Why do ghosts stick around and continue to haunt the living? According to most fiction, it’s because they have some unfinished business they need to attend to before they can “pass on.”

For ingrown toenails, however, it isn’t always that simple. There are a few possibilities:

It’s possible that your ingrown toenails keep coming back simply because you keep giving them the opportunity to do so, by cutting your nails incorrectly.

Yes, it’s possible to cut nails incorrectly. And you might not even know you’re doing it!

First, as everyone hopefully knows, you should keep your nails trimmed fairly regularly so they don’t get too long.

But it’s also important not to cut them too short, either, especially around the corners. Cut straight across, and leave a small but comfortable “margin” at the edge. Nails that are too short or too rounded simply have more opportunity to catch hold of the surrounding skin and start digging in.

We’d also recommend you use a sturdy set of toenail clippers with a little extra leverage, and only cut nails when they are dry. This reduces the risk of splitting and tearing your nail.

Most of us are guilty of purchasing and wearing shoes that don’t quite fit. Maybe the style you really wanted wasn’t available in your exact size. Maybe nothing at the store was available in the right size. But either way, you now have a problem.

Shoes that are too small or narrow, especially in the toe box, are a prime suspect for chronic ingrown toenails. A tight shoe pressing down on your nails all day, every day, can easily set them on a course for digging into the surrounding flesh.

Then again, you don’t want to make the mistake of going too big, either! If your shoes are so loose that they slide around on your feet, your toenails are going to be slamming into the front of your shoe over and over again, all day long. While each individual impact may be minor, the cumulative effect could be damage to the toenail, including ingrown toenails.

It may be your DNA itself is working against you—at least in this one specific circumstance!

As it turns out, some people have toenails that are relatively flat, while others have toenails that are especially curved from side to side. These are genetically inherited traits.

Unfortunately, if you happen to find yourself in the latter camp (i.e., excessively curved toenails), you are naturally much more prone to developing ingrown toenails than the general population. In other words, you’re destined to get them again and again.

That is, unless you take action.