What is the story with extra long pinkie fingernails on men? I have noticed
this all over. Does it have different significance in different cultures
such as Asian vs. Hispanic vs. East Indian?
Maybe it’s a way to get the really deep boogers out.
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- I seem to recall that in Europe during the middle ages it was expected of upper class men. It was so, I swear I read, that a man could discretely scratch at a woman’s door instead of knocking. I dunno why anyone else has them now. - MC
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Okay, this smacks of UL, but I’d heard that it had something to do with cocaine… easier than carrying around a little spoon.
lovelee
At one time, sailors grew a single long nail. Later, it was drug dealers. It may also have been common among other occupations or cultures.
Whammy, you misread the question. The question asks about nails, not the fingers.
Anyway, I just took a look at my pinkie fingernails, and I don’t know how long “long” is.
“[He] beat his fist down upon the table and hurt his hand and became so
further enraged… that he beat his fist down upon the table even harder and
hurt his hand some more.” – Joseph Heller’s Catch-22
It’s no UL, lovelee, the long pinkie nail is expressly for scooping up a small portion of schnizz and ferrying it to the nostril(s).
i dont know about the pinkie fingernails, but i keep my left thumb nail long so i can get into taped up boxes easier…and so i can scratch itches easier when i cut the other 9 nails =).
I’ve gotta agree with RTA on this one. I was a patron of several Hollywood nightclubs in the early 80s and that is exactly what long pinky nails were for. Some of these guys deluded themselves into thinking that a cop who might notice a little coke spoon hanging from a gold chain neckless, wouldn’t make the same connection with the long pinkie nail. Most of these morons didn’t make it out of the 80s alive. Natural selection at work, if you ask me.
Dual purpose;
First you dig out the boogers (which get in the way), then you scoop up the dope.
Peace,
mangeorge
Oh. My. God.
The guy I went out with last night has a long pinkie nail.
Now I have a good reason never to call him again.
Amen, matt_mcl.
Though, (assumptions via the ‘Old Navy’ thread)… he may have no idea what he’s doing, and is just influenced by the evil woman with the funny glasses and that awful dog.
The media can be so cruel.
lovelee
I have been told here in Spain that growing a long pinky nail is a sign that its wearer does not do hard physical labor. This is a working-class custom, it seems. I’ll ask my barber next time I see him about why he wears a long pinky nail.
Damn it Lawrence, I was gonna turn up this gem of wisdom, and you beat me to it.
The custom of having one long pinkie fingernail predates widespread cocaine use. That drug-users adopted the curtom is now wonder, but the real reason is to sport that you don’t do hard physical work.
CT
[- - - I seem to recall that in Europe during the middle ages it was expected of upper class men. It was so, I swear I read, that a man could discretely scratch at a woman’s door instead of knocking. I dunno why anyone else has them now. - MC]
I believe that it was the custom in the days of Louis the 14th. Or, was it the 13th? I just know it was the bastid who called himself the Sun King.
“If A=B, B=C, and C=D, do not get a job proofreading” --Quid’s Theorem
A buddy of mine grows his pinky nail long so he can use it as a guitar pick. It does improve his technique! And I know for a fact he’s no coke user so there. 
All Hail Unca Cecil, or the next best thing available!
I seem to recall hearing that in the antebellum South, gentlemen would grow a long pinkie nail for use during fistfights, as a handy eye-gouger.
To summarize: It sounds like we grow them long for a multitude of reasons: recreation, ritual identification & nose picking to name but a few. In other words, not only have we learned to use tools, we have even started growing them on our bodies.
John Steinbeck, in The Wayward Bus (1947) describes a creepy bus driver who grows his pinky nail long for no particular reason except the gratification of noticing the other bus drivers doing it, too.
Cocaine