Tell me about your fingernails: a poll

In My Humble Opinion
1

1. How long are your nials right now?

About 1/8th to 1/4th of an inch longer than the point where they fuse with the nailbed (if that is what it is called), and 1/8th to 1/4th of an inch shorter than the tippity tips of my fingers and thumbs.

2. How long do you usually keep them?

This is a tad long for me. I’ll probably trim them down by half when I get home this evening.

3. What shape/dimensions do your nails have?

My index finger and thumb are shaped like a Pringle™ “potato crisp” or garden shovel, with a rounded front edge. But the rest of my nails flare out towards the tips more, so the front edges are straight across and wider, though still have a concave curve in cross section.

They’re roughly square in dimension, no longer than wide or wider than long. One exception seems to be my pinky nail, which is slightly longer than it is wide.

My thumb nail seems to be the biggest, about 3/4 of an inch x 3/4 of an inch.
The rest average out to about 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch, with the pinky nail just slightly smaller.

4. What, if anything, do you usually notice about your nails?

I have an annoying propensity for hang nails. I have natural “french tips”.

5. What do you notice if you examine them closely?

They they not very “shiney”. They reflect light, but are more opaque, if opaque is a term that can apply to a reflective surface. I can clearly see little ridges along the surface of the nail, which I assume come from variations within the cuticle tissue. My cuticles and the skin directly around my nails is dry.

I can only see that pale moon-shaped tissue at the base of my thumb nails and my right index finger. All of my other nails are solid pink (aside from the french tips), with the occasional white mark if I’ve been recently banging my hands around.

6. What, if anything, do other people usually notice about your nails?

That I, like my mom, have natural “french tips”. As a devoutly low maintenance androgenous lesbian, I tend to be envied and scorned by many women for my fingernails and my copious and thick eyelashes. Neither of which I give a rat’s ass about or “do” anything with.

7. Are you, or have you ever been a nail bitter? If so, when in your life did this occur, to what degree, and what were your particular habits?

I was a nail bitter untill about my junior year in high school. I’d pretty much nibble down anything that grew out far enough not to be attached to the nailbed. I’d usually collect a few slivers of nail in my mouth prior to spitting them out.

Even though I don’t bite my nails anymore, I still tend to chew the thick dry skin that grows at the very corners of my nails at the tips of my fingers. They annoy me like little calouses. If I get guitar callouses, they’ll inevitably start peeling at the edges, which really bugs me, and I’ll keep chewing the edges down. For some reason those cheap polyester blankets they give you in airplanes, combined with my finger tips and hang nails, usually annoys the living hell out of me, because every little rough or sharp edge catches on the synthetic fabric, causing me to try to find and bite off every little rough or sharp edge. This inevitably just produces more rough and sharp edges, and is a vicious cycle.

8. Do you have any preferences with respect to the nails of your sexual partner?

Long enough to functionaly scratch an itchy back, but no longer than that.

2

  1. Very short. Right now they have less than 1mm of white.

  2. I used to keep them longer, but I’m cutting them very short these days. (See 7.)

  3. I’ve never been able to shape mine very effectively. Right now they just follow the curve of the nail bed, which looks natural and normal. Once the corners start sticking out beyond the edge of the skin, I’m just hopeless. I just can’t get a nice graceful curve on them.

  4. I always notice that at least one nail has a rough spot at the edge. I can’t leave them alone of they have one. I am also cursed with hangnails. My cuticles hate me. I’m on a campaign to condition them constantly, but they still look like ass.

  5. That they have a slight vertical ripple to them.

  6. I do not know that anyone has ever noticed anything about my nails. Nobody has ever said anything to me about my nails, anyway, other than friend of mine trying to get me to go with her to a manicure. I just stared at her and said, “Are you serious? Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?” A week or so later she started telling me that I’d look great with French nails. Once again, I stared at her and said, “Are you serious? Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?” She started off on how French nails were so simple and would perfectly suit my personality, and I snorted and said, “Yeah, compared to three inch long fake fuscia nails with a frickin’ beach scene painted on them. Just because you work with a bunch of grocery store checkout ladies whose whole self image is wrapped up in their frickin’ fingernails, you shouldn’t start thinking that’s normal.” Maybe she was trying to subtly communicate to me that my nails look bad. Or maybe she’s just constantly surrounded by women with three inch long nails with pictures painted on them and has forgotten that unpainted nails, not French nails, are the natural default state.

