Recidivism

Mani later. But first:

Watched a movie last night, and suddenly in the midst of things exploding and developing intrigue I realized I was --

ARGH --

nibbling my cuticles.

What an awful habit, and awfully hard to stop. I hate to lose ground after working pretty gorram hard to get them in better shape. It's not horrible, yet -- no blood, ugh -- but my right thumb and index finger are rough and unpleasant. I've done my best this morning with trimming, and will be moisturizing like crazy.

But I wonder if I need to do some kind of MAJOR trimming. The trouble is that my cuticles are never soft. Even at their best they are hard and callus-y, and they crack if you look at them funny, no matter how much goop I smear all over them.

What do you do with the Intransigent Cuticle? The brick-hard long-term repeat offender? I'm not even sure this part of the fingertip IS the cuticle. The cuticle at the base of my nails is perfectly fine. It's the sides of my fingers, esp. at the tips. For all I know this could be pure callus and scar tissue. Ew, that doesn't sound good, but really -- it ISN'T good. It's frustrating and exasperating. But if I trim off too much I wind up with a bit of a cavern there, and I really run the risk of taking too much and wounding it.

Maybe this is something I just have to shrug off. The actual cuticles are decent. I need to go consult Loodie's chart and see what this part of the fingertip is actually called. Uh, it may just be called "skin." Abused, calloused skin.

EDIT: Okay, according to Loodie's chart, this portion of the nail is called the lateral nail fold. And HOLY ORANGE STICKS BATMAN are there some gross pictures if you Google that term.

MY EYESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Hokay. My lateral nail folds are not as bad as all that, it appears. And I refuse to consult Google again. There be dragons.

(However, after making my eyes bleed just now, I deduce that I'm pretty damn lucky not to have given myself some sort of far worse problem, as much abuse as my cuticles and skin have endured over the years. HOOOOOLY dooly.)

Does anyone else have trouble with the lateral nail fold area? Keeping it soft and supple? We talk a lot about trimming the cuticle, but what about this lateral area? Is it safe to trim? Are there any therapies that can soften it up when it's hardened to nearly as resilient as the nail itself?