Assessing The Hair And Nails

ASSESSING THE HAIR Equipment: clean gloves Implementation: 1. Inquire if the client has any history of the following:  Recent use of hair dyes, rinses or curling or straightening preparations  Recent chemotherapy  Presence of disease 2.Inspect the evenness of growth over the scalp  Evenly distributed hair  Patches of hair loss (alopecia) 3. Inspect hair thickness or thinness  Thick hair  Very thin hair (hypothyroidism) 4. Inspect hair texture and oiliness  Silky, resilient hair  Brittle hair, excessively oily or dry hair 5. Note presence of infections or infestations  Flaking sores, lice, nits and ring worms

6. Inspect amount of body hair  Hirsutism, naturally absent or sparse leg hair

7. Document findings. ASSESSINT THE NAILS 1. Inquire if the client has any history of the following:  Presence of diabetes mellitus, peripheral circulatory disease, previous injury, or severe illness 2. Inspect fingernail plate to determine its curvature and angle  Convex curvature  Angle of the nail plate about 160 degrees Nail Abnormalities:  Koilonychia – spoon shape nails  Beau’s line  Paronychia  Onycholysis-separation of the nail plate from the nail bed  Clubbing 3. Inspect fingernail and toenail texture.  Smooth texture  Thickness and thinness  Discolored or detached nail 4. Inspect fingernail and toenail bed color  Highly vascular and pink  Bluish or purplish, pallor 5. Inspect tissues surrounding nails  Hangnails

6. Perform blanch test or capillary refill.  Prompt return of pink or usual color Lifespan Considerations: I. Infants  Nails grow very quickly, extremely thin and tear easily II. Children  Nail biting III. Elders  Longitudinal bands develop  White spots  Toenail fungus  Nail grow more slowly and thicken