Emma Butterworth
A woman who hasn’t trimmed her nails since 1997 may have a few challenges on her hands - quite literally - but there's one in particular question she's asked the most, and it's a fairly personal one.
After her 16-year-old daughter tragically died whilst having an asthma attack in her sleep, Diana Armstrong vowed to stop cutting her nails for a very sentimental reason.
Diana, from Minnesota, US, stopped cutting her nails after the death of Latisha, as her daughter would do her nails every weekend and Armstrong simply felt too heartbroken to go near them.
Now, 27 years later, she is a world record holder for her talons, which measure a whopping 42ft 10.4 inches.
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Speaking to the Daily Star in 2022, Armstrong revealed the daily challenges she experiences thanks to her record winners.
Describing her struggles, she said: “Zipping up my pants or jacket, I can pop open a can of soda but I need a knife. I drove a car but had to stick my hand out the window, so I don’t drive any more.”
When it comes to the personal questions, Diana is't afraid to give a very candid response.
Armstrong recently explained to Guinness Word Records: “When I go to a public restroom, I go to the stall that is the biggest. If someone is in that stall I have to wait until they’ve finished and then go in because I can’t use the smaller ones because my nails are longer than them.”
And the answer to the question on everyone’s lips, she explained that it’s ‘the same as anyone else going to the bathroom.’
She said: “I work with my nails probably in a different way they’d work with theirs. I use a lot of toilet paper.
"I don’t wrap it around my hand like some people do, I can’t do it like that, because it ain’t going to work that way.”
Despite the struggle of her enormous nails, Armstrong announced that they’ll be going nowhere.
She said: “My nails are a part of me. I can’t ever imagine cutting them off.”
Diana relies on her grandchildren to help her out with manicure maintenance, revealing that each nail takes ‘about ten hours to polish’ with up to 10 bottles of nail polish and four hours of spare time needed.
The family support system doesn’t stop there, despite Diana’s other daughter Rania’s initial embarrassment for her mother's striking look.
Now, Rania is in full support, saying: “When she told us the back story, it kind of changed my feelings towards it.
"Because just as much as she missed my sister, I missed her too. So, if that’s her way of holding on to her, then I accept."