Apply Oil to Hydrate

As we get older, the body’s natural oil production slows down and the lack of moisture can cause nails to become brittle, thin, and prone to peeling—causing ridges to form. Nail ridges that arise from a lack of the body’s natural oils are easy to treat. Your first potential line of defense: hydration. Try applying nail oil, vitamin E oil, coconut oil, or olive oil to your nails to help prevent ridges from forming in the first place. Your cuticles may benefit, too; the moisture might help prevent hangnails, cracks, and other discomforts. Use a massaging motion to try to increase blood circulation to the nail beds and distribute the oil evenly.

If you do notice horizontal ridges on your nails, especially after an illness, Shainhouse recommends giving your nails a little extra TLC for a few months or until they grow out to make sure they don’t crack.

Moisturize Religiously

Use a moisturizing hand soap, a protective hand moisturizer, and consider applying a layer of nail hardener once a week, Shainhouse says. When it comes to moisturizing, you can’t really overdo it. Plus, these measures might help prevent future ridges from forming.

If your nails are feeling brittle, Zeichner recommends applying moisturizing products like Aquaphor ointment to help hydrate the nails themselves. Why? Similar to how oils may help soothe nail issues by hydrating, moisturizing products may protect the nail beds and surrounding skin from stripping.

Using moisturizing products, applying daily sunscreen, and avoiding overly drying products, such as alcohol-based gel sanitizer, may all help prevent ridges from forming.

Change Your Diet

A diet low in nutrients can lead to brittle nails. Nail ridges can be caused by iron, folic acid, or protein deficiencies. Your best defense is simple: Eat a healthy diet and supplement with a multivatim if necessary. To find out if your ridges are—or are not—a symptom of a medical condition or illness, make an appointment with a qualified physician.

Increase Your Water Intake

If the main cause of your ridging is dehydration, start at the source. While external salves and ointments can help soothe parched nail beds, hydrating your whole system from the cellular level will deliver the best results. Aim to drink between 2.5 to 3.5 liters of water a day to reap all of the benefits.

Get the Heart Pumping

“Regular cardiovascular activity will help with peripheral perfusion to the digits (blood flow) and help with ridging as well,” says Stern. So schedule some exercise to keep your circulatory system, and your nail beds, healthy.

Buff Judiciously

You can buff your nails; just keep it to once a month.Our experts caution against harsh buffing and say it can cause your nail plate to thin. Try using a four-way nail file to smooth away ridges, file in one direction only, and don’t use too much force so you don’t cause trauma to the nail and nail bed.

Be careful, though, because buffers are highly variable when it comes to their level of abrasiveness. “Many of the buffers used in the salon setting and sold at beauty supplies shops are designed for acrylic nails, and so they can be very damaging to a natural nail,” Stern says. She recommends Step 2 of her Nail Renewal System since it’s “designed with three perfect grits for safely and effectively removing ridges, discoloration, and peeling and bringing out a lustrous, healthy shine.”

Use Ridge-Filling Polish

While waiting for other interventions to work, Zeichner says, “Nail polishes are able to cosmetically camouflage ridges and textural changes of the nails.”

In fact, many nail-care companies make special polishes specifically for hiding ridges. These “ridge fillers” look like regular polishes and function much like base coats. The difference is that they settle into and fill in the ridges to help make your nails look smooth and even. Shainhouse notes that using ridge fillers followed by nail polish can help smooth out the look of the nail.

However, the effectiveness of these ridge fillers depends on the product and its ingredients. Many contain formaldehyde or formalin, says Stern. “These ingredients are very damaging to the nail,” she adds. While formaldehyde will initially harden the nail, over time, the nail becomes paradoxically brittle and is at risk for lifting or separating off the nail bed (also called onycholysis). Formaldehyde can also cause severe allergic reactions at the surrounding nail folds—the skin becomes extremely irritated, swollen, and painful. There is also significant concern that these ingredients are carcinogenic.

Go Sans Polish

“Go natural and healthy with our self-care routines, and take a break from the salon, chemicals, and all of that time and expense,” Stern says. Wearing too much polish can cause trauma to the nail bed—and so can acetone-based nail polish removers, the moisture-sapping enemy of already-parched nails.Going without nail polish keeps drying chemicals off your nails and prevents the staining that some polishes cause.

Wear Gloves While Doing Housework

Excessive exposure to water and harsh chemicals (like those found in cleaning supplies or sometimes—ugh—hand soaps or hand sanitizers!) might wreak havoc on your nails and worsen already-ridged nails.Plus, think about how often you wash your hands—which can also dry out the nails.

Our best advice for preventing ridges after copious amounts of cleaning? Wear gloves. “Wearing gloves with housework or any wet work will prevent excessive influx and effluent of water into the nail,” Stern notes. “Water absorption can weaken the bonds between nail cells, causing peeling, ridging, and breakage.”

Lay Off the Gel/Dip Polish

Be judicious with gel and powder dip nail trends. Sure, the polish lasts for weeks, and it seems to make nails harder and less prone to breakage while you are wearing it, Shainhouse allows, but these kinds of polish trends might ultimately damage your nail plate.

It’s not that gel necessarily makes ridges worse; it’s really the damage nails undergo during the removal process that strips nails of oils and keratin. “Usually, a long soak in acetone is required for a soak-off gel to be removed, and that amount of acetone exposure will exacerbate brittle nails,” Stern says. “Other methods of removal, such as aggressive scraping or filing, can also damage the nail but in other ways.”

Avoid Picking the Nails

Repeated picking or biting the nails and cuticles can also lead to trauma-induced brittle and ridged nails.You can prevent the formation of ridges by simply not picking or shoving your cuticles back: “The cuticle is the only barrier the fingers have to keep dirt and infection out of the tissues of the fingers,” says Shainhouse. “Not only can infection cause damage to the nail matrix, but the actual pushing can bang it up, creating a permanent ridge template for all future nail growth.”

Use an Intensive Product to Overhaul Your Nail Health

Look for products like Dr. Dana’s Nail Renewal System a once-weekly, three-step nail system, to provide a new level of care for your nails. The formula is said to immediately reveal a healthy, hydrated, youthful shine in 10 minutes, sans polish.

“You can use this manicure-in-a-box to treat or prevent brittle nails or to simply create a chic, long-lasting, lustrous shine without the use of polish or harmful chemicals,” says Stern.