It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝Advice about ingrown toenails that isn’t just “cut them straight”? That seems to just make them worse as they get pushed in at the edges, or if I cut them very short, it just digs in differently as it grows back❞

So, “cut them straight” is correct advice, but it’s also incomplete advice.

First of all, you will want made-for-purpose toenail clippers that:

• are sharp and strong (obvious, but it’s amazing how many aren’t)
• have a straight cutting edge (no curves at the sides)
• have a wide blade (ideally wider than your toenail)

Here’s an example product on Amazon, but feel free to shop around. Interestingly, most big strong nail clippers are marketed as “for men”, which a) in marketing terms, means “we promise it’s not demeaning your masculinity to want nice toenails”, and b) is actually fair, since testosterone toughens nails and estrogen doesn’t. However, in the case of the product we linked, we see this one’s marketed as “for men, women, and seniors”. Ah yes, the three genders.

More seriously, they probably put that for search engine optimization reasons (i.e. in case people are including those terms in their search).

All you really need to know is: if it fits the three bullet points we gave just above, it’ll be good, regardless of your age or gender.

Next, put those aside from now, and soak your feet in a warm salt bath (magnesium salts, such as Epsom salts, are great, but literally just table salt is also fine for this purpose).

This is the opposite of what we advised in: The Counterintuitive Dos and Don’ts of Nail Health

However, that was in a different circumstance, and was a caveat against trying to make brittle nails less brittle by soaking them (which will make things worse, for reasons we explain).

In the case of ingrown toenails, however, you want your nail to be soft, and other considerations are secondary.

When the nail is soft, you can (carefully!) bend it up away from your flesh where it’s causing trouble. You can use a Q-tip for extra gentleness when doing this, if you don’t have another implement you prefer. Whatever you use should obviously be clean, and certainly nothing sharp.

Now, you have two options:

• leave a little wad of cotton wool or similar between the offending nail and your tender flesh, soaked with a little body-safe oil
• remove the little wad of cotton wool or similar, but apply a drop or two of body-safe oil, and reapply regularly

About that oil: almond oil is popular for this, though this writer used ginger oil to good effect for exactly this problem last year, choosing it because it also has antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. It’s not recommended to use undiluted essential oils directly on the skin (as this writer did), so you might want to dilute it in some medical grade almond oil in any case.

See also: Do Essential Oils Really Have Medicinal Properties?

And: Ginger Does A Lot More Than You Think

Now, the most important part

None of that care will help long-term if the thing that caused your ingrown toenails is still a thing.

And that’s almost always: your shoes

Specifically, you want to have good, wide amount of room for your toes to sit comfortably, without being compressed.

The worst offenders for this are:

• narrow-toed shoes
• shoes with heels
• narrow-toed shoes with heels

The narrowness of the toe area is self-explanatory; the reason heels can be a problem is then the force of gravity tends to press the toes into the toe-end of the shoe more. Indeed, this writer’s ingrown toenail last year was directly after wearing heeled boots to a garden party (normally I wear zero-drop shoes most of the time, but they didn’t look right with the dress I was wearing, hence the heeled boots).

For more on this side of foot care, see: Steps For Keeping Your Feet A Healthy Foundation

Putting it all together

If you have taken good care to soften and lift the offending part of the nail, and keep it soft and lifted, and are not wearing shoes that will compress your toes, then when the nail gets to an appropriate length, you can clip it in a straight line with the clippers we recommended, and all should be (and stay!) well.

If you have more serious problems (especially: if there is any sign of infection), then please see a local professional (pharmacist, doctor, chiropodist, etc) for the best advice tailored to you.

Finally, if you’d like to learn a lot more about foot care, then check out this very good (and remarkably comprehensive) book that we reviewed a while back:

The Foot Book – by Dr. Todd Brennan & Dr. Leslie Johnston

Take care!