Resident nail care

Have you noticed that your residents nails need help? Are they not as easy to manage as your own?

As we age, everything starts changing, you have probably noticed that in yourself right? Where the heck did that wrinkle come from? Is that a gray hair on my head? Why do my neck and back hurt all the time?

As you may have noticed, your residents are experiencing a number of changes too. One of those changes is their nails. As we get older, our nails become thicker and tougher. They also break in strange ways and tend to get jagged. Combine that with the skin getting thinner and the layer of fat under the skin slowly disappearing, our residents are more prone to skin tears and bruises.

Our ladies LOVE getting a little pampered. The gentlemen will also enjoy having their nails filed and looking good. After all, we all enjoy human touch, and manicures and hand massages go.... well, hand in hand! Set time aside every week to do your residents nail care. Purchase some pretty nail polish colors, nail files, cuticle oil, and pretty smelling lotions. Doing nails is not as hard as you may think, its basically coloring inside the lines!

At the very LEAST, we need to keep those nails filed so they don't accidentally snag the residents delicate skin. Invest in some good quality files. I used to get mine in a huge pack (of like 100) from a beauty supply store, and it was so inexpensive I made those files one time use, just like a nail salon should.

Click on the picture to get linked to the amazon site. Now, these are not as inexpensive as the ones I used to get, currently this 100 pack is $34.99, but for $0.35 per resident, and delivered to your door, I can't complain.

You may find that it gets a little difficult using a manual nail file on some of our residents, and there are better options, but a bigger start-up cost. I personally have this one which I use every 2 weeks on myself, at least once a mom for my mom and same for grandma, and every once in a while when doing friends nails.

I have to admit, it IS expensive, I bought mine for $100 just a tad over a year ago, and had an issue about 6 months in, BUT the company is amazing and worked with me to resolve the issue and ended up sending me a replacement. I couldn't be happier with this purchase. Currently it is $60.

They do have a less expensive version, $29 as of this post, but I have not used this one myself. However I would totally get it because of the trust that I have in this company. I think this would be my preferred one to use in a facility as it does not have to be attached to a big battery pack like the one above.

See the little brown things pictured? Those are the nail files. They are super inexpensive and you will replace those as you would the regular nail files with each resident.

This one is a set of 240 of different grits (plus two adapter bits) to suit your needs for only $7.99, that's about $0.03 each! Regular price is $14.99, still a steal.

Ok, lets talk about the manicure process. Start off by washing your hands and putting on a pair of gloves. You may want to set your residents hands on a towel so they rest on something soft on the work table. I liked to use an over the bed table to work because I could easily adjust it to the correct height. Have all of your supplies ready before you begin. You can use a nail brush to get any icky things that may have gotten stuck under your residents nails to gently brush them out.

You can use a bowl of warm water to let your resident soak their hands, put a drop of gentle soap in if you feel the resident could use an extra hand wash and gently brush under your residents nails. Pat their hands dry with a towel. If they have polish on, you can try using a soaking bowl such as one pictured to help. I have this and use it when doing my own and my mom and grandmas nails, we like having gel polish and it takes some soaking time to remove. Also helps in removing acrylic or gel-x nails with little effort.

File your residents nails gently. If you are using an e-file, please practice on yourself first so you can get the feel for how the file works. If you chose to, or if the resident requests, you can also gently push their cuticles back using an orange stick (one time use) or the cuticle pushers that come with those soaking bowls. Again, please practice on yourself first to get the hang of it. Next, do a base coat, color coat, and top coat of polish. If you are using gel polish, follow the correct steps and ensure you are using an LED lamp for the correct time to get that gel polish cured completely.

Apply cuticle oil once the polish is dried and gently massage it in for the resident. You can also use some pretty-smelling hand lotions to give your resident a hand massage. Massage their hands and wrists gently, you can watch a video on YouTube if you are not sure how to give a hand massage. This is all part of the process our manicurist would do at a salon, so make it special!

Don't try to rush and just get all your residents nails done, let them know each will get their chance, and don't forget to take this time to have a meaningful conversation. Ask if they used to go to a salon to get their nails done in the past, what was it like when they were younger, what is their favorite color to use on their nails, have they taken their daughter for a mother daughter manicure, etc.?

Remember that your residents are not expecting perfection, they just want a little pampering and most importantly to feel like they are important to you and your staff, take your time, have a good conversation, and have fun!

If you are interested in doing gel polish for your residents (or yourself) check out my product recommendations below.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, so help a gal out, click on the links!

This is the LED lamp that I have and use. Back when I bought mine 4-5 years ago it was probably about $50-60, they have gone down in price now. When you search for a nail lamp you want to look for one with a base, timer options, and the more LEDs the better.

For a wide variety of colors, I like this brand of gel polish. The bottles are TINY, but enough for probably at least 10 sets of full manicures. I like to get these for accent colors for my own manicures, i have 3 sets that I got for holiday/seasonal colors, and my mom usually picks colors in the pink and red variety out of these for her nails.

You will need a base and top coat for your gel polish to last, this is a good brand. The multi color sets come with a tiny base and top coat, you will probably run out of it long before running out of the colors. These will last you a long time.

A good primer is also necessary for the gel polish to last, this is my favorite inexpensive brand.