Every once in a while I notice a guy will have one long finger nail, either the thumb or pointer, that they keep long and appear to upkeep as the nail is rounded. All the rest of the finger nails are trimmed short. I've always wondered why. Anyone know?
It's for picking navel lint.
i see the pinky
Sometimes I forget to clip my thumbs
In the 80s it implied they snorted coke with it. Today it means they have a backup in case of running out of TP.
It is a cultural thing
Stinkweed wrote:
Every once in a while I notice a guy will have one long finger nail, either the thumb or pointer, that they keep long and appear to upkeep as the nail is rounded. All the rest of the finger nails are trimmed short. I've always wondered why. Anyone know?
I keep my right thumbnail long to pick my guitar
Bump
My ex has one, can't remember if it was his finger nail or one of his toe nail which I never seen before when we married. 🤔
In some Asian cultures it is a status symbol suggesting they don't have to perform manual labor.
I'm perplexed about it too wrote:
My ex has one, can't remember if it was his finger nail or one of his toe nail which I never seen before when we married. 🤔
Nothing says we're ugly like darkness so complete you can't tell a toe from a thumb on your wedding night.
Seriously: it at least SOMETIMES means that they play board games (of the Dungeons and Dragons variety). The long fingernail is used to pick up a single card from a deck when the owner is super Type A.
It also still sometimes means cocaine use.
I have chosen to grow out the nose hair of my left nostril. It means I am one of the Cogni-scent-i.
Stinkweed wrote:
Every once in a while I notice a guy will have one long finger nail, either the thumb or pointer, that they keep long and appear to upkeep as the nail is rounded. All the rest of the finger nails are trimmed short. I've always wondered why. Anyone know?
Those guys are finger picking style guitar players.
Full finger-picking guitarist have long nails on their other playing hand fingers. Just not as long as the thumb. The goal is to play quality bass note sounds.
Stinkweed wrote:
Every once in a while I notice a guy will have one long finger nail, either the thumb or pointer, that they keep long and appear to upkeep as the nail is rounded. All the rest of the finger nails are trimmed short. I've always wondered why. Anyone know?
What's so weird about that? How do you open plastic packages without a sharp tool?
In prison it's to use as a weapon. It's sharp and can cause injury when used properly.
Playing guitar, or just for general utility. It's annoying not being able to open a can or pry some plastic piece apart because your fingernails hardly extend beyond your nail bed, but also annoying to have long fingernails for all fingers. Solution: keep only one (or two) long.
I do this for nosepicking purposes, so much easier to keep my nose clear now. My left index finger, if people ask I just tell them I use it for opening things.
Surprise! wrote:
In some Asian cultures it is a status symbol suggesting they don't have to perform manual labor.
This. I grew up in the Pacific and the guys who were, say, waiters were careful to keep one nail really long, usually a thumbnail. The guys who did yard work (I was one) had short nails--if you tried to grow one longer, it'd eventually get peeled back while you were working. Which is not fun.