Nails grow faster in summer than in winter, and faster on your dominant hand!
Fingernails
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Facts About Fingernails
Your fingernails and toenails are actually modified versions of the same protein that makes up your hair, called keratin!
Just like a house has layers, your nail has three main parts: the nail plate (the hard part you can see), the nail bed (the pink tissue underneath), and the matrix (where new nail cells are born)!
The whitish crescent-shaped area at the base of your nail is called the lunula, which means “little moon” in Latin!
Your nail plate is made up of about 100 layers of cells, stacked together like tiny building blocks!
The average adult fingernail is only 0.5 millimeters thick – about as thin as five sheets of paper stacked together!
Healthy nails are slightly pink because you can see tiny blood vessels through the clear nail plate!
Your fingernails grow about 3.5 millimeters each month, which is about the size of a grain of rice!
Your thumbnails grow the slowest of all your fingernails, but they’re usually the thickest!
If you could look at your nail under a super-powerful microscope, you’d see it’s made up of tiny scales of keratin overlapping like fish scales!
Your nails help protect the sensitive fingertips underneath from injury, just like a helmet protects your head!
Without fingernails, it would be much harder to scratch an itch or pick up tiny objects like pins or coins!
The hard surface of your nails helps you apply pressure when pressing buttons or typing on a keyboard!
Your nails can warn doctors about your health – changes in their appearance can signal vitamin deficiencies or other health conditions!
Fingernails help you sense pressure and vibration when you touch things, making them like tiny sensory helpers!
Toenails help protect your toes when you stub them and provide stability when walking!
The curve of your nail helps your fingertip maintain its shape and protects the soft tissue underneath!
Healthy nails should be smooth and consistent in color, without pits or grooves!
Eating foods rich in protein and biotin (like eggs and nuts) helps keep your nails strong!
Trimming your nails regularly (about every 1–2 weeks) helps keep them healthy and prevents them from breaking!
Biting your nails can transfer bacteria from your mouth to your fingers and make you sick!
Wearing properly fitting shoes helps prevent ingrown toenails, which can be painful!
Using moisturizer on your cuticles (the skin around your nails) helps protect new nail growth!
Professional athletes often pay special attention to their toenails because damaged nails can affect their performance!
Your nails can grow back completely if damaged or removed – it just takes about 6 months for fingernails and 12 months for toenails!
Your nails can bend slightly without breaking, making them both strong and flexible!
The nail plate is water-resistant but not waterproof – it can absorb 30% of its weight in water!
Your nails grow faster when you’re young, during pregnancy, and right after a nail injury!
If you could save all your nail clippings for your entire life, they would total about 42 meters in length!
Your nails can withstand pressure of up to 1.4 kg per square millimeter before breaking!
The cells in your nails are so tightly packed that even most dyes can’t penetrate them!
Your nail plate can reflect ultraviolet light, helping protect the sensitive tissue underneath!
Nails can continue growing for a few days even after a finger injury, showing how resilient they are!
Your fingernails grow about four times faster than your toenails!
It takes about 4–6 months to grow an entire new fingernail from base to tip!
Your middle finger’s nail usually grows the fastest of all your fingernails!
Babies are born with their nail matrix already formed, but their first nails are very soft!
During childhood, your nails become gradually thicker and stronger!
The growth rate of your nails slows down as you get older!
The shape of your nails can change throughout your life, especially during major growth periods!
As of 2008, the world record for the longest fingernails ever grown was over 28 feet (8.53 m) in total length!
Your nail cells are so strong that they can stay intact for thousands of years after death!
If you look at a nail under a microscope, you can see about 25 layers of dead cells stacked together!
Your nails conduct electricity better when wet than when dry!
The keratin in your nails contains 18 different types of amino acids!
Your nails need minerals like calcium, zinc, and iron to grow strong and healthy!
The cells in your nails are technically dead, but they protect living tissue underneath!
The pink color under your nails comes from tiny blood vessels called capillaries!
Doctors call the study of nails “onychology,” from the Greek word “onyx” meaning nail!