I grudgingly agreed to let her give me some pale pink polish, but I mucked up the painting job horribly and ended up scraping it all off with my teeth as soon as it chipped. No painty for me, thank you.

  1. I bit my nails very badly, frequently till they bled, until maybe a half year ago, when I finally managed to stop. Sorry, I don’t have any clever suggestions about how to quit. If I say that I quit, everybody asks me how I did it, and I’m afraid I just made up my mind to stop. I don’t know why this time was different from all the other times I resolved to quit. It just was. (It might have had something to do with sitting next to a guy at a lecture who bit his nails the whole time. I had no idea how gross it was to see—and shudder hear—someone do that!) I still bite the skin at the corners of the nail, but I’m trying to stop that, too.

For a while I was trying to grow my nails out but that was a dismal failure, as my nails tend to split into layers at the ends when they’re longer, and also I was sometimes relapsing into biting them. I finally realized that the longer they are, the more I’m tempted to have them in my mouth all the damn time, so I just cut them short, short, short, and comfort myself with the fact that they look better now than when I was chewing them.

  1. I don’t like long nails on men. I think it’s unmasculine and unattractive. My husband likes his a little on the long side, but I make him cut them when they start to look girly. (Okay, I admit, it’s mostly jealousy, because he has goregeous, thick, strong nails.)
3

I’m told I have beautiful nails. I just trimmed them down to 1/4" from about 1/2" or more.

I keep them squared off, and they seem to be stonger for it.

I usually do my own manicure.

4

1. How long are your nails right now?

Right hand - 1-2 mm beyond the finger
Left hand and RH little finger - as short as I can make them
RH thumb - 5-8 mm beyond the thumb

2. How long do you usually keep them?

This is about right

3. What shape/dimensions do your nails have?

RH thumb and index - rounds down in the middle similar to a hook.
RH middle - flat.
RH ring - quite curved
I have thick hands so my nails are all rather wide.

4. What, if anything, do you usually notice about your nails?

Nothing of note

5. What do you notice if you examine them closely?

I have nails that are flexible enough that they don’t break.

6. What, if anything, do other people usually notice about your nails?

That my RH nails are considerably longer than LH.

7. Are you, or have you ever been a nail bitter? If so, when in your life did this occur, to what degree, and what were your particular habits?

Never

8. Do you have any preferences with respect to the nails of your sexual partner?

Long enough to functionaly scratch an itchy back, but no longer than that.
[/QUOTE]

I like french nails.

A pedicure will drive me crazy. I guess I’m a foot guy.

Oh yeah, I am playing classical guitar. I’m not just a freak that prefers 4/10 phalanges with long nails.

5

My nails are a half inch long, square, coated with acrylic. Most people notice that they’re hot pink. (yes, yes, acrylics are sooooo tacky and Long Beach but screw y’all, I like 'em :slight_smile: )

I was a nail biter up until middle school when I got tired of having raggedly hands and stopped. One bad habit I had a lot of trouble breaking was picking at my cuticles which were always bloody. But the acrylic nails are thicker so I can’t do that anymore and my hands have healed.

Don’t notice nails on a guy unless they’re unusally long or dirty.

6

My hands are the most beautiful feature of my body, in my opinion. I seriously considered becoming a hand model for a while, but now it’s too late. I’m getting a touch of arthritis in my hands, and my knuckles are starting to swell. My fingers are still long and slender, but they’re becoming a bit crooked.

I keep my nails about the same length as you do, but mine are oval shaped. I tend the cuticles about twice a week, and keep them moisturized. I don’t wear any polishes.

7

I get told all the time that I have beautiful nails. I went in for a manicure and all the women in the shop kept circling around going on about how lovely they are, as if I had anything to do with it.

It’s sort of like complementing someone because they’re tall.

Anyhow, right now they’re shortish (to the tips of my fingers) and plain. I’ll probably put on some polish this weekend.

8

1. How long are your nials right now?
Just a sliver of white.

2. How long do you usually keep them?
I let them grow till about ~1/8" to somewhat less than 1/4" and cut them when I start noticing how long they are.

