Minneapolis woman has world’s longest fingernails

A Minneapolis woman has gotten her hands on a world record.

According to Guinness World Records, Diana Armstrong has received the titles for “longest fingernails on a pair of hands (female)” and “longest fingernails on a pair of hands ever (female)”.

Guinness measured Diana’s fingernails and found they have a combined length of 42 feet and 10.4 inches, beating the previous record by more than 18 feet.

The title was officially verified by Minnesota-based Guinness World Records adjudicator Mike Marcotte on March 13.

According to a release, it can take up to 20 bottles of nail polish to paint Diana’s nails.

“I’ve always had long nails, but not to this extent. Even when I was little, I always had longer fingernails,” Diana said. “My mom always grew her nails, so I always had nails like my mom.”

Diana also bonded with her daughters over manicures. Sadly, her daughter Latisha passed away at 16-years-old in 1997 due to an asthma attack. Since she spent time polishing Diana’s nails the day before, Diana couldn’t bear to cut them.

“[My kids] never knew why I was growing them. I didn’t tell anybody. I kept it to myself until I finally told [my kids] why I was growing them. And they were like ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ because everyone was getting embarrassed about what people were saying. It made them feel bad, so I felt bad, so I just told them: ‘Y’all can tell me to cut my nails but I just can’t do it.'”

Diana will be featured alongside other world records when the 2023 edition of the Guinness World Records book, available Sept. 15.