Gonna do nails post next, but couple of questions first.

[Kendall]

As for female born androgynes (since I am male born) what do you do with your finger nails. Or what would you like done. I want to include general info covering all. I guess I can just cover info from short nails to long.

What other questions or info would anyone else like to know in this androgynous nails section?

This is the next topic I will cover from the poll at https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,9221.0.html

So far in my mind I have the following outline.

Nail (fingernails/toenails) definition.
Basic nail anatomy.
Nail growing process and composition.
Some basic nail products (types, uses, effects, possibly costs).
Nail services (from solon).
Proper trimming and maintenance steps.
Different nail shapes and lengths.
Nail colors, designs, and decoration.
Nail Biting

I am skipping androgyne voice/communications since its only something new that I am learning about for now. I will get back to that after I have some real life experience. Nails is something that I have several experiences with.

[Tay]

Well, I'm a hardcore nailbiter.  So I don't know if that counts at all.  Maybe self-inflicted manicure?

[Casey]

That outline sounds good to me. It sounds like all my questions fit in there.

Well, giving a nod to Tay, I guess the only one that might not be covered is why long nails taste different than short nails when you bite them off.

Oh, and is nail biting a form of self-mutilation, or can it be. (I'm not making light of self-mutilation by any means. I just know that when I do it these days the word "savage" is usually appropriate.)

[Tay]

Nail biting, particularly if you bite them short enough to draw blood or bite the skin around them, can be considered self-mutilation.  If you do it as a release of some sort to feel destruction of self and it's usually motivated by feelings.  I'm not sure what all the diagnostic criteria are, but I know that my nail biting is considered self-mutilation.  I'm supposed to not do it anymore.

[Kendall]

Ok added Nail biting. I was an avid nail biter most my life. Now I am a Recovering Nailbiter, so I am sure I can add some insight as well as some from others.

[Laurry]

Looks good to me, K

Speaking of nail biting...I've not had that problem (plenty of others, but not that one) other than when I've broken a nail and don't have clippers or a nail file.  Is it more of a nervous thing, an obsessive/compulsive thing, a deliberate way to cause physical pain to yourself, simply a bad habit, what you do when you don't have nail clippers or scissors, or, like everything else androgynous, somewhere in between?  I ask this (to be flippant--OK partly true) because it would seem there may be lots of reasons for nail biting and agree that a discussion of nails and nail care would be incomplete without covering the topic.

Well, giving a nod to Tay, I guess the only one that might not be covered is why long nails taste different than short nails when you bite them off.

Casey, three possible answers to your question:

1)  Longer nails may contain traces of foreign matter (from food to less desirable things) and thus the taste is influenced, whereas short nails are likely to contain less contaminants.

2)  Longer nails taste different because they are older and have had a chance to ripen.

3)  The nails are unhappy being stuck in a dualistic long/short model and yearn for the freedom to be whatever length they desire.  Thus the only nails that taste "just right" are those that have broken the societal chains of long and short and have embraced the liberty to be their own length.

It is also possible that it's late and I'm full of poop.  (It's after midnight and I'm so full of poop that my eyes are brown.) 

....Laurie

[Tay]

For me, nailbiting is a combination thing.

I bite my nails when nervous.  That's more of a nibble.

When I'm upset or feeling dead or whatever and I NEED pain, I bite my nails.  That is a ripping, tearing thing.  I bite my nails so short that I bleed and I tear off the skin around my nails.  I get minor infections from this.  I used to bite my toenails, too, when I was REALLY badly in need of pain, but I got infected and nearly lost a foot, so I stopped that, mostly.

I need pain because it tells me that things can get worse when I feel like a total freak, I guess is the best way to explain it.  Pain tells me things are NOT at their worst and that makes me happier.

And I sound like a moron now, so I'm gonna stop.

[shawnael]

Nail biting, particularly if you bite them short enough to draw blood or bite the skin around them, can be considered self-mutilation.  If you do it as a release of some sort to feel destruction of self and it's usually motivated by feelings.  I'm not sure what all the diagnostic criteria are, but I know that my nail biting is considered self-mutilation.  I'm supposed to not do it anymore.

Same here. Weird.

[trip]

I let them grow until they break - sometimes I just cut the broken ones, other times i trim them all when one breaks. other than that I don't tend to think once about them