3. What shape/dimensions do your nails have?
A little shorter than they are wide.

4. What, if anything, do you usually notice about your nails?
Not much. Just when they need to be cut off.

5. What do you notice if you examine them closely?
Usually some white spots. Depending on what I have been up to quilting-wise, there may be a worn away spot on the right-hand part of my left thumb, since that’s where the needletip hits when I am hand-quilting and hand-piecing.

6. What, if anything, do other people usually notice about your nails?
Nuttin.

7. Are you, or have you ever been a nail bitter? If so, when in your life did this occur, to what degree, and what were your particular habits?
I used to be a devoted nail biter, to the point of pain afterwards. It was when I was a younger kid; I know during high school I did grow them out enough to poilsh them. I still gnaw at the skin around the nails, and at hangnails, but the nails themselves escape relatively unscathed.

8. Do you have any preferences with respect to the nails of your sexual partner?
If I had a partner, I would want nothing too fancy, just well-groomed and relatively clean.

9

  1. About 1/2 a centimeter past the tips of my fingers right now.

  2. They can get up to about a centimeter past the tips of my fingers before I cut them. When it gets to be difficult opening doors or putting in my contact lenses, I clip 'em. Right now they’re relatively short because I expected to be doing some fairly athletic stuff during my honeymoon (I mean skiing, you perv!)

  3. What shape/dimensions do your nails have?
    Shape-wise, they follow the shape of my fingertip, maybe a bit more squared off. They curve slightly downward if they get long enough.

  4. What, if anything, do you usually notice about your nails?
    I think they’re one of my best features…strong, useful as tools or weapons.

  5. What do you notice if you examine them closely?
    The free edge is quite white. They’re also ridged. I can buff that out, but the unnaturally slick texture kind of skeeves me.

  6. What, if anything, do other people usually notice about your nails?
    I get a lot of compliments on them. Sometimes one will break, and other women say, “Oh you can just have one put on!” I’m thinking, “But then I’d have something glued to my finger!” If one breaks, I cut them all down. They’ve got to be natural or nothing.
    Other women also suggest that I polish them, but if I do that I will pick and scratch at the polish. I also don’t like the way it looks. In the past, when I did polish them, I always went for clear or very light colors.

  7. Are you, or have you ever been a nail biter?
    I bit my nails as far as they would go (and further!) all my life and nothing could stop me…until I got pregnant. I just mellowed out, grew a fine set of claws, and never bit again. Some weird hormonal thing, no doubt.

  8. Do you have any preferences with respect to the nails of your sexual partner?

Long enough to functionally scratch an itchy back, but no longer than that. Sounds good.

10
  1. How long are your nails right now?

One millimeter longer than the point where they fuse with the nailbed (if that is what it is called).

  1. How long do you usually keep them?

I might let them get about another millimeter longer - 2, if I get lazy.

  1. What shape/dimensions do your nails have?

I guess “rounded squares” would be the best way to describe them. They have a pronounced curve.

  1. What, if anything, do you usually notice about your nails?

Terrible cuticles/hangnails. Very dry skin all around them. Quite a few white spots from slamming my fingers in various things.

  1. What do you notice if you examine them closely?

Ridges. A tendency toward a yellow color in the very center, with more pinkish color just above the “moons” and again just below the white tips.

  1. What, if anything, do other people usually notice about your nails?

Um, nobody mentions noticing them. Usually my rings get their attention first.

  1. Are you, or have you ever been a nail bitter? If so, when in your life did this occur, to what degree, and what were your particular habits?

Yep, me too.

  1. Do you have any preferences with respect to the nails of your sexual partner?

Ditto.

11
  1. How long are your nails right now?**

2/8ths of an inch of white - I can see them over the tops of my fingers when facing my palm.

2. How long do you usually keep them?

This is the norm…sometimes a shade longer.

3. What shape/dimensions do your nails have?

Rounded with the curve of my fingertips, thumbnail is usually longer. They are thin, not thick.

4. What, if anything, do you usually notice about your nails?

I get those white spots a lot when not wearing nail polish

5. What do you notice if you examine them closely?

My cuticles are dry. Same as the OP in regards to the half-moon thing visible only on the thumb.

6. What, if anything, do other people usually notice about your nails?

Nothing special, unless they like the polish

7. Are you, or have you ever been a nail bitter? If so, when in your life did this occur, to what degree, and what were your particular habits?

When I was in elementary school, yeah. Never did it till they bled, but they were very short. Grew out of it after a while, never caused me grief.

