5 Easy Ways to Protect Your Hands From UV Lamps

Tools and materials:

• Fingerless gloves
• UV lamp
• Sunscreen
• Cuticle oil

1. Wear gloves

One of the easiest things you can do to protect your hands during a gel manicure is to wear fingerless gloves. This is a pair of fingerless gloves that are designed for UV and LED lamps.

You can pop them on at home or bring them to the salon. They’re very soft and lightweight, but they will protect your hands.

This is great for wrinkles or skin cancer concerns, but obviously, they're not going to protect your nail or the top half of your fingers.

2. Use a smaller lamp

The next tip is for those who do their nails at home, is using a smaller lamp.

A lot of the UV and LED lamps are much larger. You put your whole hand into them, but you really don't need to. All of that skin does not need to be exposed to the light for the polish to cure.

So I would recommend investing in a smaller, even a portable lamp.

Aside from the health benefits, these are also great for traveling because they’re portable.

3. Wear sunscreen 

This is a no-brainer, but you can apply sunscreen to your hands before getting a manicure.

Go for an SPF 30 broad-spectrum sunscreen, and apply it liberally to your hands, your nails, and around your nails, as this is a great way to protect that skin.

Remember that before your manicure, make sure that you rub off any sunscreen that got onto your nail and cuticle. You don't want any product or oil residue lingering because that will prevent your manicure from properly applying and curing.

You can remove the sunscreen by using a little rubbing alcohol or 100% acetone. Just gently sweep it over your nail, and it'll remove the sunscreen.

4. Go for a fast-curing lamp

The next tip is to invest in a fast-curing lamp. A lot of the mini lamps, like the one I just showed you, are quite fast curing - they have 30 to 60-second cure times.

You want to ensure the cure time is compatible with the type of polish you're using. I only need 30 seconds for my gel polish, but my older lamp that I put my whole hand into only had a two-minute and a three-minute cure time.

Gel polishes have come a long way in the past ten years, and you don't need to keep your hands under those lamps for that long.

I went from doing gel manicures and having to put my hand in a lamp for 8 minutes per hand to using a lamp that allowed me to cure my polish in 2 minutes per hand.

5. Try to prolong your manicures 

The less frequently you get your nails done, the less frequently you will expose them to these lights. I usually do my gel nails every two to three weeks.

There are a few ways you can prolong your manicures. Firstly, just be really gentle with your hands and nails. Your nails are jewels, not tools, don't go picking at things or scratching at things you don't want your manicure to chip or lift.

Don't pick at your manicure, don't peel your polish off, don't soak your hands in water for too long if you're washing dishes, and always make sure you're wearing gloves.

Utilize your cuticle oil, I love using sweet almond oil, and it works absolute wonders for me. Pick colors that you know you're going to enjoy for a longer period of time.

If you want to experiment with funky colors, do that with regular polish or paint over your gel with that, don't commit to a wild gel color that you know you'll get sick of after a few days and want to take off.

Extending that time between manicures will really work to your advantage.

How to protect your hands from UV lamps during manicures

Those are just five of my tips for protecting your hands and nails while getting a gel manicure, and I hope you found them helpful.

I hope you can adopt one of these tips and implement it into your life and manicure routine because it will only help you in the long run.