Hang Nails

[lkb0714]

Originally Posted by PriscillaVanilla

Please cite your source for this.

Wilkinson, P.F. Millington, R. (2009). Skin (Digitally printed version ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 49–50. ISBN 978-0-521-10681-8.

Erickson, Harold P. "Size and shape of protein molecules at the nanometer level determined by sedimentation, gel filtration, and electron microscopy." Biological procedures online 11, no. 1 (2009): 32.

See? Not so hard to back up what you say when you are not full of bologna.

[lkb0714]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

Note that my comments are based upon my experience and participation in a soapmaking and body care products forum for the last 10 years, and my discussions with my fellow enthusiasts (and also 2 years of college chemistry). As such I am not a body care product professional and my statements can be considered as an expression of my opinion.

I believe that coconut oil is better, as I stated above, but I see no reason why practically any vegetable oil cannot be used to supply additional oil to your cuticles, or anywhere on your skin. I think the differences are trivial, and suggest that whatever oil you use for cooking should work fine.

Speaking for myself, my only cuticle problems have been broken cuticles where the gap between my nail and skin became broken or open, and uncomfortable (in addition to looking bad). If I can just keep my cuticles sealed and unbroken then that would be a perfect resolution for me.

I apologize, I am sure you have far more experience in this arena than I do. And it is entirely likely that you are correct in your observations, it is just unlikely that it is a function of molecule size.

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by lkb0714

I apologize, I am sure you have far more experience in this arena than I do. And it is entirely likely that you are correct in your observations, it is just unlikely that it is a function of molecule size.

I think there is a common ground where your ideas and my ideas are not incompatible.

Considering the size of the pore opening and the size of the molecules, well that's just measurements.

But think of a complex reaction or interaction ongoing, and I'm sure you will realize that the size of the pore restricts molecular interactions in a way that smaller molecules have greater mobility, activity and access.

It's not at all unreasonable to think that maybe smaller molecules may be more active than larger molecules.

You've said that the molecules are smaller than the pores, so size doesn't matter. My position is that smaller molecules have a greater activity because the larger molecules statistically have less access to pores.

It is often equilibrium that comes into play when discussing such chemistry. Chemistry is often a science of equilibrium reactions where all processes take place but some are more active than others, and some predominate.

We don't disagree. We merely have different perspectives.

[Lovehound]

I'll go technical here just to illustrate my point. I expect many will ignore this post because they are not interested in science. That's cool, not everybody appreciates discussing technology.

Coconut oil is an interesting oil in soapmaking because it is pretty much the shortest chain oil commonly used in soapmaking. We soapmakers often make single-oil soaps as experiments, to see the qualities of a single ingredient shown alone, as vs. our usual 4-5-6 ingredient recipes.

If you make single oil coconut oil soap you will find out it is very drying. Why? Because its little molecules penetrate our pores and scour out all natural skin oils, and dry skin equates to lack of oils (which inhibit loss of skin moisture if we have sufficient skin oils). If you make soap out of coconut oil alone it will dry your skin. Yet let's kick it up a notch.

All cold process soapmaking relies upon putting in more oils than lye. Lye cuts the giyceride bonds and creates free glycerin (a moisturizer that is extracted from detergent bars) and also creates salts of fatty acids, the technical term that describes soap molecules. Fats are merely a glycerine with three (tri-) fatty acids attached, and the lye cuts those chemical bonds.

Just to note, cold process soap always involves adding less lye than is necessary to react the entire oils and fats in the recipe. This is not only a safeguard, but also gives hand made soap one of its two advantages, that it has a free oil content, so the soap always has oils to replace the oils it washes off during washing. (This is why detergent bars require the addition of moisturizers.)

Yet pure coconut oil soap is very "drying" in that it sucks the oils out of your skin and doesn't replace them. It scours your pores.

But let's put in a twist. Ordinarily we add perhaps several percent extra oils that will remain in our soap product. What if we change that? We usually add a several percent excess of oils/fats to ensure a complete burn of lye, but what if we added a whole bunch more? What if instead of 7 percent we used 20 percent?

Amazingly, 20% coconut oil soap is not drying. It has so much coconut oil that it's equivalent to washing with any soap and then applying a bunch of coconut oil to your skin after bathing. I'm sure many of us have used coconut oil or shea butter or other after-bathing oils to moisturize our skin.

Well that's the technical info behind where I am coming from.

[lkb0714]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

I think there is a common ground where your ideas and my ideas are not incompatible.

Considering the size of the pore opening and the size of the molecules, well that's just measurements.

But think of a complex reaction or interaction ongoing, and I'm sure you will realize that the size of the pore restricts molecular interactions in a way that smaller molecules have greater mobility, activity and access.

It's not at all unreasonable to think that maybe smaller molecules may be more active than larger molecules.

You've said that the molecules are smaller than the pores, so size doesn't matter. My position is that smaller molecules have a greater activity because the larger molecules statistically have less access to pores.

It is often equilibrium that comes into play when discussing such chemistry. Chemistry is often a science of equilibrium reactions where all processes take place but some are more active than others, and some predominate.

We don't disagree. We merely have different perspectives.

That would make sense if we were not talking about an opening 10000x the size of either molecule.

It’s like saying it’s easier for a hot wheels car to move through the Lincoln tunnel than a Tonka truck.

And I am not sure what you mean by an equilibrium reaction in this instance. Moving across the skin to the interstitial places is not a chemical reaction of any type. Chemical reactions are not how these things work at all. Oils being made of lipids have hydrophobic areas and other hydrophilic areas, this allows them to do interesting things with regard to water but those are not chemical reactions either.

The differences in efficacy of different oils is likely due to the physical structure but not size or reactions. For example proteins are folded in complex patterns which is what causes most of their unique properties. It is similar with large chain fatty acids.

[Lovehound]

Physical processes share many characteristics with chemical processes. I don't see any point in continuing the technical discussion since most of this topic's readers are probably not interested or do not have sufficient technical knowledge. Use whatever oil works for you, and I'll continue using coconut oil.

[Sassybluesy]

In the short term, when dealing with a hang nail, keep a band aid on it. That way, you're not getting that hard skin caught on anything, causing the skin to rip more. Plus, the band aid helps moisturize the area.