First-degree burns? / The dangers behind the use polish gel nails (My experience)
Hello dear community! I am very happy to be able to make a contribution to this month's topic on skin care. In this post I want to tell you my experience about what happened to me when I had a manicure using gel nail polish. I hope my experience will serve as a warning!
In the middle of last year, I went on a trip to the beach. Like any flirtatious woman, I wanted to see my fingernails and toenails looking nice, so I decided to go to the beauty salon to get a manicure.
My nails are usually weak and brittle. Although I consider my diet to be balanced, I have always had this condition. Therefore, I do not like to paint my nails with varnish. However, for a special occasion, I resort to getting a manicure at a beauty salon.
When I arrived at the salon the manicurist offered me "semi-permanent nails". This was actually a new procedure for me. She told me that a gel was used on the nails, which hardened when exposed to a drying lamp, this formed a protective layer, and the nail polish would last much longer than a conventional manicure. I thought this was great because usually by the third day the nail polish peels off and the hands lose that nice touch.
Everything was going well until I placed my hand under the drying lamp for 2 minutes. I felt an uncomfortable heat on my nails. I could tell it caused slight pain. However I was surprised with the speed of the procedure.
I went on a trip, and indeed the manicure lasted 3 weeks. this was fabulous! However after that time the nails had grown out, and you could see the nail without polish and another part with polish. It was time to remove that...but I had never been told how the process worked.
When I arrived at the beauty salon, the manicurist proceeded to remove the polymer from my nails. The method of removing it seemed to me to be the most savage. She placed cotton impregnated with acetone on my nails, and covered each one with aluminum foil and then placed my hand for a couple of minutes in the drying lamp. After that she proceeded to scrape the surface of my nails with a metal tool. It is the tool used to "push back the cuticle".
You can imagine that after my nails were sensitive. I left them natural without polish. A few days later, I noticed a difference in color between the nail that was growing and the one that had undergone that atrocious procedure. One part of the nail looked weak, flaky and yellow. It was very ugly! (I didn't take pictures of this because I didn't think it was important). I thought maybe I was allergic to one of the components, but I had already decided that I would never do this type of manicure again. Was the yellowish color of my nails and the skin underneath them a burn? Maybe it was!
Source
A few days ago, while reading a scientific magazine, I came across an article warning about this type of procedure. In this article they explained that the "drying lamps" emit ultraviolet light of the same type as sunbeds. How so? Yes, these lamps emit ultraviolet light radiation classified as type A according to the damage to human skin by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (1). This type of UV radiation is carcinogenic. These lamps have many bulbs that emit UVA. When you get a manicure like this, do you wear protective eyewear???? Omg!
This shocked me a lot, so I dedicated myself to the task of investigating the subject further, and I found that since 2009 there were reports of women who presented carcinogenic cells in their hands. These women frequently performed manicures with this type of polish nails and exposure to the drying lamp(2). Recently, in 2019, actinic keratoses and squamous cell carcinomas were found on the back of the hand in women exposed to UVA radiation from these drying lamps (3)
That is why when I read the study published a couple of weeks ago showing the carcinogenic effect and irreversible mutations in the DNA of the skin due to frequent exposure to Uv radiation from these enamel drying lamps (4), I felt I had to share this information with you. Do you know what the saddest part of all this is? This study was received by the scientific journal in February 2021, that is two years before going public. How many women could have been warned about the damage to their skin?
I hope this publication will serve as an outreach. If you think it is important to alert women about the adverse effects of having a manicure with gel polish and drying with UVA radiation lamps, reblog this post, after all we will be fulfilling the main objective of this community which is to inform, educate, alert and promote prevention.
You can find more information in these links:
1. A review of human carcinogens—Part D: radiation
2. Occurrence of nonmelanoma skin cancers on the hands after UV nail light exposure
4. DNA damage and somatic mutations in mammalian cells after irradiation with a nail polish dryer
Thanks for reading. See you in next post!
Hola, mi querida amiga. Gracias por compartir esta valiosa e informativa publicación. Pocas veces me he expuesto a este tipo de manicura, si las cuento, no creo que lleguen a diez, precisamente, porque he notado que debilita mis uñas y las pone quebradizas.
Es importante conocer los efectos secundarios de todos los procedimientos que nos hacemos las mujeres y ser precavidas con esto. Voy a compartir tu publicación para que esta información llegue a más mujeres y a hombres que, también, se están haciendo este tipo de manicura. Te mando un abrazo fuerte. Saludos y bendiciones.
Mi querida @aurodivys, es un gusto leer tu comentario. Sí es cierto lo que dices, a veces somos muy ligeros y nos sometemos a procedimientos sin averiguar mucho. La parte estética, desde procedimientos sencillos, debe tener estudios y divulgación de las posibles consecuencias. Lo que me asombra es que ya habían alertas desde el 2009 de los posibles efectos cancerígenos...y yo no he visto ningún cartel en las peluquerías que adviertan sobre esto.
Gracias por compartirlo, es un placer poder colaborar a la divulgación científica para cuidar de nuestra salud.
Te retorno un gran abrazo para ti y los tuyos! 😃🌻
Hello @chaodietas it is a pleasure to have you here and we appreciate you joining us in sharing experiences, in our month of skin care. Thank you for the contribution you present us with this interesting review article with scientific support, current, otherwise instructive, educational and formative.
Nails represent one of the annexes of the skin and together with it is part of our Integumentary System.
Nowadays in our America, it is very frequent the use of ultraviolet light devices (lamps) to accelerate the drying and hardening of nail polishes and gels in beauty salons. The reason is that a material called "acrylate" is used, which requires UV light to solidify. In other words, it is very different from the application of conventional nail polish. This process has had a considerable following because of the long-lasting and attractive results.
In particular, I have never had this procedure done, I wear my nails very short because I often have to wear gloves in my professional practice. But I have observed how they perform them and during a session, depending on the client's request, the lamp is used several times to achieve the expected result. On the other hand, to remove the gel nails, the process is cruel and aggressive, because of the acetone used, which has a great abrasive effect.
For the above mentioned, we recommend to keep in mind this call and not to use these procedures frequently in the long term, considering the adverse effects that could be generated. Be aware of the side effects and adverse damage that may occur to your skin and nails.
We look forward to further research, longitudinal correlational studies and meta-analysis in this area.
We thank you for the information provided to our community for discussion.
Until another time.
Happy week to you and yours.
Hi @marilour,
I am struck by the number of regulars in this practice. Despite the existence of in vitro studies in rodent and human cells, there is no public warning about it. I think that it should be informed and then it is up to each person to decide whether to perform this practice of manicure with gel-based enamels with its corresponding exposure to UVA.
Thank you for reading my publication and complementing it with your valuable comment.
I think that is the detail. It has become a common practice, with a considerable number of followers, but the investigations are in vitro or very specific cases, more are needed.
There is still not enough evidence to support that it is a collective health problem. Therefore, longitudinal clinical-epidemiological research is needed to express criteria of incidence, prevalence, magnitude, vulnerability of the affectation, etc. Only with these and other aspects will the highest authorities of world health make the call and this is given by the figures measured by the number of cases (morbidity).
We reiterate our gratitude for your contribution.
Thank you.
Sorry you had to be exposed to that UV radiation. Hopefully no damage was made fr the duration of exposure. Thanks for sharing. Many people should learn from this.
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The experience was unpleasant, luckily I only did it once. Thank you very much for your appreciation. 😃