Irvine nail salons are tasked with caring for the city’s more than 5,000,000 fingernails and toenails, a job that requires regular upkeep thanks to nails’ consistent growth.

Irvine Nails & Spa, Essence Nail Studio, and other nail salons in Irvine deal with this inevitability by offering touchups. Although these maintenance services aren’t quite as glamorous as some of the spas’ more indulgent nail treatments, they are absolutely necessary. Read on to learn how the body unwittingly destroys the perfect mani-pedi.

How quickly do nails grow?

Highly susceptible to chipping and snagging, fingernails compensate for their vulnerability by growing approximately 0.1 inch each month. This means they can regenerate completely in around four to six months. Toenails, by contrast, grow about three to four times slower, taking more than a year to fully renew themselves.

Where does growth begin?

It all starts beneath the skin’s surface at the nail root or matrix, located just above the first knuckle. From there, the tough, transparent keratin protein that composes each nail crawls across the flat, sensitive skin of the nail bed. This is why polish-free nail areas appear to spread from the cuticle.

What can make nails grow faster?

A number of things, actually. The amount of vitamin D a person receives has shown to affect growth, so nails tend to flourish faster in the summer sunlight. Age is another factor—children grow their nails at an incredibly fast rate until they reach puberty, when their nail growth slows down by as much as 50%. Even right- or left-handedness plays a role, as nails usually grow more quickly on a person’s dominant hand.