It's been three months....

Okay it's been three months since I started this journey. I had decided to stop being a slave to my fake nails and go all natural. For better or worse, I wanted to stop putting so many chemicals in and on my body and just let nature take it's course. Having said that, I knew I was in for a rough ride. For starters, I have been wearing solar/acrylic nails since I was sixteen years old. I now have a 16 year old daughter of my own, so you do the math...I will not help. 

Anyway, The first two months were hard. My nails were so thin and weak that I could actually bend what little nail I had backwards without pain. So I cut my nails down to the quick and decided to start new. I first started with using Sally Hansen's Hard as Wraps but found out that they have formaldehyde in it. So I changed. I over to Nail-Aid's Keratin and 3 Minute Artificial. It is made in America and does not use formaldehyde and does NOT test on animals. 

So, I saw little to no improvement in my nails for the first month and half. I was starting to get nervous and ask myself if I could even grow my own nails. So I started to use Nature's Bounty Extra Strength Biotin. After using the Biotin for the remaining two weeks, continuing my weekly manicure that I got off of YouTube, and following my Keratin and 3 Minute regimen AND keeping my hands moisturized, I FINALLY started to see the fruits of my intense labor. As if over night it seemed like my nails got with the program and started to grow.  

So here are my nails when I first started this fun journey. 

and here are my nails today

This is my right hand. It seems to be growing slower than my left.

except for my right thumb....

This is my left hand. This hand has significantly more growth than my right hand. I am not really sure why. 

I just want to point out, on my ring finger, the one that is next to the pinkie finger, shows tons of growth. If you remember the dark ridge has moved from the cuticle section of the finger to almost the tip. 

So there you go. My nails did NOT look like Raquel Pimental's 

but overall I am pleased with my progress. I knew going into this fun journey that this was going to be an up hill battle. So I will continue my quest. I think in order to get my nails to look like her's it will take me longer than 3 months. So I will continue my journey. I hope I have helped anyone who is looking to see if they too can grow their own nails. All I have to say on this topic is, don't give up. If I can do it, anyone can do it. It might just take more time. 

Until next time...