24 May 2024 , 08:38
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A woman has left people utterly gobsmacked by not cutting her fingernails for nearly 30 years, sparking a universal burning question.
Diana Armstrong, who hails from the US, clinched the Guinness World Record for the longest women's fingernails on record. When measured for the title in 2022, the total length of her 10 nails was an astonishing 13 metres plus. Since 1997, Armstrong hasn't trimmed her nails, which now sweep the floor with ease, and she enjoys decorating them in various hues.
The official Instagram account of Guinness World Records highlighted her achievement, posting: "The combined length of Diana's fingernails is longer than a standard yellow school bus! Diana has been growing her fingernails for over 25 years!" The story set social media alight, with many users fixated on one particular detail. One person queried: "How does she wipe? Genuine curiosity."
Diana Armstrong being presented with her Guinness World Record (Guinness World Records)Another pondered: "The wiping was my first thought but has she ever worked? Like, there's no way you could legit do anything herself." A third added their voice: "How does she get anything done at all, like anything, including fitting into a car? Or clothes." Armstrong addressed this very question after initially breaking the record, reports the Daily Star. In a revealing interview, she explained: "Well you know, when I go to the bathroom it'll be the same as anyone else going to the bathroom, just I work with my nails probably in a different way they'd work with theirs.
"I use a lot of toilet paper. I don't wrap it around my hand like some people do, I can't do it like that, because it ain't going to work that way." The correspondence towards Armstrong didn't halt there. One person queried: "How many bottles of nail polish does it take," while another contributed: "Why was I thinking those were dreadlocks?"
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People also wondered why Armstrong, from Minnesota, had chosen to extend her nails to such an enormous length but behind this decision lies a heartbreaking truth. On the day she vowed never to trim the talons again, she had asked her children to wake up while she went to the supermarket.
Diana hasn't cut her nails since 1997 (Guinness World Records)But while she was out, her youngest daughter called her and revealed her 16-year-old, Latisha, wouldn't wake up. It was then she discovered her child had sadly passed away in her sleep from an asthma attack. Armstrong previously said: "That was the worst day of my life." She had always had long nails which would be lovingly manicured by Latisha each weekend.
"She was the only one who did my nails. She polished them and filed them for me," she said. Armstrong, who suffered from depression for the decade after her daughter's death, said keeping her nails long was her way of honouring her daughter and keeping her memory alive.