.
Again, when biting your nails, be mindful of the delicate skin below the nail bed as they are tissues that can easily be prone to bacteria, infection, and fungi when injured.
How Long Does It Take For Your Nails to Grow Back After Acrylics?
Often, people experience damaged nails after acrylics. This damage is because attaching and applying acrylics can be tedious and traumatic for the nails. However, the good news is that it is still possible to repair and grow back your nails even after acrylics.
After recovering your nails and letting them breathe again, your natural nails will just continue to grow at the same rate as if you have used a regular clipper on them. So long as your nail bed is still intact, it will be about a month to four months for them to recover.
Proper Care for Finger Nails After Cutting Them
Trimming your nails either by cutting them with a regular nail clipper or by biting them can cause severe trauma to the nails. To keep them healthy, practice an after-care routine. You can apply cuticle oil to your nails. Not only that, this can soothe up the stressed or agitated area in your fingers, but it can also generate a healthy nail growth rate.
How to Make Your Finger Nails Grow Back Faster
Healthy nails are pale pink or pink, smooth, and do not have any dents or grooves in textures. Now, if you have concerns about your nail growth rate, do not worry because there are some things you can do to induce faster growth.
First, you can take biotin. If you wonder what biotin is, it is a B-vitamin converting your food into energy that your body can use. This supplement is advisable to boost nail and hair strength. Naturally, some foods rich in biotin include eggs, sardines, nuts, whole grains, soy, beans, bananas, cauliflowers, and mushrooms.
Then, besides biotin, you also have the option to use nail hardeners. People often apply them like regular nail polish and also remove them afterward with a nail polish remover.
Avoiding glue-on, artificial nails, nail polishes with strong chemical composition and proper hygiene, and good grooming can also foster a faster growth rate.
