Comments on: Asian guys and that one long pinkie fingernail…

By: Real Julia!

Real Julia! — Sat, 02 May 2009 07:19:08 +0000

Okay, hahahahaha Andrew, stop typing comments from me as if I wrote them! I only told you that long pinkie story cause you asked, and I already told you what it was for!

By: Julia Herperger

Julia Herperger — Sat, 02 May 2009 07:15:38 +0000

I found this blog cause I googled this thing about men with long pinkie nails! It was driving me crazy, I couldn’t figure out what it was for….

I’m Canadian, and when I was in Vietnam I saw a guy with it, and he said it was just “for fun”. Okaaay…that doesn’t explain much. Then, I noticed a photo of my favorite Viet singer, Nguyen Thang, with that long fingernail, too, and that really got me wondering about it.

So thanks for your blog…I still don’t know what it’s all about, but at least I have some ideas. The guy I saw it on it Vietnam was definetly not some sort of high class person, so I don’t know about that. And would a well-known musician like NT really pick his ears?!?!! Well, anyway, I don’t know But I do appreciate your blog cause it gave me some ideas about what it might be about.

By: lalalala

lalalala — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:31:28 +0000

I work at a casino where the majority of guests/players are asian. A lot of them do have the longer pinkie nail, but it is not only the men. I have seen this on a number of women too. From my perspective, I just questioned their hygiene. So if it is a sort of status symbol, it really isn’t being regarded as that by outsiders.

By: Gio

Gio — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:04:52 +0000

I have a long pinkie nail cuz itz cool but i wana grow em an inch how long r urz an how long does it take

By: me

me — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:29:40 +0000

A lot of guys (like me) have long pinky nails just for an aestethic taste. I think they are very nice and cool.

By: Jaimie

Jaimie — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:01:59 +0000

Okay. So here’s some food for thought.
A Chinese friend of mine – who is quite knowledgeable about societical history- told me that the pinky is long for two reasons that relate to status:

1) yes it does differentiate lower class and higher class. ie. higher class have longer nails because they do not do manual labour
..but the pinky in specific is long because (you may have to look at your hand for this one)…
2) it was known that if the the tip of the pinky passed the 2nd knuckle on the annular (finger right next to it), that you were genetically of a more ‘respectable class’ and others would give you more respect. So, men would grow out their pinky nail to ‘elongate’ their pinky length to ‘elevate’ their status.

I am certain that there is more to this than what I’ve described. But the content is there. Interesting how this has also influenced Vietnamese, and Laos culture as well.
Has anyone else heard of this?

By: nail_grower

nail_grower — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 23:27:04 +0000

I have very long nails, since my childhood. The reason is simple: lot of girls “suffers” a huge nail fetish, and they are strictly fascinated by my nails.

By: Rita

Rita — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 07:20:52 +0000

I’ve always been told (by relatives from a farming village in Taiwan, though none of them are farmers today) that the long pinky nail was for luck. Superstitious luck, as in, it’s bad luck to cut it–or let it get broken. And I’ve always believed them. I kept one long myself for a while, just for fun, back in high school, but then some guy in my art class acted like we were both in the know about doing coke. So I cut it.

By: Bo

Bo — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:38:25 +0000

You see guys on the subway in New York with the occasional long pinkie. It’s gross. And they aren’t just Asian. They come in all colors and shapes. Ewwww.

By: cheekyricegirl

cheekyricegirl — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 01:27:40 +0000

i concur with simon on the point of having seen it on quite a few vietnamese americans dudes. i even went back to vietnam earlier this year, and lo and behold! the young dudes there have it, too.

having a single long nail may be quite a useful utensil, for all the purposes outlined in the comments above mine . . .

but it is still GROSS!

when a nail gets to being that long, it starts looking pretty downright dirty and skanky. the only time that having long nails like that would be okay is when you play classical guitar or are a fantastic guitarist — like kaki king. LONG gross nails all around, but at least when she shoots a music video, she has her nails all painted and beautiful-looking.

at any other time, NO! GROSS! cut it NOW!

when they get that long, you can’t even cut ‘em with a regular nailclipper — you have to bust out with those hedge trimmers that are two feet long!! or get a damned buzz saw!