I cutem of course, but usually they tip up towards my center. If they grow from one side shouldn’t it circle?

    • sbird@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      6·
      3 days ago

      He’s asking why, after you cut your toenails, it gets pointy in the middle. It’s a fair question, I just think nobody likes to see a picture of toenails in their feed, it would have been better if that was omitted

      • Willy@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        Thank you for your backup. I was wondering more about the “inside” growth. Maybe it’s just me? It seems to m like the part closer to my center grows faster and would make a rainbow from my center

    • Willy@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      Do your nails grow even from side to side or do they favor a direction?like do they want to curve?

      • ExtremeDullard@piefed.socialEnglish
        4·
        3 days ago

        Nails - toe or finger - grow depending on several factors. One of them is the shape and direction of the nailbed: if it’s very curvy, you’ll get more rounded nails (and at the extreme end, ingrowing nails). if it points to a particular direction, the nail will tend to grow following that direction. Think of it as a pasta extruder: the shape of the pasta and the direction it takes when exiting the extruder depends on the hole’s geometry.

        Of course, the shape of the bone underneath also guides them this or that way. Nails don’t grow in a vacuum: they’re attached to the digit underneath for most of their length.

        After that, nails will shrink depending on how dry the environment is around them. That changes their shape also.

  • 404@lemmy.zipEnglish
    5·
    3 days ago

    The term you’re looking for is “medial side” (closer to the centreline of the body).

    They probably wear down more on the lateral side, shafing on shoes and whatnot. The medial side is more protected.

  • Mothra@mander.xyz
    2·
    3 days ago

    Tonsils? You surely meant toenails right? My tonsils grow in my mouth. I don’t cut them

  • sbird@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    I think I understand what you’re saying. You are wondering why the middle of the toenail (not body, feet are clearly on the very end of that) grows a bit faster than the bits on the side, leading to a toenail that’s a bit pointy in the middle, which could be quite annoying to you.

    I think it’s because, when you cut your toenails, you almost always cut from the corners, not straight on, leading to a toenail that is more pronounced in the centre, since you usually make the edges of the toenail shorter than the middle.

    Another theory is that (pulling this from a hat, I didn’t take Biology), since toenails are essentially just dead stuff that’s growing from the corpses of alive stuff underneath the toenail, there was some evolutionary advantage to having extra alive stuff in the middle of your toenail. (perhaps to better protect that alive stuff, as it could be more vulnerable out near the edges or maybe to make the toenails sharper and pointier for better grip)

    There is more alive stuff in the middle, I know this from experience that when cutting too far into the toenail, it’s far easier to touch the alive bits in the middle (it’s painful!) compared to the edges.

    • sbird@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      When I was little, I think I kicked something really hard and bent my left little toe (pinky toe? Why do people call the little finger a pinky anyways? It’s equally pink as the rest of the fingers…) where the toenail now grows way off to the right, it’s bent to the right permanently it seems, which is kind of interesting.

    • Willy@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      I really appreciate your response. I do appreciate the thought about how much stuff is in the middle. I have had to have surgery for an ingrown toenail. Never again I guess my question Or observation would be that toenails seem to grow out from the body like a rainbow so the most inner part of each toenail grows out and now that I’m saying it out loud it seems like it makes sense, but I don’t know if anybody’s ever noticed that and I guess I was just like wow