Nail (anatomy) in the context of "Toiletries"

Hygiene is a set of practices performed to preserve health.According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refers to maintaining the body's cleanliness. Hygiene activities can be grouped into the following: home and everyday hygiene, personal hygiene, medical hygiene, sleep hygiene, and food hygiene. Home and every day hygiene includes hand washing, respiratory hygiene, food hygiene at home, hygiene in the kitchen, hygiene in the bathroom, laundry hygiene, and medical hygiene at home.

Many people equate hygiene with "cleanliness", but hygiene is a broad term. It includes such personal habit choices as how frequently to take a shower or bath, wash hands, trim fingernails, and wash clothes. It also includes attention to keeping surfaces in the home and workplace clean, including bathroom facilities. Adherence to regular hygiene practices is often regarded as a socially responsible and respectable behavior, while neglecting proper hygiene can be perceived as unclean or unsanitary, and may be considered socially unacceptable or disrespectful, while also posing a risk to public health.

A horseshoe is a piece of equestrian equipment that protects a horse hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface (ground side) of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall, anatomically akin to the human toenail. Horseshoes can also be glued in certain situations.

Horseshoes are available in a wide variety of materials and styles, developed for different types of horses and for the work they do. The most common materials are steel and aluminium, but specialized shoes may include use of rubber, plastic, magnesium, titanium, or copper. Steel tends to be preferred in sports in which a strong, long-wearing shoe is needed, such as polo, eventing, show jumping, and western riding events. Aluminium shoes are lighter, making them common in horse racing where a lighter shoe is desired, and often facilitate certain types of movement; they are often favored in the discipline of dressage. Some horseshoes have "caulkins", "caulks", or "calks": protrusions at the toe or heels of the shoe, or both, to provide additional traction.

In terrestrial animals, plantigrade locomotion means walking with the toes and metatarsals flat on the ground. It is one of three forms of locomotion adopted by terrestrial mammals. The other options are digitigrade, walking on the toes and fingers with the heel and wrist permanently raised, and unguligrade, walking on the nail or nails of the toes (the hoof) with the heel/wrist and the digits permanently raised. The leg of a plantigrade mammal includes the bones of the upper leg (femur/humerus) and lower leg (tibia and fibula/radius and ulna). The leg of a digitigrade mammal also includes the metatarsals/metacarpals, the bones that in a human compose the arch of the foot and the palm of the hand. The leg of an unguligrade mammal also includes the phalanges, the finger and toe bones.

Among extinct animals, most early mammals such as pantodonts were plantigrade. A plantigrade foot is the primitive condition for mammals; digitigrade and unguligrade locomotion evolved later. Among archosaurs, the pterosaurs were partially plantigrade and walked on the whole of the hind foot and the fingers of the hand-wing. Out of the plantigrade animals, only a few, such as humans, kangaroos and certain rodents, are obligate bipeds, while most others are functional bipeds.

Keratin (/ˈkɛrətɪn/) is one of a family of structural fibrous proteins also known as scleroproteins. It is the key structural material making up scales, hair, nails, feathers, horns, claws, hooves, and the outer layer of skin in tetrapod vertebrates. Keratin also protects epithelial cells from damage or stress. Keratin is extremely insoluble in water and organic solvents. Keratin monomers assemble into bundles to form intermediate filaments, which are tough and form strong unmineralized epidermal appendages found in reptiles, birds, amphibians, and mammals. Excessive keratinization participate in fortification of certain tissues such as in horns of cattle and rhinos, and armadillos' osteoderm. The only other biological matter known to approximate the toughness of keratinized tissue is chitin.Keratin comes in two types: the primitive, softer forms found in all vertebrates and the harder, derived forms found only among sauropsids (reptiles and birds).

Personal care products are a class of consumer products associated hygiene and personal grooming. They are marketed to modern consumers as "minimally necessary" or improving appearance or well-being.

They are applied on various external parts of the body such as skin, hair, nails, lips, external genital and anal areas, as well as teeth and mucous membrane of the oral cavity. Toiletries form a narrower category of personal care products which are used for basic hygiene and cleanliness as a part of a daily routine. Cosmetic products, in contrast, are used for personal grooming and beautification (aesthetically enhance a person's appearance). Pharmaceutical products are not considered personal care products.

Alpha-keratin, or α-keratin, is a type of keratin found in mammalian vertebrates. This protein is the primary component in hairs, horns, claws, nails and the epidermis layer of the skin. α-keratin is a fibrous structural protein, meaning it is made up of amino acids that form a repeating secondary structure. The secondary structure of α-keratin is very similar to that of a traditional protein α-helix and forms a coiled coil. Due to its tightly wound structure, it can function as one of the strongest biological materials and has various functions in mammals, from predatory claws to hair for warmth. α-keratin is synthesized through protein biosynthesis, utilizing transcription and translation, but as the cell matures and is full of α-keratin, it dies, creating a strong non-vascular unit of keratinized tissue.

The integumentary system is the set of organs forming the outermost layer of an animal's body, comprising the skin, hair, scales, feathers, hooves, claws, and nails. It acts as a protective physical barrier between the external environment and the internal environment. Additionally, it maintains water balance, protects the deeper tissues, excretes waste, regulates body temperature, and contains the sensory receptors that detect pain, sensation, pressure, and temperature.

The skin (integument) is a composite organ, made up of at least two major layers of tissue: the outermost epidermis and the inner dermis, which are separated by a basement membrane (comprising basal lamina and reticular lamina). The epidermis comprises five layers: the stratum corneum, stratum granulosum, stratum spinosum and stratum basale. Where the skin is thicker, such as in the palms and soles, there is an extra layer of skin between the stratum corneum and the stratum granulosum known as the stratum lucidum. The dermis comprises two sections, the papillary and reticular layers, and contains connective tissues, blood vessels, glands, follicles, hair roots, sensory nerve endings, and muscular tissue. Between the integument and the deep body musculature there is a transitional subcutaneous zone, the hypodermis.

A skin condition, also known as a cutaneous condition, is any medical condition that affects the integumentary system—the organ system that encloses the body and includes skin, nails, and related muscle and glands. The major function of this system is to act as a barrier against the external environment.

Conditions of the human integumentary system constitute a broad spectrum of diseases, also known as dermatoses, as well as many nonpathologic states (like, in certain circumstances, melanonychia and racquet nails). While only a small number of skin diseases account for most visits to the physician, thousands of skin conditions have been described. Classification of these conditions often presents many nosological challenges, since underlying causes and pathogenetics are often not known. Therefore, most current textbooks present a classification based on location (for example, conditions of the mucous membrane), morphology (chronic blistering conditions), cause (skin conditions resulting from physical factors), and so on.