FOOT CARE JOURNAL 07
A Dark Toenail,
and No Memory of Stubbing It
You glance down at your bare feet, perhaps as an old pedicure comes off, and there it is: a dark patch under a toenail. You don’t remember stubbing it. It doesn’t hurt. And yet, there it is.
One common cause is a small bleed under the nail. Toenails take more knocks in a day than we tend to imagine: shoes that don’t fit, narrow pumps, long walks, a game of tennis.
Even without one memorable bump, a toe tapping against the front of a shoe again and again can add up to a little bleeding beneath the nail. Not remembering a knock doesn’t rule out a bruise.
Runner’s toe, tennis toe
It is common enough to have nicknames. Runners, hikers and tennis players know it well: the toe pushing against the front of the shoe, over and over, especially on downhill stretches and sudden stops.
Is the dark area moving? A bruise under the nail travels slowly toward the tip as the nail grows out.
Toenails, though, grow slowly, at roughly half the pace of fingernails or less, and a big toenail can take a year or more to grow out completely. Checked every day, the mark can seem not to move at all.
That is why the one thing not to do is simply cover it with polish and forget about it. Bruising is not the only reason a nail can look dark.
If the color or shape changes, if the dark area spreads, or if it simply won’t go away, it is worth having a dermatologist take a look.
Most of the time, our toenails live inside shoes. Changes we would notice at once on our hands go unseen on our feet. After a bath, or between pedicures, take a moment to look at your bare toenails. A small change may be a signal worth catching.
When did you last look at your toenails without any polish on them?
A dark streak or patch under a nail that spreads, changes, or doesn’t grow out should always be checked by a dermatologist.
Noticing small changes is part of foot care, too.
At Colors Hiroo Nail Lounge, foot care is a treatment of its own, never an afterthought. Over the years, we have kept refining how we care for callused skin and heels.
It can be done in the same visit as your gel manicure or pedicure: an unhurried hour in a modern Japanese house, two minutes’ walk from Hiroo Station.
Reservations are made through Hot Pepper Beauty, an external Japanese booking site. English-language plan details are listed further down that page; please scroll down to find them.
Colors Hiroo Nail Lounge
5-3-8 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku,
Tokyo
Mon–Fri 10:00–21:00
Sat, Sun & Holidays 11:00–20:00