How can fingernails grow when they seem to be firmly attached to your fingers? I know that new growth is generated at the base of the nail, but how do they then slide toward the end of your fingers?
I have a similar question. If your fingernails grow from the base of your nailbed, how does the top white part of your nail get longer rather than the base?
The new nail growing in at the bottom pushes the whole nail up, like new hair growing out of the root pushes the whole hair along. There’s no difference between the white part and the pink part; the white is what nail looks like when it’s not sitting on top of finger, with no air space in between. If you ever rip a nail up so that some of the pink part comes away from your finger, you’ll see that it’s the same color as your white nail tips when it’s not tightly on.
Yeah, but the question is, since the fingernail seems pretty firmly attached to the rest of the finger, how does the nail slide up as it grows? Do the bonds between nail and finger break and re-set continuously?
Hi, I’m glee and I bite my nails.
This can involve ‘ripping’ them out down the side, so I know they are simply not attached there.
(I think they also grow back more quickly if you bite them, but that’s just anecdotal).
They’re not “attached” on the sides, no, but anybody who’s ever had a nail break down into the flesh knows they’re definately attached to that middle part. I’ve often wondered this same thing - since it hurts like a mad bitch to have to pull a broken nail off that nail bed, how does it all slide outwards all the time when it’s growing? Anybody who’s had braces can tell you that if it’s like when your teeth move, that hurts. The piercing I had migrate hurt too (well, it migrated because it was irritated.) But my fingertips under the nails have never hurt in a “growing pains” way.