Fingernail growth world record holders

The Guinness World Record first began in 1955. An unnamed Chinese priest grew his fingernails to be 22 ¾ inches long. The Chinese priest was anonymous in all of the Guinness World Record books where he held the record. (Anything before 1971) In 1972, Romesh Sharma of Delhi, India surpassed the record as set by the Chinese priest. The nails on his left hand totaled 52.5 inches after ten years of growth. His longest nail at the time was 15 inches long. Murari Mohan Aditya of Calcutta, India surpassed the record in 1975. The total length of the nails on his left hand was 55.5 inches.

After 12 years of fingernail growth, Romesh Sharma, having lost the record for longest nails, set the record for the longest single fingernail with a 24.5-inch fingernail in October 1977.

Murari Mohan Aditya continued to set the record for longest fingernails each year until 1983. In the 1982 edition of the Guinness World Record Book, Aditya’s nails were 108.5 inches long. In this same year, his longest fingernail was the 27.5-inch nail on his left thumb.

In 1983, Shridhar Chillal of India set the record with a total of 116.5 inches of nails on his left hand. Shridhar continued to set the record each year until July 8, 1998 when he appeared on Guinness World Records: Primetime and set the record on primetime television. His fingernails measured a total length of 20 ft 2.25 inches (242.25 inches) on his left hand. His longest nail was his thumb, which was 4.8 ft (57.6 inches) long.

In 1999, Frances Redmond set the record for longest fingernails in the United States with 17.25-inch nails after 12 years of growth. In 2001 Lee Redmond set the record for longest fingernails for a female. She has grown out the nails on both of her hands. Her nails measured 21 ft. 9 inches in the 2001 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. She has continued to work at the record and her nails are now a total of 24 ft 7.8 inches long.