How Nails Grow
The Matrix is Where The Nail’s keratin cells are created - one way to think of the matrix is as a fingernail and toenail birthing room. As new cells are “born,” they are pushed past the cuticle, into the lunula. From the lunula, they keep traveling toward the nail’s tip, where they take on a white opaque finish, a normal result of being separated from the nail bed and coming in contact with air. Once they reach the nail’s tip, nail cells are broken off, filed down, or cut away.
Because nails can only grow so fast, I suggest a relaxed attitude toward growing them. Although individual nail growth depends on age, time of year, activity level, and heredity, the average growth rate for nails is 0.1 millimeter each day. At this speed, it takes from 5 to 7 months for a nail to completely regenerate itself.
Healthy nails are generally smooth nails. Yet there are times when a nail grows out ridged, pitted, or deformed. Vertical ridging - which is generally permanent - occurs in some people with age, or with injury to the nail. Horizontal ridging or pitting - which is usually temporary - can appear a few weeks after an illness and will grow out with the nail. When a nail is injured and falls off, it is usually replaced by a normal nail. However, if the nail matrix or nail bed has been injured or destroyed, the new nail will grow back deformed or not at all.
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