8. Do you have any preferences with respect to the nails of your sexual partner?

Clean, smooth. Soft hands. That’s it.

12

{bolding mine}

Quick. Old word for “alive” As in “quicksilver”, “the quick and the dead”, and, more pertinently, “cut to the quick”.

13

1. How long are your nials right now?

About 12mm, however, they are about to get chopped down to about 2mm, because tonight, a fourth nail broke. Damnit.

2. How long do you usually keep them?

About 15-16mm.

3. What shape/dimensions do your nails have?

Straight, rounded edges. The pink part is long, and where they join at the nail, there is a very nice, gentle curve.

4. What, if anything, do you usually notice about your nails?

I have a tendency to trim them and they turn out lopsided. No one else seems to notice, but I do.

5. What do you notice if you examine them closely?

Ridges! I see ridges!

6. What, if anything, do other people usually notice about your nails?

Mine also have “french tips”. I usually keep them painted, though, and am often complimented on how pretty they are, and then immediately asked if they are fake or real. They’re real. I grew 'em myself. Not many compliments lately, though, because a little over a month ago I broke three of them, chopped them down… and now that they are finally getting back to “normal” length for me, I broke my fourth one tonight. They’re not brittle, I’ve just been abusing them.

7. Are you, or have you ever been a nail bitter? If so, when in your life did this occur, to what degree, and what were your particular habits?

I used to be a chronic nail biter. My nails were always bitten down, bumpy little ridges. Didn’t matter if there was polish on them, I’d just spit it out. I stopped when I met a girl out here in Seattle who kept flaunting her nails, showing off how pretty they were. I found out afterwards that they were fake, and that her real nails underneath were broken, yellow, and unhealthy. Out of some unfounded spite, I decided to grow my own nails out, just to prove I could do it and have healthy nails. I did it. I never saw that girl again, but now I keep them long because I decided I liked them that way. When I cut them down, it feels very weird, and takes some adjusting. People wonder how I get anything done with long nails, well, the simple answer? I’m used to it. They don’t become that long overnight, or else it would be hard to do anything! It’s gradual, and you get used to it like anything else. I’ve had long nails for four or five years now. I can’t knit without them.

8. Do you have any preferences with respect to the nails of your sexual partner?

Nope, whatever he’s happy with, I’m happy with.

14

One is injured

Other than that -

  1. How long are your nails right now?

Pretty long - past my fingertips generally

  1. How long do you usually keep them?

Just at my fingertips is a nice length, but I had a wedding to go to last weekend.

  1. What shape/dimensions do your nails have?

I have very long, slender fingers, my nails match

  1. What, if anything, do you usually notice about your nails?

They split and break due to years of biting, but they are finally getting past that

  1. What do you notice if you examine them closely?

Ridgy nails

  1. What, if anything, do other people usually notice about your nails?

Just that they make my fingers look extra long

  1. Are you, or have you ever been a nail bitter? If so, when in your life did this occur, to what degree, and what were your particular habits?

I finally stopped biting them a fewe years ago. I was never too bad, just short, my sister used to bite hers to the quick! Yikes!

  1. Do you have any preferences with respect to the nails of your sexual partner?

He bites his, I hate hearing the click his teeth make when he chews them

15

1. How long are your nails right now?
Very short, just enough to see a rim of white.

2. How long do you usually keep them?
Slightly longer, about 0.5cm of white or so. They’re so short at the moment because I’m practising percussion (the medical kind, where you tap your fingers over a patient’s chest and abdomen) and it hurts if you have long nails!

3. What shape/dimensions do your nails have?
I have long slim fingers (in proportion to my hands, which are small) with oval nails, the edges of my nails are filed into shape and I round the edges.

4. What, if anything, do you usually notice about your nails?
If they’re “peeling”, any white spots or if I have a hang-nail.

5. What do you notice if you examine them closely?
I have some ridges and pits, but I keep them buffed, so it’s usually not noticeable.

6. What, if anything, do other people usually notice about your nails?
I’ve been told a couple of times that I have nice hands, and people always notice that my nails are shiny from being buffed (I often get asked where I got such a good clear polish from).

7. Are you, or have you ever been a nail bitter? If so, when in your life did this occur, to what degree, and what were your particular habits?
Nope, not a nail biter, bit I will “cut” my nails with my teeth if they break during the day.

