Have you ever had an ingrown nail / hair?

[Jaylock]

Was it painful for you if you had one? What did you do to relieve the pain?

[Deleted]

Ingrown hair just man-up and pull it out with tweezers, ingrown nail I'd probably not advise doing what I did and that was attempt to cut the nail out myself. It caused years of pain and complications.

[Nerevar]

I had an ingrown nail on my foot. It was painful as hell. It was okay if I didn't touch it, but even the slightest bump on anything ( socks, boots ) brought extreme pain. At first I tried to cut it myself, cut it badly, and it grew even worse. Because of the bleeding and everything, after each night there was dry white fluid mixed with blood. I always just cleaned that. After a while, I stopped cutting it and left it alone. After some time, it grew out normally, I cleaned up the wound, the blood, and everything was okay. Didn't need a surgery to fix this.

[Vinho]

Recently took care of an ingrown toenail.

It was pretty bad & painful, but didn't want to go into see a doctor just yet.

Family friend recommended I file down the centre of the nail with a scraping motion using scissors until it was very thin and sensitive to touch. (Reason for doing so is the sides of your nail will actually lift up slightly and relieve pressure from the jabbing into your skin)

I tried it and it worked miracles

[Deleted]

Hair sure, it happens. I just pull it out if I can... if not... not much I can do. I still have a hair that grew all in the skin and can't take it out. But it's not worth going to surgery over it, it's a hair, and it doesn't get infected. One day I'll pull that one out too.

As for nails, yes. I usually cut a bit on the side, as in to sort of be able to rip that part out. I also cut on the skin, since usually when the nail grows to inside the skin, most of it isn't actually fully inside, the body has already created a "skin" around the parts closer to the exit, so I also cut it from the skin taking care not to get to blood (because if you do, you can't see anything anymore). And when I get to the end, I rip the last part.

[Rotted]

I've "felt" a few ingrowing toe nails before, generally on my left big toe, and I have no problem with removing it myself, maybe because I catch it early every time but meh /shurg

[Frozenbeef]

how do you have an ingrown toenail? 0o

I understand the hair as it comes up from the skin but toe nails grow across how does it become ingrown? :S

[Seiken3]

Not sure if topic is still valid since the poster got banned, but... I've had operations in my feet 13 times because of ingrown toenails. FINALLY rid of them after 7 years of suffering. Not really much you can do while you have them, just... be gentle. Cut them gentle. Don't cut them in a way that they will grow into your flesh more.

---------- Post added 2013-01-24 at 12:38 AM ----------

how do you have an ingrown toenail? 0o

I understand the hair as it comes up from the skin but toe nails grow across how does it become ingrown? :S

If you cut the nail completely down to the flesh(so it almost starts to bleed, or further) then the nail will want to grow in every angle possible from that point. That's how it starts to grow into your flesh.

[Thage]

I actually had to get part of my right big toe removed due to an ingrown toenail(the chunk had to be removed to get at the ingrowth). No clue how it happened.

[This name sucks]

how do you have an ingrown toenail? 0o

I understand the hair as it comes up from the skin but toe nails grow across how does it become ingrown? :S

I've always been confused about that too.

When I was little I would get my toe nails growing slightly too wide and jabbing the side of my skin but other than that I don't see how its possible.

[The Riddler]

The most effective general solution to an ingrown toenail is to cut as big of a "V" in the center of the toenail as possible. The "V" shape will cause the entire toenail to grow towards the "V", pulling the ingrown sides towards the center and away from the ingrown sides. If that fails? Go see a doctor.

[Kivana]

When at high school i had ingrowing nails on both of my big toes. Went i to the doc to see what he thought and i was shocked to discover that both nails were going quite deep down under the skin and unless sorted, would result in extreme pain.

Got a referral and i was in the hospital a week later for my operation. Doc explained what was going to happen and was a really nice and chatty guy.

I had two numbing injections in EACH toe on both feet and i could feel the numbness creeping up my feet and into my shins. I told the doc and nurse who were both sweet and assured me that it was normal and nothing to worry about.

At this point the doc is concentrating so the nurse is chatting to me about what school i was going to and were my teachers nice. Turns out she went to my school and had my science teacher for her 5 years there

Anyway, the doc cut out the digging down part of the nails and put some sort of acid into the space left behind so as to stop the ingrowing from ever happening again. Then i had my big toes bandaged up, secured to my other toes with tape and was told to try and not put pressure on or bend those toes for a few weeks.

[Talokami]

how do you have an ingrown toenail? 0o

I understand the hair as it comes up from the skin but toe nails grow across how does it become ingrown? :S

If the nail's cut crookedly it will lurch over to that side and grow into the skin. Wearing shoes that are too tight in the toes makes it worse.

I got them frequently in college and high school and they hurt like hell. Mine would develop these little bubbles on the side of the nail where the infection was, and (TMI warning) I found the best way to make the pain stop was to squeeze there so the pus would drain out. It felt a lot better after that mainly because the pressure was taken off and the infection was being drained out. I then swabbed some alcohol and neosporin on it and slapped a band-aid on. They usually went away quickly after that but sometimes they needed to be drained again.

[Nerevar]

how do you have an ingrown toenail? 0o

I understand the hair as it comes up from the skin but toe nails grow across how does it become ingrown? :S

By cutting it the wrong way. Or not cutting your nails at all, they break themselves, and the growth continues in a bad way.
Also, if you cut it too deep, it may grow badly. And if you cut while leaving some kind of little sharp part there. It will grow into skin, and hell begins.

[Shakadam]

Never had either of them, and yet I shave several areas.

I'm lucky I guess?

[drwelfare]

Cut it out or pull it out. It will hurt but once it is out the relief is amazing

[Sevyvia]

If you cut the nail completely down to the flesh(so it almost starts to bleed, or further) then the nail will want to grow in every angle possible from that point. That's how it starts to grow into your flesh.

So don't do that? What the fuck? o.o

[v2prwsmb45yhuq3wj23vpjk]

Ingrown hair just man-up and pull it out with tweezers, ingrown nail I'd probably not advise doing what I did and that was attempt to cut the nail out myself. It caused years of pain and complications.

I've had to deal with a few ingrown nails. What I ended up doing for all of them was pulling them out. Hurts like hell when doing it, but was a great relief afterwards. Only had a problem once because the nail broke off instead of pulling out. Ended up pulling it out after letting it grow long enough again. Never got infected, either.


Also, cutting your nails too short isn't necessarily the main cause. If you get a lot of inwards pressure on the foot (from shoes that are too small, etc.) that can be the main problem.

[Nerevar]

I've had to deal with a few ingrown nails. What I ended up doing for all of them was pulling them out. Hurts like hell when doing it, but was a great relief afterwards. Only had a problem once because the nail broke off instead of pulling out. Ended up pulling it out after letting it grow long enough again. Never got infected, either.

Sounds like something out of a sadistic horror movie, haha.

[Masark]

By cutting it the wrong way. Or not cutting your nails at all, they break themselves, and the growth continues in a bad way.
Also, if you cut it too deep, it may grow badly. And if you cut while leaving some kind of little sharp part there. It will grow into skin, and hell begins.

Or having weird nailbeds that cause your toenails to grow in interesting ways, like sideways.