When the woman with world's longest nails lost them in freak car accident

A US woman who held the record-breaking 3-foot fingernails broke them all in a car crash.
Lee Redmond

Lee Redmond | Image: Guinness World Records

KEY HIGHLIGHTS
  • At their peak length in 2008, Lee Redmond's nails measured a combined total of 28 feet and 4 inches
  • Her talon on the right thumb was the longest of them all at 2 feet and 11 inches.
  • Sadly, Lee met with a freak car accident on February 10, 2009, in which all her fingernails were broken off
A woman who held the record-breaking 3-foot fingernails broke them all in a car crash.
At their peak length in 2008, Lee Redmond's nails measured a combined total of 28 feet and 4 inches. Her talon on the right thumb was the longest of them all at 2 feet and 11 inches.
Lee, from Utah, America, had not cut her nails since 1979.
"It was just a challenge to myself to see how far they would go before they started twisting out of shape. I kept setting dates and dates that I was going to cut them and I just couldn't do it. It's strange how they become part of you. I think my fingernails defined me to a lot of people, I was known as the fingernail lady but to me, I would have to explain to them there really is more to me," she earlier said, as per Daily Star.
It's hard to imagine how Lee could do her daily chores with the world's longest nails but she was able to make cups of tea, cut her children’s hair, use a mobile phone, do the washing up and even drive.
Lee’s nails never started to twist like other famously long fingernails. They grew into extended arches, thanks to her daily manicure procedure. She used to dip dim in warm olive oil every day, cleaned them with a toothbrush and used a bottle-and-a-half of nail hardener. She then used to paint them in golden colour to make them more attractive.
When Lee was asked in previous interviews about how she uses the bathroom, she replied, "Very carefully."
In 2006, she planned to cut her nails to care for her husband who had Alzheimer's. However, she changed her mind, insisting that her nails did not interfere with her husband's care, according to Daily Mail.
Sadly, Lee met with a freak car accident on February 10, 2009, in which all her fingernails were broken off.
She was a passenger in an SUV that lost control. She was rushed to a hospital where she survived but her nails did not.
"Losing my fingernails has been the most dramatic thing that's happened in my life. I think it was my grandson that said, 'Grandma, they are like your baby; you've taken care of them for 30 years and lost them in a second'," Lee told the Guinness World Records shortly after the crash.
When Lee told a witness of the accident that her nails were record-breaking, they went around and collected pieces of the talons.
Lee has kept the fragments of her nails with her ever since but has not been growing them back again.
With the weight of her record-breaking nails gone, Lee found it much easier to do her daily chores.
Lee's record of longest fingernails on a pair of hands ever (female) was recently broken by Diana Armstrong of Minnesota, USA. The combined length of her fingernails was measured to be 42 feet and 10.4 inches in March 2022.
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