Vincent Price and The Myth of Fingernails

Have you ever heard that fingernails and hair continue to grow after death? It’s not true. According to Snopes.com, what really happens is that as decomposition sets in, the skin retracts, giving the illusion that nails and hair are actually getting longer.

Oddly enough, we may have the great Vincent Price to blame for perpetuating this myth. In the 1959 William Castle horror flick The Tingler, Price, playing a genial scientist (for a change) says, “You know, of course, that after death, many things continue to live in the body. Fingernails grow. So does hair . . .”

Here’s the trailer for The Tingler:

The Tingler