Woman Cuts Off Her ‘World’s Longest Fingernails’ After 30 Years

Ayanna Williams from Houston, Texas, was the Guinness World Records holder for longest nails ever. She grew her nails for almost 30 years before finally deciding to cut it short. She replaced Lee Redmond from Salt Lake City, who broke her nails from a car crash and lost her title.

She held the record in 2017, and the total length of her nails was 18 feet.

Before the cut, they were a total of 24 feet or 733.55 cm long.

The longest individual nail was 38 inches long. Dr. Allison Readinger, who was in charge of cutting her nails, had to use an electric rotary tool because of how thick and dense her nails were. She began growing her long talons in 1990 and had always dreamt about them as a kid.

“If you want to grow your nails do it. I’ll encourage you, hit me up. You know where to find me,” Ayanna told others.

“If you want to grow your nails long, do it. Why not?”

Ayanna had always loved nail arts and usually need two bottles of nail polish and would spend 20 hours to paint them in 2017.

But before she had them cut, Ayanna would need three to four bottles of nail polish and had to spend days to finish them. After cutting them, Ayanna said she feels ‘relieved.’

“My knuckles seem like they just loosened up,” she said.

Her cut nails are to be put on display in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Orlando.

Ayanna is excited to see her nails there, “It’s gonna be awesome. It’s going to be a like a wax of myself even though it’s just my nails.”

“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,” said Ayanna.

Ayanna still recalls fond memories of when people were amazed by her nails.

“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!'”

Watch the video below as she finally let go of her long talons!