Hangnails can be a pain, literally. Those little bits of skin that slough off the sides of your nails can sometimes catch on things, get a torn, and bleed. Since they can be painful it’s a good idea to get rid of them. First work on ridding your fingers of any existing hangnails, then use nail maintenance to keep hangnails away in the future.

If you don’t pay much attention to your nails, you may notice that the skin on each side of each fingernail feels a bit rough and overgrown. Your cuticles may also sit too high on the nail, which is evidenced by the skin breaking rather than stretching when nail growth occurs. If you have any little strips of skin coming off from the fingernails, there’s a standard method for removing this. Gently wash the hands and clean under the fingernails, and then soak hangnails in warm water for about five minutes.

With nail clippers or small nail scissors, trim off the protruding skin. Don’t tear the skin off, always clip hangnails, or you will only worsen the problem and may cause bleeding. You’ll want to slightly pull on the hangnail to be certain you’re trimming dead skin only. If you do accidentally cut the skin, use a little antibiotic ointment and a band-aid, covering the cut for 24 hours.

Keeping future hangnails from occurring is quite simple. Be certain to wash hands daily and use a mild soap. Finish with a mild moisturizer, or after soaking the hands, use an orangewood stick to push the cuticles down gently, exposing the half moon shape at the base of the fingernails. You should probably try to push down the cuticles at least two to three times a week.

Do not chew your fingernails, since stripping off part of the nail can also mean stripping off some of the skin. Instead, about once a week, sometimes more often with children, merely trim the nails straight across. If you keep up with moisturizing, cuticle maintenance and weekly trimming, you won’t have many hangnails in your future.

Sometimes people have difficulties with very dry skin, especially if they must do a lot of work in wet or watery environments. While a little water is good for the skin, constant exposure to wet soapy water can actually dry the skin. If despite good maintenance of your hands you continue to get hangnails, consider using gloves when you must wash dishes or do other work that requires immersion of the hands in lots of water. When skin remains dry despite over the counter treatments, consider a visit to your dermatologist to investigate cause.