Nail Growth: How Skin Under Nails Moves

[DaveC426913]

TL;DR

What happens to the skin under your fingernails as your nails grow?

I feel 12 years old asking this.

Your nails grow. Isn't the skin attached to the underside of the nail? Why doesn't it pile up at your finger tips? It doesn't, so that must mean your nail slides over the skin like a glacier over land?

 

[DaveC426913]

Sunuvagun, the nail really does slide over the skin.

This is one of those cases where asking the question publicly manages to inspire new avenues of thought into Googling answers...

 

[256bits]

Sunuvagun, the nail really does slide over the skin.View attachment 322871

This is one of those cases where asking the question publicly inspires new avenues of thought into Googling answers...

Still, by asking, I have now found out from your post that nails are groovy ( do sorry about the pun )
:)

 

[DaveC426913]

So, the nail is held in place by that lip of skin under the leading edge - the one that you always catch with the clippers. It's called the hyponychium. That's why the nail doesn't just lift off - although it can be.
It also keeps dirt and bacteria from getting under your nail.