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Indian man with world’s longest fingernails finally cuts them off

Shridhar Chillal, whose 66-year-old nails were the length of a London bus, has passed them on to a New York museum

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Shridhar Chillal of India displays his newly cut fingernails. Photo: Reuters
The Guardian

They took 66 years to grow but only a couple of minutes to chop off. On Wednesday, Shridhar Chillal from Pune, India, who holds the Guinness World Record for the longest fingernails ever recorded on a single hand, finally cut his nails.

Or rather, a technician wearing a face mask and wielding a power tool carefully removed them during a “nail clipping ceremony” in New York.

The 82-year-old has been growing the nails on his left hand since he was 14, having been inspired to do so after a teacher told him off when he accidentally broke a very long nail the teacher had grown. The teacher told Chillal that he wouldn’t understand the kind of care it took not to break a long nail unless he did it himself.

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Chilal certainly took that to heart: when last measured, his nails had a combined length of 909.6cm (29 feet, 10.1 inches), which is about the same length as a London bus. His longest nail was on his thumb.

It’s not an easy business growing the world’s longest nails.

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Shridhar Chillal from Pune, India. His nails took 66 years to grow. Photo: Guinness World Records
Shridhar Chillal from Pune, India. His nails took 66 years to grow. Photo: Guinness World Records
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