I Wasted 10 Years On Fungal Nail Creams. Here Are 5 Things I Wish I'd Known Sooner.

I'm a builder. Work boots six days a week, have been since I left school. About ten years ago one of my big toenails went yellow. Then it thickened up. Then it spread to the one next to it.

I tried everything to shift it. And I mean everything. So if you're sat there with the same problem, wondering why nothing's working — here's what I learned the hard way.

1. The creams were never going to work — and it wasn't my fault

I spent years and a small fortune on fungal nail creams. Boots, Amazon, you name it. Used them every single night, exactly like the box said. Both feet. Religious about it.

The nail never changed. Not once.

For ages I thought I was doing something wrong. Turns out the cream physically can't reach the problem. The fungus doesn't live on top of the nail — it lives underneath it, in the nail bed. The cream just sits on the surface. It never gets near the actual infection.

2. The cream's gone before it does anything

This was the bit that properly annoyed me when I found out.

You rub the cream on, wait for it to dry, pull your sock on, boot goes on. Within an hour it's wiped off completely. So you've had maybe 60 seconds of the stuff actually touching the nail.

Sixty seconds. Against a toenail that's basically built to keep things out. It never stood a chance of getting through to the fungus. No wonder nothing happened.

3. My work boots were making it worse every day

Here's the kicker I didn't realise.

I was treating it every night and then sticking my feet straight back in work boots every morning. Eight, ten hours a day, warm and sweaty inside the boot. That's exactly the environment fungus loves.

So even when the cream did a tiny bit of something, the next day's shift undid it. I was basically feeding the fungus faster than the cream could ever fight it. It was a losing battle and I didn't even know I was in it.

4. I'd convinced myself I was just stuck with it

This is the bit I don't really like admitting.

After years of nothing working, I gave up. Started keeping my socks on at the beach. Made excuses every time the lads talked about going to the pool. Didn't take my socks off in front of anyone, the wife included.

Sounds soft over a toenail, I know. But it genuinely got to me. I'd accepted that this was just my life now.

If you're at that point — you're not stuck with it. You've just been using something that can't reach the problem. That's all it ever was.

5. What finally worked was something that stays on

My missus ordered me some patches last year. Velcura. I rolled my eyes, thought it'd be another waste. But she'd paid for them so I gave them a go.

The difference is they actually stay on the nail for 8 hours overnight. Not 60 seconds — 8 hours. That's long enough for the stuff in them to absorb through the nail and reach the fungus underneath. The place no cream ever got to.

You stick one on before bed, peel it off in the morning. That's it. No mess, nothing to remember during the day.

About two weeks in the nail looked less thick. By week four there was a clean line of new nail growing through at the base — first time I'd seen healthy nail in years. I went swimming with my lads on holiday this summer and didn't think about my feet once.

There's a buy one get one free deal on at the minute, and a 30-day money-back guarantee — if it doesn't work you don't pay. That guarantee is honestly the only reason I risked it after years of being burned. Glad I did.

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