Dear LPG,

I wrote recently to readers on the subject of toes, those lower ten digits that help us keep our balance and so much more, in the hope that the information I uncovered may have enlightened a few readers, both gentlemen and ladies, and I thought that I should finish the job with a few words by focussing on those other ten digits that many of us tend to take for granted. 

I know that mine react more slowly these days, and we often tend to worry much more about the speed with which they do their work, and the pain that arthritic ones can inflict, although I hope that when we are called upon to make a special all round effort with our appearance, we ladies still take the time to remember to get them looking their best too.   Time was when a trip to the local nail bar was a treat for the female soul (and nails), as keeping them still while they were pampered and given time to dry is always another of those opportunities to absolutely relax, but Coronavirus has forced us to wash our hands so much more and we are also being forced to avoid getting close enough to take full advantage of putting our hands in the hands of others in that way.

Perhaps lockdown might be a time where those who now make up the male half of our world’s senior citizenship take notice.  They might use a little of the extra spare at-home time that has been enforced upon them to take a leaf out of the books of the younger men, who are coming round to the fact that cosmetics are not just for the ladies. Let’s face it, over the years, those macho jobs such as getting down and dirty with car engines and the more demanding DIY jobs are likely to result in their all-important top-ten finger protectors being exposed to harsher chemical influences. We all know that their predominantly male owners are still guilty of neglecting them in a way that ladies just would not.

While I am writing this message, the latest news threatens us with Covid-19 second waves, third tiers and the threat of a very limited Christmas this year, but I hope that we ladies won’t let all this force us to a state of fingernail neglect.

I have found some online information and advice which might help us to make the most of the care of our upper digits as well as the lower ones.  If nothing else, as lockdown lingers and with its uncertain pressures of interruption to our lives, we live with the continued threat of not getting out much or having much left at home to do, perhaps both gentlemen and ladies should take this opportunity to spend a little more time enhancing these ten little extremities that we so often take for granted.

DT, Lewisham.

DT shares her research when it comes to sharing the love with your fingernails…

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… and offers a little reminder to the LPG mail readership, that there is a little value in being kind to your nails too…

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