14 DAY TRIAL // Since 1979, Salt Lake City resident Lee Redmond renounced the scissors and the nail clipper, and let her nails grow by as much as they wanted. Reportedly, by last year, they had grown to the impressive length of 35 inches (roughly 89 centimeters), even though Redmond had previously stated that she planned to cut them off on November 22nd, 2006. However, at the time, she decided to keep them. On Tuesday, her plans were destroyed when the car in which she was crashed, together with four other vehicles, in Holladay, Utah.
According to authorities on the scene, the four-car pile-up caused serious injuries to Redmond, but she was rushed to the hospital, and is currently in no immediate danger. However, most of her nails were thorn apart when she was ejected through the wind shield of her car, which means that her long reign on top of the Guinness Book of World Records officially ended. At the time of the last measurement, her nails were a total of 28 feet (8.53 meters) long, longer than any female's in the world.
Over the years, people have been wondering if and how she manages to get on with her life, and complete even the basic tasks, such as putting on clothes. She always said that, even though it could be a little tricky slipping into thicker clothes, on average, she was doing fine. In the TV shows she appeared in, including CBS News and the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum, she was shown doing regular house chores with relative ease.
Tasks such as vacuuming, cutting the hair of her grandchildren, or even driving a car weren't too complicated to do, she said. In addition, she had to take care of her husband, who suffers from Alzheimer's, and managed to do so without too many complications.
It's still unclear who will be awarded her former title. The Guinness website doesn't hold that information at this time, but surely another lady will take her place soon. As far as men go, Shridhar Chillal, from Pune (formerly Poona), India, has the longest nails, measuring 6.15 meters (20 feet 2.25 inches). He only grew them on a single hand, starting in 1952, but is currently having difficulties with them, on account of the fact that they grew to be so heavy, that they prevent him from doing some basic chores around the house.