Fingernail and Hair Growth Myth

It is a widely held belief around the world that your hair and fingernails continue to grow after you die. The reason so many people believe this is because after someone dies it appears that their hair and fingernails continue to grow longer then they originally were before they died. Others believe that this could not be possible because the body stops functioning completely after you die. In the 1959 movie the move The Tingler, a character states that your fingernails will continue to grow after you die. This is where the the myth may have come from.

The science behind the myth consists of your body dehydrating after you die witch shrinks your body a little bit (Natural Clocks). This website talks about your body dehydrating and how it affects the way your nails appear. Also as your body shrinks your skin gets pulled back and the nail looks like it has grown. In the image everything stops functioning and begins to de-hyrate after you die. But the nail (above the sterile matrix) stays the same length giving the optical illusion that it is still growing.

Although it appears that the nail has grown it really hasn't just the skin itself gets smaller and the nail and hair stay the same length. This gives an optical illusion that the nail and hair have grown. Fingernails and hair do not continue to grown after one's death.

http://www.medicine.indiana.edu/news_releases/viewRelease.php4?art=798

This website confirms that hair and fingernails do not continue to grow after one's death.

Image from

http://orgs.usd.edu/esci/age/content/natural_clocks/fingernails.html