Minneapolis Woman Has 42-Foot Fingernails, Makes Guinness Record

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — A Minneapolis woman channeled decades of heartache into a record-breaking accomplishment.

Diana Armstrong has the longest fingernails ever on a pair of female hands, according to Guinness World Records, which verified the record earlier this year.

Armstrong last cut her nails — which are 42 feet, 10.4 inches long — in 1997, before her 16-year-old daughter, Latisha, died of an asthma attack in her sleep. Armstrong considers her nails a tribute to Latisha, who used to give her a manicure every weekend.

"She was the only one who did my nails,” Armstrong told Guinness. “She polished them and filed them for me.”

Armstrong’s longest nail is her right thumbnail, at 4 feet, 6.7 inches, according to Guinness. Her nails restrict her hands, so she uses her feet for many everyday tasks and has given up driving, but told Guinness she wouldn’t cut her nails even if someone paid her to do it.

Armstrong has her nails done only once every four or five years because each nail takes about five hours. Manicuring both hands requires up to 20 bottles of nail polish and a woodworking tool to file the nails.

The previous record for longest nails on a pair of female hands was held by Ayanna Williams, who decided to cut them off when they were still nearly 19 feet shorter than Armstrong’s, according to Guinness. Prior to Armstrong, Lee Redmond held the title of longest ever nails on a female hand, but her nails were lost in a vehicle crash in 2009.