# Fingernail growth

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingernail-growth/399792>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 12, 2007, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingernail-growth/399792 "2007-04-12T13:03:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingernail-growth/399792/1 "2007-04-12T13:03:44Z")

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Your fingernail is firmly attached to your nailbed, as long as there is no trauma. But the fingernail grows and pushes out, moving along the nailbed.

How does the fingernail stay firmly attached to the nail bed yet perpetually slide along it?

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingernail-growth/399792/2 "2007-04-12T14:24:27Z")

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From [here:](http://www.science.edu.sg/ssc/detailed.jsp?artid=133&type=6&root=4&parent=4&cat=42)

> [@](#):
>
> Each nail consists of a nail plate that overlies a surface of skin called the nail bed. The skin below the nail, from which it grows, is called the nail matrix. The whitish, thickened, half-moon-shaped region (lunula) at the base of the nail plate is the most active growing region. **The epithelial cells here reproduce, and the newly formed cells are keratinised. This gives rise to tiny, keratinised scales that become part of the nail plate, pushing it forward over the nail bed.** [bolding mine]

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2007, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingernail-growth/399792/3 "2007-04-13T00:58:13Z")

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[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose]  
From [here:](http://www.science.edu.sg/ssc/detailed.jsp?artid=133&type=6&root=4&parent=4&cat=42)  
[/QUOTE]  
Good start. But that just tells us how new cells are added to the nail. It doesn’t address the question of how can the nail continuously slide over the nail bed yet remain attached.