Best Non Toxic Nail Salon in Houston

Clippers Stadium, Machester City Football Club

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Another year comes to a close. Time for another spate of holiday traditions? Chocolate chip cookies? Coca-Cola? What about a handful of blunt rocks?

Yes, men enjoy cutting their nails, just as women do. Though recent research has shed light on the connection between fingernail trimming and the risks of prostate cancer, especially for those who follow a high-fat diet, the occasional nail-tying ritual doesn’t seem all that worrying. Unless you care more about your manicure than your health.

A new study finds that frequent fingernail cutting causes DNA damage that increases the risk of developing male-specific cancer in adulthood. The culprit: carbon and hydrogen peroxide. Some men nail a finger daily and ignore the health warnings. Others soak their nails at the weekend, and waste the quality acetone the oil dries with and the moisturizer they need to protect from the rays that burn the skin. Still others don’t regularly cut their nails because they don’t mind the extra nail dust and the shorter nails from the growth period.

But here’s the problem: Cutting your nails and then not removing the cuticle, which separates the cuticle from the bone, can cause nasty inflammation and tissue damage, which explains why a 2008 study of middle-aged men showed a higher risk of prostate cancer after just a few years of not paying attention to the cuticle. So while the question of why women don’t look through the cuticle much remains open (or is that question?), the connection with a man’s nail and cuticle quality is definitely there.

“Men are all about superficial and not detail,” says Paul Donato, a Southern California podiatrist, referring to the mechanics of fingernail clippings. Skin on a man’s nails is deeper and more flexible. The process of clipping, chipping and scraping away at nails while they’re still wet is even more intense than cutting with a pair of clippers. But at the end of a weekend of pedicures, the No. 1 complaint from the men Donato sees at his office is that their nails feel stiff and dry — a signal they should file them back to a fresh look every few days, he says.

A man cut in a different way can get the attention he wants without spending a wad of cash on a pedicure, and the results will be just as clear. If you follow these five nail-care best practices:

1. Shut up, boys.

“You can’t have this long fingernails without putting a lot of pressure on your hands,” says Mary Lou Zervatos, a California podiatrist.

You know what’s not good for your fingernails? Moving. Fast. All the time. While you’re at it, why not exercise more?

2. Put down the heels.

Having strong heels and less-than-shiny soles will hurt the cuticle’s ability to cling to your skin. The more they absorb moisture, the more they’ll dry out, peel and flake away. Cut them off if they start to look wimpy.

3. This one’s for the feminists.

The bone on your fingertips or at the base of your thumb doesn’t look at all “owlish” until they’re inches up the foot. That does happen, says Zervatos. So start trimming that bone immediately.

4. Soften those nails.

Since the start of the stick-and-click age in the 1960s, nail clippings have become more and more sticky, thin and brittle. The upshot: Advanced manicures (aka Russian baths and pedicures) are all about precision cuticles, but the mechanics of cutting loose nail roots and scrubbing away clippings is impossible with your knuckles.

“Nails are like individual babies,” says Gary Scher, founder of Polishing Reflex, a New York salon. “You want to pull the baby in the right direction, but the baby doesn’t follow you around, so you have to yank harder to separate them.”

Take it from him: The man with the nails sharpest is the one with the best-looking ones.

5. If you think your nails are that good, you’re wrong.

“You don’t necessarily need to pamper yourself for health reasons,” says Dr. James Ridenour, president of the New York Department of Dermatology.

He says regular nail clipping has the same damaging effects as regular cuts, though