Shridhar Chillal's Nails No More: World's Longest Fingernails Cut After 66 Years

Shridhar Chillal, the man from the western Indian state of Maharashtra, finally cut his fingernails after 66 years. The 82-year-old holds the Guinness World Record for the longest fingernails ever recorded on a single hand.

The man from the city of Pune had been growing the nails on his left hand since he was 14 years old. Chillal had decided to grow his nails after a teacher got mad at him for accidentally breaking a very long nail. The teacher said Chillal would not understand the kind of care it took not to break a long nail unless he did it himself.

Chillal said he faced a tough time taking care of the nails as it were very fragile and he had to be very careful while sleeping: “I can’t move much, so every half an hour or so I wake up and move my hand to the other side of the bed.” He managed to get his nails to grow a collective length of about 29-foot-10-inch before being officially honored by Guinness in November 2014.

On Wednesday, Chillal finally cut his nails and the procedure was caught on camera. The video, which was shared by Guinness World Records, shows Chillal getting his nails cut using an industrial cutter instead of the regular nail clipper.

“At the age of 82, having grown the nails on his left hand for 66 years, Shridhar Chillal (Longest fingernails on a single hand - ever) is finally having them cut,” the video said.

The nails are now on display at the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Odditorium in Times Square, New York.

“I was a little bit scared that my celebrity favor would go now, but today after coming here I realize that after this I have become a real celebrity,” Chillal told Patch New York through an interpreter. “Now, forever my nails will be remembered and forever my nails will be seen by people from all over the world.”