# Do your hands belie your station in life? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 7, 2015, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-hands-belie-your-station-in-life/727237 "2015-08-07T14:53:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-hands-belie-your-station-in-life/727237/41 "2015-08-10T15:32:53Z")
> [@AuntPam](#): > > Before you start disassembling the crankcase, run your fingers over a cake of old bar soap. Really dig in. Try to get as much soap as possible under your fingernails. Three hours later, when you wash up, no black moons! Yeeouch, soap digging under nails is painful! Vaseline or lotion works too, but I seldom remember to do this. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-hands-belie-your-station-in-life/727237/42 "2015-08-10T16:15:37Z")
I have callouses on the fingers of my left hand due to playing the banjo. I have pin-prick dots on the fingers of my right hand due to blood sugar tests (I have been a type one diabetic for over twenty years). The nail on the middle finger of my right hand is longer than all my other nails as that’s the one I use to play the banjo (I play old time music rather than bluegrass). ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-hands-belie-your-station-in-life/727237/43 "2015-08-11T03:06:32Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Even back on the farm in the carefree days of my youth and in the motorcycle shop when I was a mechanic, hand and foot care was always a BIG thing. So I can chop wood, hunt, fish, work in a shipping center and still have hands as smooth as you standard politician. And somehow I’m actually a little proud of that. A few scars here and there but not the rough mitts you would expect if you shadowed me for a week or two. Just the opposite: banged up hands from all kinds of semi-skilled jobs and minor accidents from years ago that I’m a little proud of now that I’ve been teaching for over 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-hands-belie-your-station-in-life/727237/44 "2015-08-11T08:48:00Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Beat me to it by a few minutes. My left hand fingernails are cut as short as possible. On my right hand, they grow about 3/8" long. I take long breaks from playing (sometimes years), but my fingernails are always kept like that. And I too, _usually_ have my nails this way. I’m lazy, so I only cut the left when they start to buzz and only cut the right when they start to break. Finger picking has given me weird callouses, too. My left hand has the normal ones on the tips, but my right thumb has a bigger one on it’s side from when I was too lazy to track down a pick. I do have a few scars on my hands from having them inside servers (stupid, cheap cases), but I doubt you’d be able to tell that I type on a keyboard for a living from my hands - unless someone thought that the callous on my thumb was from the space bar. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-hands-belie-your-station-in-life/727237/45 "2015-08-11T15:01:21Z")
My hands reveal that I have a kitten and am a nervous type who picks at cuticles. There are also a number of broken-short nails, but those could be attributed to multiple causes–and I believe they in fact are. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-hands-belie-your-station-in-life/727237/46 "2015-08-11T15:04:47Z")
My hands look exactly like what they are. Looking at them right now, if you were sufficiently observant, you could deduce or guess: - my age (early forties) - that I have been working in offices for most of my adult life - that I am married - that I am left handed - that I am a longtime guitar player ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-hands-belie-your-station-in-life/727237/47 "2015-08-11T15:06:58Z")
I guess my hands are nice. I’m 51, but my hands look younger due to applying sunscreen on them almost every day of my adult life. I have long fingers, and medium length nails, which currently have a French manicure. My palms are soft with no calluses, despite working in the garden regularly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-hands-belie-your-station-in-life/727237.md?page=2)