Why are my nails peeling?🌿

Usually water.

Repeated wetting and drying makes the layers of the nail swell and shrink until they separate— that's peeling, and it's the most common cause by a wide margin.

But not the only one. Here's how to tell which you're dealing with.

🌿 Check your toenails. If only your fingernails are peeling, it's almost certainly something external — water, chemicals, manicures. If your toenails are too, that points inward, and it's worth mentioning to a doctor.

🌿 Water and soap are the usual culprits. Dishes, frequent handwashing, long baths, sanitizer. Nails swell when wet and contract as they dry, and enough cycles of that separates the layers.

🌿 Manicures take a toll. Gel, acrylic, and dip all involve filing and acetone, and the removal is usually harder on the nail than the wear. Peeling that shows up a week after a set comes off is a familiar pattern.

🌿 Filing bare nails makes it worse. Especially with a coarse file, or sawing back and forth. If you're going to file, do it in one direction on nails that aren't already fraying.

🌿 Picking and biting do real damage. Peeling polish off is the same thing — the top layer of nail often comes with it.

🌿 Sometimes it's internal. Iron deficiency, thyroid issues, and certain skin conditions can all show up in your nails. If peeling appears suddenly across many nails, or comes with discoloration or lifting, see a dermatologist rather than trying to fix it yourself.

🌿 What actually helps day to day. Gloves for dishes and cleaning. Keeping water exposure shorter. Oil on the nail and the skin around it, consistently — a nail holding some moisture is more flexible and less likely to separate. It won't repair what's already peeled; that has to grow out.

Short answer: usually water, sometimes manicures, occasionally something internal.

Oil helps the first two and buys the nail time to grow out clean — the damage you can already see is on its way off no matter what you do.