The woman with the longest fingernails in the world has finally cut them after 30 years. The cutting of the nails was covered by Guinness World Records, who have had Ayanna Williams of Houston, Texas, in their book of records since 2017.
When she entered the Guinness book of records in 2017, her fingernails measured 19 feet. However, over the last four years, they have continued to grow, and upon the cut, they measured 24 feet and 7 inches.
The nails were manicured, and it took four bottles of nail polish and 20 hours of work over 4 days to keep them in condition.
It is the first time the nails have been cut since the 1990s.
Ayanna told the record keepers:
"I've been growing my nails for a few decades now. I'm so, so ready for a new life. I know I'm going to miss them, but it's just about that time – it's time for them to go. With my movements I have to be very, very careful. So usually in my mind I'm already preparing for the next step that I have to do to make sure that I don't hurt myself with my nails - or break them. I'm excited about cutting my nails because I'm looking forward to new beginnings… With or without my nails, I will still be the queen. My nails don't make me, I make my nails!"
She added that children often enquire about her nails, to which she says:
"I have this thing that I do with children when they come up to me and they say 'are those your nails?!' and I say 'yeah' and then I ask and I say 'How old are you?' and they say 'I'm ten or I'm seven', and I say 'Guess how old my nails are? They're like 28 – 29 years! They're older than you!'"
The trimmed nails, which were cut with a high powered saw, will now be put on display at Ripley's Believe It or Not! in Orlando, Florida.
Ayanna has been unable to do simple tasks for many years, including cleaning, making the bed and driving.
The previous owner of the record was Lee Redmond, who grew his nails to 28 feet from 1979 to 2009, but they had to be removed after he was in an automobile accident, stripping him of his position as the current record holder.
[h/t: CNN]
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