8. Do you have any preferences with respect to the nails of your sexual partner?
My preference would be short, neat, nice cuticles, no polish, but my husband bites his nails and picks his cuticles, so I settle for not actively bleeding!

16

** How long are your nails right now?**

Maybe 1-2mm beyond my fingertips.

2. How long do you usually keep them?

This is about where I keep them, although left to their own devices they’ll grow quite longer (.25-.5" depending)

3. What shape/dimensions do your nails have?

All ovals, except the nails on my middle fingers are sort of acorn-shaped, and the ring fingers square themselves off naturally. I got lucky with the nails, they are well proportioned to my fingers and shapely.

4. What, if anything, do you usually notice about your nails?

They’re nice, but I could spend more quality time with the file. It’s my most hated hygienic chore.

5. What do you notice if you examine them closely?

They’re in need of some ridge-buffing and my cuticles are starting to get a little funky.

6. What, if anything, do other people usually notice about your nails?

Long (when I let them grow out, which is rare now) with white tips (natural, but occasionally enhanced with a manicure pencil.)

7. Are you, or have you ever been a nail bitter? If so, when in your life did this occur, to what degree, and what were your particular habits?

I had a nasty nail-biting habit til I was 7 or so. My well-manicured grandma paid me the princely sum of $1 a week not to bite my nails. I had an inspection every friday. She also taught me to file, do my cuticles, etc. This went on for a year. After that time, if I was caught with obviously bitten nails at my “inspection”, I owed her a dollar. I never paid her one cent. :slight_smile:

I will however bite them if I get a snag and I’m out without a file (which is usually the case.) Also under stress I tend to bite my cuticles.

8. Do you have any preferences with respect to the nails of your sexual partner?

As long as they’re not all yellow and nasty, I’m cool. The Highwayman is a terrible nail and cuticle biter. It doesn’t bother me, honestly, although I’ve done his (very overgrown) cuticles a time or two after I saw him bite them til they bled :shudder:.

17

I keep my nails *just * past the tips of my fingers. My nailbeds are long and narrow, which gives an illusion of length even when I keep them short. If I let them get longer than a couple of milimeters past the tips of my fingers, they look dragon-ladyish. I keep them painted a very pale, neutral, translucent pink.

My cuticles are from hell. They grow really fast, and dry out in an instant. I really have to maintain them constantly. The cuticles on my index fingers are most tenacious. I push them back and clip them every other day or so. I’m also prone to hangnails.

I have very prominent half-moons on my thumbs, index fingers and middle fingers, and none at all on my ring or small fingers.

At the moment, I have a black dot on my left index fingernail, where I put a staple through it a month ago.

18

1. How long are your nials right now?

About 1/4"

2. How long do you usually keep them?

This is about average.

3. What shape/dimensions do your nails have?

They are nice elegant ovals. Well, my oval fingernails are all wider than they are long, but they are still ovals nonetheless.

4. What, if anything, do you usually notice about your nails?

That they are still there, so I have to work harder to make them finish going away for keeps.

5. What do you notice if you examine them closely?

I can usually spot a piece that I can snag with my teeth and rip from if I look closely.

6. What, if anything, do other people usually notice about your nails?

I think the skin between where the nails end and the tip of my fingers fascinates them. Most people still have nail beds there, whereas I have a continuation of fingertip-texture skin, complete with fingerprint-whorls, wrapping back from the tip towards the nail edge.

Of course, if one of them is bleeding or shows a millimeter+ of exposed raw quick, that kind of catches their attention too.

7. Are you, or have you ever been a nail bitter? If so, when in your life did this occur, to what degree, and what were your particular habits?

What do you think :stuck_out_tongue:

I’ve done it all my life. I think I’m going to have to stop because it has damaged my front teeth.

8. Do you have any preferences with respect to the nails of your sexual partner?

Aside from not creepy-long, like too long to type with, no, not really.

19

I wrote:

That’s total length. I see other people are posting the length that their nail extends out beyond the nail bed, or beyond the fingertip. I ain’t got no there there. I haven’t had a nail that has extended past the edge of the nailbed in over 40 years.

20

I used to have pretty hands, but now that I’m older, they certainly ain’t what they used to be. They definitely tell my age. Nice nails help, though. I need to do mine today. I hate doing them. It’s such a project. And I just know I’ll either smudge them or get sheet prints. I always do.