Lesson No. 12: Finger Nails

        Do you bite your nails? Lot's of people do and they are sometimes too embarrassed to let you have a close look at their hands. You can reassure them, however, that hand readers don't look at the white manicured tip of the nail. What we're interested in is the pink growing part that's attached to the finger. Problems only arise if chewing has distorted the shape of the nail. If this has happened you'll just have to do you best to work out what the nail is really like, or you could skip this section altogether. The good news, though, is that when people manage to stop nibbling the nails soon go back to their natural shape.
        Sometimes you find a little horizontal groove in a nail. This can be the result of an accident - for example, if you have shut your finger in a door.
        When these grooves occur on all the nails, however, it means that something happened at some point that affected the actual production of the nail. It's as if there was a hiccup in the manufacturing process causing a fault to develop in the nice smooth sheets of nail.
        What might have cause this hiccup in the system? It oculd be shock. If, for example, you have received very bad news or you have been involved in a serious accident, it may be recorded in your nails. Another thing that can upset nail production is going on a sudden crash diet. This is because nothing affects the nails more dramatically than poor nutrition. In fact, if someone doesn't eat a balanced diet, or is allergic to certain foods, their nails will suffer.
        Whether it's damage to one nail, or grooves accross all the nails, these marks can tell you when the trauma (the upset in their system) took place. As a matter of fact you can date that event quite closely.
        It takes a finger nail six months to grow from cuticle to tip (this is considering only the pink part, not the white tip), we can be certain that the groove is in the centre of the nail must have occurred about three months ago. A groove near the tip would mean that the event took place about five to six months ago. If, however, the mark is at the bottom, just past the cuticle, the upset must have been recent because this part of the nail has only just been formed.
        A word of advice here. If someone's nails reveal a lot of horizontal grooves, go gently when discussing the causes- you don't want to give the person any further distress.