November 29, 2006
Fix Your Nails When They Break

OK, the big concert is in 4 days and you just broke a thumb nail. What to do?

If you broke a nail 7 or 10 days before a concert, I'd say just cut it off cleanly and Let it Grow! But if there is not enough time, I've got two tips:

• If you have a tear through less than half of your nail, you can cut off the torn part of the nail, making sure there is no part of the tear left on your nail (ie, cut around it with nail clippers). You will still have more than half of your nail to play on. You may need to trim it a bit funny to make it work, and you will need to rotate your thumb to play with this new nail shape, but it will work.
• OR, superglue your nail back together. Superglue is part of my gig bag now. I had a nail that just kept on breaking in different places, and each time I'd superglue it back. The superglue seemed to work for about 3-5 days, but twice I had to superglue hours before a performance, and the glued nail held up just fine.

And I always keep a couple of Alaska Pics in my bag in case of nails that cannot be repaired.