Nail loose from the skin

[Payul]

Hi All,

A frend of mine, a professional guitarist, have practiced a bit too much on his picado, so his nail came loose from the top of his finger, not all the way, only at the top, but he cannot play picado and appregio anymore for allready two weeks, it hurts too much. The doctor adviced him to let it heal, but he is making his living with the guitar.

Anybody ever experianced that??

Payul

[falseta]

Usually when I played several shows in a row I would get the nails on my Picado hand covered in acrylic to keep them from breaking... I have had nails break off while playing but I have never lost a nail like you friend... I think the worst I have ever done was bruising under the nail from playing to hard and that was due mostly to not being able to hear myself over the loud crowd...

My recommendation is use a pick for now... The last thing your friend needs is an infection or permanent damage from lack of proper healing...

[MarcChrys]

Difficult to say without knowing/seeing the actual extent/type of damage. If I was a pro guitarist (ha ha), I'd give it as much chance to heal as possible (picados and arpeggios don't need much more than 1mm to 2mm projection), and if I had an important concert/recital (again, ha ha), I'd probably superglue a silk/tissue nail on temporarily.

[Black Sheep]

This is a long shot... but when I used to run long distances, sometimes I would end up with a watery blister under a toe nail. If he is practicing so much as to blister under the nail, he need to be careful as the 'nail bed' can be damaged and the nail will remain loose forever.

A freind of mine has gone back to classical guitar after an absence of a number of years and his teacher has suggested he play with very short nails for 6 months to callous the ends of the right hand fingers... then to grow them back to the point where they are just visible over the finger tips... Shorter, the better he thinks...