Dermatologists Reveal How Bendy Is Too Bendy for Your Fingernails

Some people have fingernails so strong and thick they’re tempted to use them as screwdrivers. Others, on the other hand, might be able to bend their nails over to touch their fingertips without breaking them. Which raises the question: Is there a point where your nails can be too flexible—and might that be hinting at a health problem?

Generally, pliable nails aren’t an issue, especially if they’ve always been that way, says Chris Adigun, M.D., F.A.A.D., a board-certified dermatologist, president and medical director of the Dermatology & Laser Center of Chapel Hill, N.C., and an expert in nail conditions.

“Some people have very soft, very bendable nails, whereas some people have nails that are hard, hard, hard,” she says. “There is a very wide range of normal for thickness of nail plates, just like there’s a spectrum of normal for long legs and short legs, and tall bodies and short bodies.”

Plus, there’s actually a reason why you’d want your nails to have some give—it means your nails are resilient to breakage, she says. And everyone’s nails tend to become thinner and bendier over time, as part of the normal aging process.

That said, if your nails start to split, chip, or peel, you may have a condition called brittle nails that warrants attention, says Brian Toy, M.D., board-certified attending dermatologist at Providence Mission Hospital and a clinical professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. And nails that become dramatically softer or change shape in a short time period may signal an underlying medical condition, Dr. Adigun says.

Here’s more about what’s normal and what’s not when it comes to the ends of your digits—and what to do to keep your nails healthy and strong.

Meet the experts: Chris Adigun, M.D., F.A.A.D., a board-certified dermatologist and the president and medical director of the Dermatology & Laser Center of Chapel Hill, N.C.; Brian Toy, M.D., board-certified attending dermatologist at Providence Mission Hospital and a clinical professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

Your nails may hold clues about your overall health.

Let’s start with a quick lesson in nail anatomy to help explain what makes nails bendy or rigid in the first place. The part of the nail you see is called the plate. Underneath that, hidden from view, lies the nail matrix—a group of special cells that produce new nail tissue, mostly made of a protein called keratin. Genetics and individual biology, along with factors like nutrition and overall health, determine how fast and how thick they churn it out (the fewer layers of keratin, the thinner and bendier the nail).

For nail thickness and flexibility, “there’s a wide spectrum of normal,” Dr. Adigun says.

While starting points differ, nails also typically thin with age. Just as skin gets more delicate and less supple over time, the nail matrix also atrophies, causing thinning, dryness, and vertical ridges. “We get wrinkles in our skin, and we get wrinkles in our nails,” Dr. Adigun says. “Slow changes, especially slow thinning of nails, are expected over time.”

But shifts in nail thickness and flexibility that occur more suddenly—say, over months rather than years—set off alarm bells for dermatologists. “Most of the time, people who have soft, thin nails have those soft, thin nails in childhood and adolescence, and they have them for life,” Dr. Adigun says. “But when you go from thick, hard nails to extremely thin nails over a relatively short period of time, that’s not what I would expect over the course of the normal aging process. That’s something we’re going to look into.”

Nail weakness also becomes a problem if your nails start to break, split, or chip, or layers of keratin begin to peel back. Medical experts call this condition brittle nails, and Dr. Toy says it usually affects the fingers more than the toes. It’s common—affecting about one in five people—and women 50 and older have a greater risk.

Besides age, other factors that can play a role in brittle nails include:

• Deficiencies in certain vitamins or minerals, including biotin, folate, iron, or zinc

• Systemic health conditions, such as infections, anemia, hypothyroidism, autoimmune disorders, liver disease, or kidney disease

• Skin disorders, including psoriasis and lichen planus

Some conditions also cause nails to soften and form dents shaped like spoons (that’s often a sign of low iron or vitamin B) or to curve out, club-like, at the end of your nails (that can signal heart, lung, or digestive diseases), Dr. Adigun says.

There are ways to keep your nails healthy over time.

If your nails have always been soft and bendy, you don’t necessarily need to do anything. But check in with a dermatologist if you notice more sudden changes in nail thickness or shape, or if your nails split, peel, or break, Dr. Adigun says. That’s often the first step in diagnosing and managing underlying health conditions.

Dermatologists can also recommend treatments and habit shifts that offset age-related changes, making nails stronger and more resilient. “We really all get brittle nails over time. As our nail matrix atrophies, our nail plates thin, and they’re more likely to split, crack, and break,” she says. “Fortunately, there’s a lot we can do.”

First things first: skip nail hardeners, which don’t address the underlying causes. “People want to reach for a nail hardener because their nails are breaking all the time,” she says. “But a nail hardener can actually make them too hard, and then they’re more likely to crack and break.” Also, avoid the urge to file down ridges, which can further thin the nail plate and increase the risk of splitting.

Instead, aim to restore moisture, which is often lost to aging or exposure to soaps and other chemicals. Unlike dry skin—which occurs due to water loss—nails become dry when they lose lipids, or oils. Moisturizers containing plant-based oils, rather than those derived from petroleum, tend to work better to deliver lipids into the nail plate, Dr. Adigun says.

Coconut oil is a popular choice, but its effects don’t last long. Dr. Adigun recommends applying a product like Doctor Rogers Restore Healing Balm daily to deliver lipids into the nail plate and nourish the surrounding skin. Dr. Toy, meanwhile, suggests using Cutemol Emollient Cream on the cuticles after handwashing, then using a nail conditioner such as DermaNail, both from Summers Laboratories, at night.

Then protect your nails by avoiding polish with formaldehyde and polish remover with acetone, both of which pull lipids out of the nail plate, Dr. Adigun says. Dr. Toy also suggests wearing gloves when washing dishes, a task that commonly contributes to brittle nails. Supplementing with biotin—5,000 micrograms, up to twice daily—can also improve nail health, he says.

Staying consistent with these strategies can minimize drying and thinning even as your nail matrix further changes. But Dr. Adigun also advises her patients to shift their mindset a bit, embracing a degree of acceptance about the aging process. “People say, ‘I’ve always had the hardest nails, and now I don’t.’ I say, ‘There are other things that have also changed in your body,'” she says. “You are not a static creature—you are an evolving creature.”

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