Minnesota - The extraordinary story of Diana Armstrong is not just one of hardship, grief, and hope, but also of the longest fingernails in the world.

There's something remarkable about Diana's story, one that spans a quarter-century. Despite the difficulty and the debilitating nature of her choice, she stuck to her guns and now has a world record to show for it. Sadly, the background behind her decision is nothing short of a tragedy.

So, why did Diana choose to grow such long fingernails, and how long did they have to be to make them a world record? TAG24 takes a look at the longest fingernails in the world, and the extraordinary story behind them.

Diana Armstrong has been growing her fingernails since 1997 and, as a result, she boasts the longest in the world. Measuring a combined length of 42 feet and 10.4 inches as of March 13, 2022, each of her nails average 4–5 feet and reach all the way to the floor when she raises her hands to around chin-height.

Long, thick, and covered in paint, her fingernails are so long that they can no longer even be manicured. The nails themselves are so strong that they need professional woodworking equipment for filing. All-in-all, when it's time for her to get them treated it'll take 15 to 20 bottles of nail polish and around 4–5 hours to paint per nail.

"I haven't been to a nail salon in about 22 years," she told Guinness World Records, who had given her the award for world's longest fingernails. "When they see me coming, they'd be like 'Oh no!'"

It's a family effort to maintain them, though, and one that only occurs every five or so years due to the difficulty involved. Because of the length of her nails, it is impossible for Diana to do the painting herself, making it the responsibility of her grandchildren to pain and file the nails.

"It started off with my two nieces," Diana said. "Then once I ended up having my daughter and she got to a certain age, she just kind of joined the crowd because she loved playing with fingernail polish."

Diana decided to grow her fingernails out after the passing of her daughter Latisha in 1997. Before she passed away from an asthma attack in her sleep at the young age of only sixteen, Latisha had always done Diana's nails. As a result, her mom decided to never have them manicured or cut them again in tribute to her daughter.

It was a natural decision, as Diana had always had long nails and she wanted a tribute for Tisha that she could carry around with her. The idea was that for the rest of her life, whenever she thought about the last time she got her nails done, the memory would be of her beloved daughter.

"I went through something when my daughter passed away in '97," she told Guinness World Records. "She was the only one who did my nails. She polished them and filed them for me. When I got up to go make groceries, I woke up and I told my kids 'Y'all get up and clean up.'"

"At the store, my baby daughter called me and told me 'Ma, Tisha won't wake up.' I said, 'Nah, tell her to get up and y'all clean up.' And she said 'Nah mom, she won't wake up. Mom, I think she's dead.' She was 16 and my daughter who found her was 15. She had died of an asthma attack in her sleep."

"That was the worst day of my life. When I made it home, she was dead. And so, when that happened, she did my nails the night before, we were up all night, so I just couldn't cut my nails off after that."

The world record for the longest pair of male fingernails was awarded to Melvin Feizel Boothe in 2009 for having a combined length of 32 feet and 3.8 inches. At the time, he had grown his nails since the 1970s and lived in Pontiac, Michigan, before his death the very same year that Guinness World Records gave him the much-coveted accolade.

Boothe was a veteran and had two main passions in his life: his work for the Army and his nails. He told Guinness World Records that once he found out how to deal with cracks and breaks in his nails and maintain them indefinitely, he began the project of his lifetime.

"I just got into growing the nails and going to work," he said. "It gave me something to do as I got into it. You know, like people have a hobby, and that's how I basically started."

Luckily for Diana, she has a lot of people to help her get by. She's restricted by the length of her nails and the challenges that they provide, which is only natural, but that doesn't mean she's completely reliant on others. According to Diana, she uses her feet to do many tasks and to get around (though she can't drive).

"If I have to pick up money off the floor, I can pick up bills," Diana told Guinness World Records when interviewed for her award. "But if I drop change on the floor, that will just stay down there!"