Death puts a stop to the supply of glucose, and therefore to fingernail growth.Ī similar process occurs for hair. The new cells push the older ones forwards, making the nail appear to lengthen from the tip. A layer of tissue beneath the base of the nail called the germinal matrix is responsible for producing the vast majority of the cells which form the newest-growing part of the fingernail. Fingernails grow by an average of 0.1mm per day, a rate which slows as we age. In order for fingernails to grow, new cells need to be produced and this can’t happen without glucose. Grafts can still be successful if taken 12 hours after death. Transplant surgeons must remove kidneys, livers and hearts from donors within thirty minutes of death and get them into recipients inside six hours. With no glucose store to rely on, nerve cells die within three to seven minutes. After the heart stops beating, oxygen supply to the brain is cut off.

Transplant surgeons are also experienced in calculating the length of time the different kinds of cells continue to function beyond death.ĭifferent cells die at different rates. For hints we can turn to historical anecdotes and descriptions provided by medical students working with cadavers.

Not surprisingly there haven’t been many systematic studies measuring daily changes in fingernail and hair length in the dead. It’s an idea that’s not pleasant, yet seems to endure. The young narrator in Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front imagines the nails of a friend who has died of gangrene continuing to grow into corkscrews as the hair on his decaying skull lengthens “like grass in good soil”. Yet amidst the signs that you are no more, your fingernails continue to lengthen and your hair grows – or so we’re told. Your hearts stops, your blood goes cold and your limbs stiffen.

How long does it take for nails to grow