Nail Biters?

So, do you bite your nails?

I've always been horrible to my nails from a young age and am recently trying my very hardest to let them grow out. I just feel funny wearing a nice engagement ring and having chewed off finger nails! So I've started to buy nail polish in pretty colors to keep me occupied with making my nails pretty and keeping them way instead of eating them down to nubbins!

So, if you bite your nails, have you ever tried to stop? Have you been successful?

Is anyone addicted to pretty nail polish colors like I'm starting to be?!

I'm a really bad nail biter.

I've been doing it since I was 7 years old, and it's really hard for me to break the habit.

The longest I've gone without doing it for was about a month... I had kept my nails all pretty and painted, and I decided to bite them off. I always say I'm going to stop doing it, and then I weigh it out and think "who cares" and I continue biting them.

Good luck with quitting. I'll try it again eventually.

Sometimes, when I'm really stressed, I'll realize that I've bitten my nails. I never even notice it while I'm doing it. But I have absolutely no interest in nail polish.

I don't bite my nails, usually I have acrylics, but not lately.
I have a ridiculous amount of nail polish... Like, enough to keep a full working salon happy. Every shade of every color of the rainbow... Jon thought I was nuts when we first got married, but I do actually use ALL of them. LOL
And... a BLT on an everything bagel sounds super duper yummy.

I'm a bad nail biter, even by nail-biter standards. People who say they bite their nails to the nubbens take one look at mine and......OMG!:yikes:

I actually remember how it all started. When I was about 6, I remember looking at my big sister, whom at the time, I looked up to and she'd be biting her nails. Thinking that's cool and what older girls that are cool do, I imitated her. And it just turned into a horrible habit.

I finally kicked the habit for about 5 years, somewhat recently. That nasty tasting stuff doesn't work for me, nor does tobasco sauce. I put on nail polish and filed them often, used that cuticle softener stuff and kept the cuticles in shape. I kept changing the colors and having fun with that, as you are Izzy. As soon as there was enough nail to glue on those fake nails (the el-cheapo, grocery store kind) I used those. They'd fall off after a few days, but I'd put them back on. Eventually, they grew out and by that time, I was pretty much out of the habit from not biting them with the fake nails on. (Fake nails are impossible to bite...you'll break your teeth.)

So, they looked really nice for about 5 years. And then, out of the blue...I don't know what triggered it for sure, but all of a sudden, I started biting them again. As I recall, I think one had a little chip out of one and I wasn't home and couldn't file it smooth. (They gotta be smooth) So, unable to resist, I messed with it with my teeth and lo and behold, I've been biting them now for about 5 years.

I think we nail biters should establish a nail biter annonymous (guess it wouldn't be so annonymous here) club and give support and tips etc...keep abreast of each other's progress. It is a bad habit because not only does it look awful, but if you get an ouchie from biting too close, you can get that m.r.s.a. in there more easily. Also, it seems that in my case, I bite because I'm nervous, but once you start working on a nail...and you can't get that little, micro rough spot off, that makes you nervous. It's like a compulsion to make sure they're ultra smoooooth. So, it's a vicious cycle. You're nervous, so you bite and biting makes you more nervous. LOL.

I have some gorgeous rings that I haven't worn for years because I don't want to attract attention to my nails. So, you have inspired me. Now, to get un-nervous first.

I bite my nails terribly. always have and I think I always will.

Odd though when I was pregnant I didn't bite my nails at all and they got soooooo long. then after that I started biting them again.

That's how mine started, too. My best friend bit her nails, and I thought she was SO cool :rofl1:

I used to be bad, I would bite them till they bled sometimes.

I stopped about 2 years ago. Sometimes I nibble at a rough edge when I'm anxious lol but when I catch myself I stop.

Actually I grow them long now, but apparently it is creepy looking so I'm clipping them back lol. It isn't for aesthetics (I couldn't be bothered to paint them) but growing them out (as a goal) helped me quit.

Nail biting, picking, and filing really really grosses me out. I can only clip them.

I voted that I only bite my nails when I'm stressed. It's usually when I'm at my parent's house >.< I do bite my nails other times, but not to the extent I do when I'm there. I'll be so proud of the progress I made during the week and then destroy it all on a weekend there.

I have these hair, skin and nail vitamins that make my nails grow to impossible lengths within a week. I always want to keep them and stop the habit but eventually they all go. Sometimes I wish I could have long pretty nails! lol

My son is the same way. When I used to have acrylics and became tired of them, I'd love to take them off myself by biting them and chipping it off and this would nauseate the heck out of him.

As for nail biting in general, I'm not really a nail biter, only if my nail chips or gets a rough edge and I don't have a file, then I'll bite it off.

Nail filing is the worst for me. The sound of it is just horrible.... I seriously almost throw up if people start filing or picking their nails in front of me. My sister is a horrible nail biter and she'd get mad at me for yelling at her to stop it.

I bite them if they have a rough edge, but they grow back insanely quickly. I have to use toe nail clippers on them, because they are really hard too.

I will cheer on all of you guys who are trying to stop though! YAY! Go CHAZZERS!

LOL Jesse, I didn't think anyone else would have started that way.

I actually don't like them too long because they make it hard for me to play the piano, banjo or type. They get in the way with doing most house hold chores etc. If they come out to the ends of my fingers, I'm a happy camper. What's annoying with having them bitten so short is you loose them as tools. I can't open the little thing on my cell phone where you plug in the charger without using a pointy knife. I can't open anything without using some other implement. It's next to impossible to pick up a coin that drops on the floor or untie a knot. When I grew them out, I was so appreciative of having nails as tools as well as looking better. Not only do the nails themselves look better, but the finger tips loose that sort of clubbed look from being constantly "assaulted." LOL.

I used to be. Horribly so. I just got tired of it one day and decided I would stop because I wanted pretty nails. Never bit one again after that. I stopped back in middle school, I think. Maybe it's easier when you're younger?

And now I want an Everything Bagel

I used to but I stopped years ago. I cannot STAND having long nails though... I clip them. I grew my nails out so I could paint them pretty for Christmas, and OMG, it was terribly annoying. I just wanted to cut them SO BAD.

I was horrible nail-biter as a kid and I quit doing it when I was around 12 or 13. It was really, really hard to stop.

I still pick at my cuticles sometimes if I get really really upset.

I stopped biting them by wearing a ring which was a band with a piece in the middle that spun. I tried a regular band but spun it so much I wore the skin off my finger. The only thing that helped was to have something to do with my hands (I'd also hold onto a coin while watching tv or doing anything that didn't require my hands).

I also honestly started getting sick a lot less after I stopped biting them, which is a pretty good incentive.

Same here. I used to be pretty bad... and one day I decided I was sick of always feeling ashamed when people looked at my nails. I think I was 16. I don't keep them super short, not too long, but long enough that I could put some pretty nail polish on if I wanted to.

When I am really nervous, I start nibbling, but I catch myself and stop.

I'm a terrible nail biter. It extends beyond my nails - I chew my fingers and hands, too.

I've tried nail polish to stop it, even the bitter crap, and all it does it make me pick the nail polish off