How much free edge on your fingernail is too much?

Drain Todger

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kiwifarms.net
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Mar 1, 2020
I keep seeing people on /pol/ and elsewhere admonish dudes to trim their fingernails if there is so much as 0.5 millimeters of free edge. Like, literally. They tell them to trim it ALL off, all the way down to the quick. Is this a thing, now?

Seriously, go on 4plebs and look up people saying "trim your fingernails" on /pol/ in response to people posting images of their hands. It's a cavalcade of people bitching nonstop about man hands with any white showing on the tips of the fingernails at all.


Take this, for instance:


1598496571530.png

There are people who actually think that this is too much free edge. That this actually needs to be trimmed down to the quick. I consider these to be very short fingernails.

Is this some kind of weird cultural thing now that I'm not aware of? Do people really cut their fingernails daily, now, making sure that there is absolutely no white visible on them at all?

I was always told to do the exact opposite of this; that if I cut my fingernails too short, I'd get ingrowns. In fact, the literature on the matter seems to reflect this.


If you cut your nails to the quick every time, you're asking for trouble. Basically, you should trim your fingernails if there's any excessive overhang of the free edge past the fingertip (if you're a man). There's just one little issue here; not everyone has their hyponychium in the same place. Some people have their hyponychium way back from the fingertip, especially if they have a condition that damages the nailbed, like onycholysis, where the nail plate is lifting off the bed, resulting in more free edge:

image - 2022-04-10T033913.460.png

If someone with severe onycholysis (like in this picture) trims their nails all the way down to the quick, their nail will cover only half of their fucking fingertip and will be susceptible to ingrowns when it grows back.

Therefore, it stands to reason that the length of the free edge of the nail should be trimmed relative to the fingertip, not the "length of the white area", which is arbitrary and differs from person to person.

I don't know, though. What do you consider is a reasonable fingernail length for men?
 
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: mr.moon1488
2mm. Clip your nails. Clean your house. Too many dudes are allowing disgusting shit to flourish and this is the pushback. Thereportoftheweek does closeups on his hands all the time; can you not see the Albino Rat comparison? Women have long nails, sometimes it's gross and talonlike on them as well. But at least feminine hands with longer nails don't look abnormal and degenerate.
 
Imagine taking grooming tips from /pol/. C'mon now, Todger.
Man, I'm just curious about why so many people seem so determined to fuck up their fingernails. I actually don't really care about it. I mean, I clip mine whenever they're an annoyance, like if they start overhanging my fingertip or get in the way of my typing, but I don't really think about it. I've just noticed that a lot of people seem to berate others for having fingernails that I consider normal, with like half a millimeter of free edge, and I wondered if this was some kind of thing, now.

I keep seeing it over and over again on 4chan. Someone posts their hands. They have barely half a millimeter of free edge on their fingernails, not even overhanging their fingertip in the least. Someone else is like, "clip your fingernails immediately, you filthy nigger!"

I made a thread about this on /pol/ and it hit the fucking bump limit. People literally posted 300+ posts about fucking fingernails, just because I rattled their cage. :semperfidelis:
 
I made a thread about this on /pol/ and it hit the fucking bump limit. People literally posted 300+ posts about fucking fingernails, just because I rattled their cage. :semperfidelis:
Speaking of hands and cages, at least they're not literal ogres like this /tv/ anon from way back. This was one time that the peanut gallery was right to autistically press OP about his odd hands.
ogre.png
 
I think you're supposed to trim it most of the way then file it the rest. You start trying to clip all the way down you're playing a real dangerous game.

I made a thread about this on /pol/ and it hit the fucking bump limit. People literally posted 300+ posts about fucking fingernails, just because I rattled their cage.
Yeah, that sounds like 4chan.
They seem to be really obsessed with performative masculinity. They see things like short nails or muscle or short hair as being fashion items rather than features that are considered masculine simply because they're the most functional. It strikes me as kind of homosexual tbh.

You should just cut your nails when they start getting in the way; it's just that as a man you should be engaging in activities where that happens fairly quickly.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Drain Todger
I pretty much trim my nails to the quick. Started doing it decades ago when I learned to play the guitar. Otherwise the white part hits the fret board and is uncomfortable.
 
For the first picture, I'd likely clip them before going out anywhere if they were like that, but I don't think they're way too long.
 
Don't clip them, use nail scissors. It makes all the difference. And use a file for the last touches. Doesn't have to be perfect but just to smooth out the occasional edge or rough spot. It takes like 5 minutes and really makes a difference.
 
It is bound to happen in any hand photograph unless your shit is cut up to the skin. people just like pickin on things lmoa. some people do have nasty ass fingernails tho
 
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