Simone Taylor, 16 years old, refused to cut her nails since she was 13 because of her unreasonable fear of cutting them. So, Taylor just let them grew and grew, until the time came when she couldn’t use her hands normally anymore. Her nails transformed into talons, and her human gift of an opposable thumb was rendered useless, the Mirror reports.
Taylor, who’s from Nuremberg, Germany, said, “I have exams at the moment and it’s hard to write, after one hour of writing my hands really hurt. Surprisingly, she's only broken a nail once but admits it made her hysterical. My friends and I were climbing a gate that was stuck, and as I jumped down, my middle finger nail got stuck in the metal and broke.
“I started crying and remember screaming, ‘Why my nail? Anything but my nail.’ My friends tried to calm me down but didn’t have much success.”
Taylor had to put varnish on her long nails for three hours. They had become too long that getting ready for school, such as showering and getting dressed, was considered difficulties for her. Her fingernails are 11.8 centimeters long while her thumbnails are 14.8 centimeters long.
Taylor had to use her knuckles to type on the keyboard. Holding a pen became an impossibility for her, so taking exams were extra difficult.
Taylor said, “PE is a huge problem, though. I can’t play volleyball, basketball or anything similar. My PE teachers are always trying to convince me to cut my nails. They’ll never succeed to convince me – but that makes my grades in PE really bad.”
Due to the fact that German schools doesn’t have a strict dress code, Taylor was allowed to grow her nails for as long as she likes. She only broke a nail once.
Taylor said, “I’ve been scared of nail clippers ever since. It wasn’t my intention to grow them so long, but as they grew, so did the amount of compliments and they became more and more a part of me. During my first year, I always thought to myself, ‘I’m gonna cut them tomorrow’ but I never did.”
Taylor uses two coats of nail hardener and cuticle oil on hair nails to avoid getting chipped or breaking. This routine makes her nails stronger. It takes her three hours to apply nail polish, including base coats and top coats. She would also use a cotton bud every day to clean the undersides of her nails, making them hygienic.
Taylor said, “Cleaning my teeth and using the toilet aren’t a problem. Funnily enough, a lot of people ask the toilet question when they see my nails for the first time. Showering is a bit more difficult.
“Sometimes my nails get caught in my hair, so I have to be extra careful. I also have to be careful getting dressed. Even if my nails don’t break, it hurts a lot when they get caught on clothing so I take things really slow. Buttoning up a shirt can take ages.”
She spends about $30 a month for maintaining her nails alone.
