Lisa Dewey had been getting her nails done regularly for years, but has now sworn off the beauty treatment completely after suffering agonising allergic reactions.
The mum has been left barely able to use her hands and her confidence is shattered despite never having had a problem with manis or pedis before.
Lisa, 36, first started noticing something was wrong after getting a set of gels done in February.
She watched as her nails became inflamed and even started peeling away from the nail bed.
At first, it was put down to a bacterial infection and Lisa was given antibiotics and steroid cream to treat it.
But when she got a set of acrylics done last month, the mother-of-two was dismayed to find herself in pain once again.
The NHS cleaner was left barely able to move her hands thanks to the ‘very aggravated’ nails, meaning she could no longer do simple tasks like hold a pen or wash her daughter’s hair without experiencing agony.
Lisa, from Pattishall, said: ‘I’ve been getting my nails done all my life for acrylics or gels.
‘So when it first happened after a set of gels in February, I thought it was a bacterial infection.
‘My nail bed even started going purple and I worried I would lose the whole finger.
‘When I had them done again recently – this time acrylics – the same thing happened.
‘Now my skin is like paper tearing away from my fingers and I can barely move my hands from the pain.
‘It has knocked my confidence so much too – it’s so embarrassing and I’m always hiding my hands away.’
After Lisa’s February trip to the salon, it was days before her nails started peeling off at the nail bed.
One even turned purple, which made the mum scared that she was in danger of losing the finger.
But at first, she never considered that the manicure could be the problem, because she’d never experienced anything like this before.
Lisa said: ‘It happened suddenly – I feared I might even lose a finger when it went purple around the nail.
‘I feared it might be starved of oxygen – but it ended up being something completely different.’
She took a break from nail products after getting the gels removed, and thought that would be the end of it.
But her next set of acrylics in April meant a return of the pain.
This time, not only did her nails start to fall off again, but the skin around her nails became thin ‘like paper’.
As a mum to a 12 and three-year-old, not being able to use her hands while she waits for them to heal again poses a huge challenge.
It means she’s constantly relying on help from her husband Lee, 45.
She said: ‘Washing my daughter’s hair is hard because you have to bend your fingers.
‘Even strapping her in the car – if I catch my finger on the belt, I jolt from the pain because the skin is raw.
‘It gets so aggravated but wearing gloves doesn’t even help because sweaty hands aggravate it too.
‘Anything scented or fragranced makes it worse – I can’t put a conditioning treatment or mousse in my hair.’
Lisa, who’s been prescribed new medication to try and heal her painful hands, has sworn off nail products forever.
She said: ‘People can get their nails done for years with no issues until one day it hits them.
‘I am going on holiday in August and I was booked to get my hands and toes done. Now I’m not getting them done.
‘This has knocked my confidence so much – I don’t normally care what people think of me, but now I hide my hands away.
‘It’s just embarrassing to have hands like this – there’s a coronation party this week, and if my hands aren’t better, I won’t be going.
‘I just want to do my bit in trying to get the word out that things might not be as good as they seem.’
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