Paid to grow fingernails

[snopes]

Comment: I am a doctor and I recently saw a patient with abnormally long
fingernails (like curly, Guiness-Book-of-Records long). This was not her
reason for seeing me, but I asked about them out of curiosity. She told
me that she had a contract with a nail polish company whereby they paid
her a large sum of money not to cut her nails for a period of five years.
If she cut them, she would receive a $5,000 fine for breaching the
contract.

I asked her what the company got out of this, and she said she did not
know. However, she did mention that her contract specifies that the
company gets to keep the nails when she finally removes them.

This is one of the weirdest things I've ever heard, and I've been unable
to find any info about it on the internet. This story did not come from a
friend, but was directly related to me by the person supposedly involved,
as I have told it. She did not seem too happy about the situation, and I
have no reason to think she was lying.

Do nail companies really pay people to grow their nails out?

[Dear Babby]

This person sounds delusional to me.

ETA--the patient with the long nails, I mean.

[Banrion]

I would have to question WHY a company would pay for someone to grow their nails. First of all, natural nails that have been grown for years are typically discolored and curly. Why not go for the much cheaper, faster, and easier method of acrylic nails that will be uniform in color, straight, and able to be completed in an hour or so?

Besides logistics, what happens if this person breaks a nail by accident? Is that a $5000 fine too, does the contract start all over until they successfully grow their nails for 5 years?

I finally stopped biting my nails about a year and a half ago, and I have to do minor filing almost daily to smooth out nicks that come from normal everyday activity, and have to do significant length filing about every 2 weeks or so to make typing and writing possible, and I still have breakages every now and then. My nails aren't thin and weak either. With just a clearcoat of polish on, people think I am wearing acrylics, or have a french manicure.

[Flyer22]

If it's true, I would guess that it's some kind of ad or publicity stunt.

[jw]

Would five years be long enough, considering this woman took 27 years of nail growing to get into the Guinness World Records?