My friend Katrina Lassey (BeautyFX managing director, international educator, 2015 New Zealand Beauty Industry Awards’ NZ Nail Technician of the Year, and all around awesome person) wrote a hilarious article recently about what clients commonly refer to as “cuticles.”

I share her frustration.

She writes,

“Cuticle is a dead thin film that gets dragged out as your nail is ‘born’ from under its nail cave, and today, I’m gonna help you find it. Follow me:

Look at your nails. Chose one. Give it a name (that parts optional, it just adds to the fun of this game).

Gently push the skin back off the nail using another fingernail. Yours- not Bob from accounts. What are you even doing in his office anyway?

Now the skins moved back from the nail temporarily, do you see that micro-skin-stuff that’s curling up all micro-ish-ly and looking a bit like rubber stuck to the page when you use an eraser on a pencil because you suck at math?

THAT’S CUTICLE.

Not the skin around it, not the thick dry manly part, No. That tiny, rubbery, clearish-white-ish dead skin you’re now obsessively playing with on the very back of your nail… THAT. IS. CUTICLE.”

Often, I’m asked by clients if I “cut” their “cuticles.” Generally, what they’re referring to is the living tissue surrounding their nail plate (aka. “Proximal Nail Fold”). Cutting this skin is highly inadvisable, and not something I do. Why? Because when this skin is cut it grows back thicker and harder (your skin is trying to protect itself by creating scar tissue), and not to mention cutting living skin is risky and it can lead to infection.
There are better, more gentle ways of treating the skin around the nails so it looks presentable… and more about this soon. 

If you like Katrina’s blog, That’s Not Even Funny, follow her!