Worlds Longest Fingernails

Have you ever wondered who has the world’s longest fingernails? There are several people in the world who would qualify for such an unusual contest.

The official Guinness World Record “longest fingernails” current holder is Melvin Booth whose fingernails total 9.05 m (29 ft 8 in) in length.

Until recently Lee Redmond from USA held the Guinness Book record for the world’s longest fingernails. Ms. Redmond had not cut her nails since 1979 and took great care to grow them to a total length of 7 m 51.3 cm (24 ft 7.8 in). Although she said it was a bit tricky, she could do all the things that a regular person can do, like vacuuming, driving a car, cutting the hair of her grand children and even to care for her  husband  who has Alzheimer. Lee Redmond lived by the saying “you are what you eat” and this has greatly influenced the growth of her nails as she ate a high-protein diet. She also used to immerse her fingernails in olive oil to prevent them from becoming brittle.

Unfortunately, she broke all her fingernails during a car crash in 2009. Although she was devastated, she could see the good parts of the drama: she said her hands feel very light and she can manipulate things much easier.

Before Lee Redmond, the record holder was Shridhar Chillal, a retired Indian photographer who has not cut his fingernails in almost 50 years. He had the longest fingernails grown on a single hand. His fingernails measured a total of 6.15 m (20 ft 2.25in). His thumbnail measured almost 1.5 m or 4.8 ft and was coiled up in a spiral. The weight of the fingernails gave him great difficulties and caused his hand to become permanently disfigured and even deafness in his left ear due to nerve damage to his hand. He has held the Guinness record for longest fingernails for 20 years before cutting his nails in 2000.

Li Jian Ping from China is another contestant for the longest nails in the world record. He has not cut his fingernails for 15 years and he has set his mind to beat Shridhar Chillal’s record.

Barbara Wing doesn’t have the longest fingernails in the world yet, but she might have the most artsy nails. On her 7 inch fingernails she applied beautiful nail art showing 10 jazzmen.

Lauretta Adams from Dallas spent 25 years trying to grow record breaking fingernails. She decided to abandon this quest because the fingernails caused great pain to her. At the time she decided to cut them, her nails totaled 150 inches in length.

These are just a few of the oddities one can find in the pages of the Guinness Book of records. From the longest mustache to the world’s hairiest man, one can never stop being amazed.