nails breaking

[wwalrus]

Since i've been practicing a lot more lately, the nails on my index fingers have started splitting into two near their ends, from top to bottom. It's not painful and I keep my nails trimmed, but it's pretty annoying feeling your nail bend every time you press a key. Is this because of a vitamin deficiency or something, and do you guys have any solutions?

[j_menz]

It could be. I find playing keeps my nails really quite strong and split resistant.

Try a multivitamin and a good source of omega-6 fatty acids for a few weeks and see if the problem resolves.

[faulty_damper]

Do you nails grow quickly or slowly?  Are there growth ridges?  What does your normal diet consist of?

My first reaction was a nutrient deficiency. If you can't improve your diet, try a multivitamin at half dose for a couple of weeks to see if that helps improve the structure of the nails.

[indianajo]

My nails are so thin and floppy I can't thumb pick guitar or claw hammer pick banjo.  I can't open pocket knives without using a dime in the slot.  I have too many native american ancestors to have normal nails.  Thus I've concentrated on piano and organ, however unpopular they are these days with the opposite sex.  Even the classical radio station in town, WUOL, has a "guitar pick" every hour now to maintain interest (and drive me to turn the radio off).  
Fortunately on piano, I can keep nails short enough they don't strike the keys.  The exception is my third finger RH where the end pad was cut off by a folding chair age three.  That nail, I keep as short as possible, but it does break or split a lot if I don't, and sometimes when I do.  BTW I was started on piano lessons as training to learn to use this finger again, as I was not using it age 8.  That nail clicks some when I play some soft passages, and it makes me wonder why would anyone play so that his nails struck the key?  
I take a vitamins, I eat about 25% vegetable in my diet, I get enough protein, about 2 1/2 oz meat and 1.5 oz cheese a day.   Diet is not going to improve an ancestry linked variation IMHO. Likely few of my NA ancestors tied ropes for sails on ships or plowed with animals.  I look like the Native American quadrants of the grandparents, not the Dutch or UK ancestors that gave me my family name and skin color. 

[wwalrus]

I guess my nails grow fairly quickly since I have to cut them each Friday. I think that points to a nutrient deficiency; I'll take a few multivitamins and see if that works.

[faulty_damper]

You only need to cut them once a week!?
I have to trim mine every 2-3 days.

[diomedes]

About one nail splits every once in 2 months for me and i'll admit my lack of evolutionary/civil tendencies by stating i just chew the excess whenever. In recordings the nail sounds exist, but if i tend to them excessively they'll be likelier to split. If they split there's a decent probability that it could become a serious issue (from previous experience).

But reading this thread sure does indicate i'm to some degree a princess in the company of other OC princesses. Certainly didn't see that coming. Let's face it, we're a special breed, an outsider would never understand us.

[outin]

You only need to cut them once a week!?
I have to trim mine every 2-3 days.

If I don't trim my nails twice a week and keep them extremely short, I simply cannot play properly. After I started playing my nails became hard and grow fast, before they seemed to break before ever growing much. For the first couple of years I didn't realize this and just trimmed them when they got longer but then I noticed how playing became more unconsistent each day until I did...