Yes, but the exact mechanisms that control the speed of fingernail and toennail growth are unknown, said Jeffrey S Dover, associate clinical professor of dermatology at the Yale School of Medcine. Fingernails grow about three times as fast as toenails.
"As nails age, they probably slow their growth a little bit," Dover added. "We don't know why." Skin gets less elastic and shiny with age, "and hair and nails are really all part of your skin, and age similarly."
Bruce Robinson, clinical intructor of dermatology at Lenox Hill and Mount Sinai Hospitals in New York, said that fingernails "reach their peak growth in the second and third decades, with a slight decline thereafter." A possible reason, he suggested, is decreased blood flow and medical conditions that can affect it.
The fingernails' growth rate, Robinson said, depends on an array of variables; the individual; handedness (for unknown reasons, nails tend to grow faster on one's writing hand); illness; and age. He also said that the rate increased in summer and decreased in winter and that growth was thought to be faster in men than in women, and in women during pregnancy.
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