After learning the reason behind Armstrong’s long talons, her daughter Rania said: “If that’s her way of holding on to her, then I accept.”
Nowadays, Armstrong’s grandchildren act as her manicurists, with each nail taking ‘about 10 hours to polish’ and a woodwork tool being used to file them. She says it takes up to ten nail polish bottles to paint her talons and ‘four days’ to complete!
But this isn’t the only way the mom’s extra-long nails have impacted her life.
Armstrong struggles to zip her pants and jacket and needs a knife to open soda cans.
The world record holder can no longer drive as her nails left her with no choice but ‘to stick my hand out the window,’ and she has to use the biggest stall when going to public bathrooms.
“When I go to a public restroom, I go to the stall that is the biggest. If someone is in that stall I have to wait until they’ve finished and then go in because I can’t use the smaller ones because my nails are longer than them,” Armstrong told Guinness World Records.
She was recognized by the franchise earlier this year in an Instagram post.
It reads: “Diana Armstrong from Minnesota, U.S.A, holds the record for the longest fingernails on a pair of hands (female) and the longest fingernails on a pair of hands ever (female).
“Measuring 1,306.58 cm (42 ft 10.4 in) the combined length of Diana’s fingernails is longer than a standard yellow school bus!
“Diana has been growing her fingernails for over 25 years!
“Diana last cut her nails in 1997. But shortly after, a tragic accident rocked her family and she vowed to never trim them again.”
Like others with extremely long nails, Armstong finds she’s always asked one (rather nosy) question in particular.
People want to know how she goes to the toilet – but the mom insists ‘It’ll be the same as anyone else going to the bathroom.’
She explains: “… Just I work with my nails probably in a different way they’d work with theirs. I use a lot of toilet paper. I don’t wrap it around my hand like some people do, I can’t do it like that, because it ain’t going to work that way.”
Armstrong adds that when washing her hands, she does one at a time as she can’t pour soap into her hands and rub them together.
