The chewable skin surrounding your fingernails

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I think the title speaks for itself.

― Mark C, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

WHen chewing - classic. When ripping off and bleeding - dud.

― Pete, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I remember my mother telling me when I was a kid that the bit of it at the base of the nail should always be pushed down to reveal the "half moons" (do these have a proper name? why are they there? etc etc). I can only assume she'd had some half-remembered conversation with a manicurist.

But chewable?. When is there ever enough there to chew? You're right about it ripping and bleeding though, Pete, that happens to me a lot and it's annoying.

― MarkH, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Does anyone have a cast iron way of NOT chewing their [insert name for bits around fingernail here]? I'm at my wit's end, I really am. I even tried that chemically nasty-tasting substance for your nails, but I was a bit concerned about what it would do to my skin/flesh/bloodstream.

I also have a perpetual callous on my right index finger from teenage guitar strumming - if I didn't have a pleccy I'd play till it bled (and then some). Naturally, this also gets the chewing treatmenbt. It's ugly!

I really need some guidance.

― Mark C, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

just stop doing it! I have no willpower in the world but somehow I managed to just stop biting my nails (well, ripping them off anyway) and now after about nine months I have pretty good nails.

― chris, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

From guitar playing. Yeah, right! ;-)

― MarkH, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

On a more helpful note (I hope) can't you just chew gum instead?

― MarkH, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There is no answer. I tried to use that bad-tasting stuff but I ended up loving the taste. Pavlov = dud.

― Sam, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The gum solution would only work if they made is skin flavoured. Wrigleys Juicy Finger maybe.

― Pete, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Your skin is only flavoured with whatever you ate last.

― MarkH, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

whatever you ate, yeah, right!

― Mark C, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

But what if the last thing you ate was finger skin?....Eh?

― Pete, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

half moons = cuticle ?

― Alan Trewartha, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That's the lunula.

― Ronan, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

you refer to hang-nails.

― katie, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Is the lunula just a slightly differently pigmented bit of the nail? And is it true (as I heard once) that people born premature sometimes lack them?

― MarkH, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There was kid in my school who didn't have any fingernails at all. He got a disability living allowance of 1:43 a week extra and used it as an excuse not to play basketball and rugby.

― Pete, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Chewing isn't impossible to stop, but what about the more insidious habit of "picking" at the same area with your other fingernails?

― Tim, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I sometimes chew the skin at the side of my nails, but chewing the bit at the top is rather bad form - it makes the skin go all red and swollen and shiny - eeeeeew!

― Madchen, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've never had the slightest desire to bite my nails; what's wrong with you people? Also, I'm not even sure what "the chewable skin" is even referring to... I don't think I have this.

― Sean, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

classic. i will never stop eating my fingers. tasty.

― di, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

dud, its a pain in the arse and an abomination in the sight of god. Chewing my fingers is not a hobby I have ever subscribed to. Tacky nail polish however... speaking of which I have not painted my nails in ages. Maybe I should alternate colours on each nail this time?

― Menelaus Darcy, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm just glad that the title specifies fingernails. Chewing on own toes, while impressively limber, is tres icky.

― Kim, Saturday, 10 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What Pete said first time around. I used to like to pick my guitar callouses also, but now they seem to have developed into just hard skin.

BUT...what about the even worse habit of picking off the skin on your lips? I do this and now have horrid looking lips which sting whenever I eat anything acidic.

― Ally C, Saturday, 10 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the cuticle is the skin at the side and base of your nail. I don't know what the half moon thing is called.

I don't bite my nails, or the skin, but I did used to pick em when I was a kid.

― smythe,mr smythe, Saturday, 10 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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The chewable skin surrounding your fingernails - classic or dud?