How often do you cut your fingernails? Once per week? Once per month?
Whatever your answer is, it’s definitely more often than Diana Armstrong, who last cut her fingernails over 25 years ago!
Diana, from Minnesota, USA, has broken two records for the longest fingernails on a pair of hands (female) and the longest fingernails on a pair of hands ever (female).
Her fantastic fingernails were measured to be a combined length of 1,306.58 cm (42 ft 10.4 in) on 13 March 2022. 💅
That’s longer than a standard yellow school bus and more than twice the height of a giraffe. 🚌🦒
The longest of all Diana’s nails is her right thumbnail. Measuring 138.94 cm (4 ft 6.7 in), this single nail might be even taller than you! 😲
Diana’s shortest nail is on her left pinky finger and measures 109.2 cm (3 ft 7 in) long.
As you can imagine, the world’s longest nails take a long time to paint. Each individual nail takes between four and five hours! 😵
15 to 20 bottles of nail polish are needed to fully paint all of Diana’s nails. The process is so time-consuming that she only has them done every four to five years.
Luckily, Diana’s grandchildren love painting her nails with colourful patterns, so she doesn’t have to visit a nail salon. 💅
"I haven’t been to a nail salon in about 22 years. When they see me coming, they’d be like 'Oh no'," Diana joked.
Having such long nails also poses other challenges for Diana in her day-to-day life.
Performing ordinary tasks with her hands can be difficult, so she uses her feet to do things such as open the refrigerator and pick up clothes off the floor. 🦶️
"If I have to pick up money off the floor, I can pick up bills," said Diana, "but if I drop change on the floor, that will just stay down there!"
When she used to drive a car, her nails were too long to fit inside, so Diana rested them outside the car window. Her nails have now grown so long that Diana can’t even do that anymore, so she has given up driving completely. 🚗
Diana also avoids wearing clothes with zippers because they are difficult to use. 😬
Diana’s daughter, Rania, said that living with her mother’s long nails wasn’t difficult at first, but as they have grown longer, she has to be extra careful around them.
"We’re always dodging around her so she won’t hit us in the face or so we won’t trip over her nails." - Rania, Diana's daughter
But if living with the world’s longest fingernails is so difficult, why does Diana grow them?
The reason is because in 1997, Diana’s 16-year-old daughter Latisha sadly passed away.
"She was the only one who did my nails. She polished them and filed them for me."
Latisha used to manicure Diana’s nails every weekend, so after she passed away, Diana decided to never cut them again.
Diana's long fingernails are a way of always keeping Latisha in her thoughts. ❤️️
Diana understands that some people might say mean things about her nails, but Diana loves them and doesn’t plan to ever cut them off. 😊
"I think my nails are pretty. To somebody else, they might not be, but to me, they is."
When Diana was awarded her Guinness World Records certificate, she was super happy to be recognized as the new record holder.
"I think she [Latisha] would be proud of me because she’s the last one who did my nails," Diana said.
The previous record for the longest fingernails on a pair of hands (female) was held by Ayanna Williams (USA) before she decided to cut them off in 2021. Diana's fingernails are longer than Ayanna’s by a whopping 573.03 cm (18 ft 8 in).
Diana also broke the record for the longest fingernails on a pair of hands ever (female), which had stood since 2008 and belonged to Lee Redmond (USA), who sadly broke her nails in a car accident in 2009.
Diana (and her fingernails) have also earned a place in the new Guinness World Records 2023 edition, out later this year.
