Let’s be trustworthy: Nail envy is a quite genuine issue. With so quite a few nail artists submitting lovely nailfies on Instagram and TikTok, it’s only normal to would like your nails have been as prolonged, vibrant, or perfectly-manicured. When all of these hopes and desires can be remedied with a speedy stop at your nearby nail salon, there is one nail attribute that just cannot be purchased: the 50 % moons on your fingernails.

See, now you are searching down at your nails and either questioning what they are or why you never have them. (Individually, I only have them on a couple of of my nails, so you are not on your own if you are noticing the same.)

To discover out what it signifies if you’re missing 50 percent moons on your fingernails, I chatted with board-certified dermatologist Dana Stern, MD, who specializes in the prognosis, treatment method, and medical procedures of the nail. Ahead, discover what she has to say on the buzzworthy nail topic.

Why you could have fifty percent moons on your fingernails

If you have at any time puzzled exactly where your nails mature from, Dr. Stern details to your fifty percent moons (aka the nail’s lunula). “Half moons are half of the nail’s matrix,” she suggests, noting that the matrix is also referred to as the nail root. “The nail matrix is an oval-like composition that produces the actual nail plate—it is the ‘nail generating heart.’”

Whilst numerous nail influencers have obvious half moons, generating it appear like they’re a crucial ingredient of balanced, wonderful nails, Dr. Stern suggests that loads of persons just cannot see their lunulae. “For a lot of persons, the fifty percent moon is not visualized on most of the nails for the reason that it is protected with the skin at the proximal nail fold, but we all have nail matrixes and consequently lunulae,” she assures us.

What do tiny or invisible 50 percent moons on your fingernails signify?

Some World-wide-web people are spreading misinformation that a deficiency of half moons is connected to owning a vitamin deficiency. And it is typically thought for the reason that other nail irregularities, these types of as ridges, are chalked up to the very same matter. In actuality, Dr. Stern suggests that our nail matrixes (and the half moons that accompany them) are established at birth—not influenced by the nutritional vitamins we consume.

“We are born with our nail matrix and the dimensions and condition is what decides nail good quality to a huge diploma,” she explains. “When a person cannot visualize their 50 percent moon on their thumb nail, it normally indicates they have comparatively little matrixes and are more predisposed to have thin, tiny nails.”

On top of that, she factors out that just because you can not see your fifty percent-moons doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. “They are not missing, they are just not seen for the reason that they are under the proximal nail fold,” she reassures us.

The takeaway

Whilst fifty percent moons might glimpse like a critical portion of a healthful nail, Dr. Stern suggests that it is generally practically nothing to worry about (nor anything to contact your health care provider about) if they are not obvious. One factor to maintain in intellect, though, is that if you do have noticeable lunulae, they ought to be pale white in colour. If you recognize that they change black, brown, blue, pink, or yellow, check with your health care provider, as an underlying health situation (this kind of as diabetes, heart failure, or renal failure) could be at play. Nevertheless, this is really scarce.