How the fingernails on this man's left hand secured his spot in history forever

Did you know that only around 10% of the world’s population is left-handed? That’s already pretty special.

But one man made his left hand even more unique when he used it to make Guinness World Records history.

On 17 November 2014, Shridhar Chillal (India) broke the record for longest fingernails on a single hand ever.

With a combined length of 909.6 cm (29 ft 10 in), as measured in Pune City, Maharashtra, India, his nails are almost as tall as a three-storey building.

The nails on his left hand were all measured individually in order to break the record, and the length of each fingernail was as follows:

• Little finger: 179.1 cm (5 ft 10 in)
• Ring finger: 181.6 cm (5 ft 11 in)
• Middle finger: 186.6 cm (6 ft 1 in)
• Index finger: 164.5 cm (5 ft 4 in)
• Thumb: 197.8 cm (6 ft 6 in)

Sounds like quite a handful, right?

So why did Shridhar grow his nails in the first place? It all began in 1952 when one of his friends accidentally broke their teacher’s long fingernail. The teacher told the boys: "Unless you grow long nails, you will never understand the kind of care required not to break them.”

It was at this point that a challenge began, and the pair started to grow their nails to see who could get them the longest.

At just 16 years old, it may have been impossible to imagine just how far that growth journey would go!

With Shridhar growing older, and his nails growing longer, he ran into some difficulties on his mission. He became a photographer and was only able to use his camera with a special handle designed to accommodate his nails.

After 66 years of living his life with the world’s longest nails, he made the difficult decision to cut them off in July 2018.

Shridhar enjoyed the attention that he received along the way, but the time had come to make the change.

He once told us: “After being recognized by Guinness World Records, I felt like I had achieved the biggest goal in my life.”

He also holds the record title for longest fingernail ever, which he received for his coiled thumbnail, which was as tall as a standard doorway.

Although it was a sad experience to cut his nails, Shridhar’s left hand has been immortalized through his nails being permanently displayed at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum locations in New York and Amsterdam.

Read more stories like this in our Human Body section.

There are many other fascinating Guinness World Records title holders with extremely long nails.

One of them is Diana Armstrong (USA) who holds some notable records such as longest fingernails on a pair of hands (female) and longest fingernails on a pair of hands ever (female).

Diana’s fingernails measure a whopping 1,306.58 cm (42 ft 10.4 in), and she hasn’t trimmed them since 1997!

In 2024, Diana was inducted as a GWR ICON, making history with her colourful long nails.

Another incredible feat was achieved by artist Lưu Công Huyền (Vietnam), who has been letting his fingernails grow for 34 years. On 15 January 2025, he broke the Guinness World Records title for longest fingernails on a pair of hands (male).

His nails have grown so long they now spiral around each other, and measure a huge 594.45 cm (19 ft 6 in) which works out at roughly as tall as an adult giraffe!

Will your hands ever make history by breaking a record?