Do fingernails grow past the breaking point?

Question

I've picked my nails since I was a kid. They're not so short as if I was a serious nail biter, but I plan on not picking anymore. Fo instance, my thumb's nail length is about 2 times the lunula's length...so short as you may see. If I don't pick for a loong time, will the pinkish part of the nail grow out also? or will it be just the whitish part?

Answer 1

At the bottom of each nail there is a white moon-shaped part, and then a pinkish part. Then there is another whitish part at the tip. The difference between the pinkish part and the whitish part at the tip is simply whether it's connected to your finger or not. That is, the nail starts growing at the moon-shaped part and pushes up to the pinkish part, and then extends to the whitish part as it continues growing. The part of your finger underneath the pinkish part is the nail bed. The reason the nail looks pink there is it is right next to the nail bed, so you can see the color of the skin under the nail there. It hurts if you pull the nail off the nail bed, so I assume you haven't done that. So if you let your nails grow, most likely the nail will just extend out of the nail bed, and the part that grows out will look white. The white part looks white because it's not next to the skin color of the nail bed. If you have indeed picked your nails down into the nail bed, then the nail will grow there and look pink for a while, but eventually the nail will get long enough that some of it will extend off the nail bed and that part will look white. If your picking has damaged the nail bed in some way the nail might be crooked.