For as long as I can remember, I've been getting gel manicures without fail every two weeks. Then, a few years ago, after taking off my polish, I noticed that the skin underneath my fingernails was protruding further than my actual nail. I originally thought it was a nail growing under nail situation, but after close inspection, I realized it was just skin.
Regardless, it made it uncomfortable to trim them short, and I had to be wary when I was at the salon. I still continued my biweekly manicure appointments , and it wasn't until much later that I learned what it actually was: an overgrown hyponychium. When my city closed all nonessential businesses back at the start of the pandemic in 2020, one of the first things I did was remove my gel manicure .
What I noticed in the weeks that followed surprised me. The skin under my nails began to recede, and they started to look normal again on a few fingers. After a few Google searches, I read about something called the hyponychium and how it could be the cause of my past discomfort.
If you've never heard of the hyponychium (pronounced hai-pow-ni-kee-uhm) before, you're not alone. Curious to learn more, and in case others were experiencing the same hyponychium overgrowth that I had been, I reached out to professional manicurists to answer all my biggest questions. Keep reading to learn what the hyponychium is, how to combat an overgrown hyponychium, and what you can do about skin growing under nails.
Brittney Boyce is a consulting na.
:upscale()/2024/12/18/954/n/1922153/5c0a24a46763447a56e0b3.57621533_.png)
