How Fast Do Your Nails Grow—and Can You Make Them Grow Faster?

Your nails play an important role in your everyday life. They protect your fingers and toes from injury and improve your ability to grip, pick up, and feel objects. They can also help you scratch an itch.

Your fingernails are constantly growing at a rate of about 0.1 millimeters daily. Your toenails are also always growing, but at a much slower rate. Nail growth helps keep your nails strong and replaces dead portions of the nail that can break, get caught on something, or get trimmed or worn away.

Everyone’s nails grow at slightly different speeds. However, a healthy nail will grow on average about 3.47 millimeters per month, or about one-tenth of a millimeter a day. To put this in perspective, the headphone jack used with most phones, computers, and portable music players is 3.5 millimeters.

Meanwhile, toenails tend to grow slower. They grow on average 1.62 millimeters per month.

Knowing this rate of nail growth—and the length of time it takes for a nail to grow out completely—is useful to healthcare providers when diagnosing certain conditions. Just like scientists use rings in trees to approximate the age of the tree, medical professionals can use lines, changes, and ridges in nails to estimate the beginning of an illness.

Not everyone’s nails grow at the same rate. Plus, certain environmental, behavioral, and genetic factors can slow or speed nail growth.

Dominant Hand

The nails on your dominant hand tend to grow faster than the nails on your non-dominant hand. Scientists speculate that this occurs because you use your dominant hand more often. This hand is also more likely to experience an injury or trauma, which could lead to quicker nail growth as your body sends blood and nutrients to the area to support healing.

Age

As you get older, your nail growth may slow down. Researchers estimate that by age 20, the growth rate of your nails may slow by as much as 0.5% per year. One reason is that health conditions impacting nail growth are more common in older people. For instance, fungal infections of the nail, known as onychomycosis, represent about half of all nail disorders and are more common in older people.

Hormones

Hormones can also affect nail growth. The hormone changes a person experiences when pregnant, for example, causes their nail growth to speed up. People who are receiving androgen replacement therapy (testosterone) may also experience an increase in nail growth.

Certain Health Conditions

Having a chronic illness or medical condition can also affect the growth of your nails. Research shows that conditions like thyroid disease, hypopituitarism, diabetes, and osteoporosis can cause fragile, slow-growing nails. Conditions like onychomycosis, pulmonary tuberculosis, and syphilis also impact nail strength and growth.

Nail Biting and Nail Picking

Onychophagia (nail biting) and onychotillomania (nail picking) are chronic nail conditions. These habits can cause damage to the nail matrix, nail bed, nail plate, and surrounding skin, slowing nail growth. People who bite or pick their nails may have short, uneven nails, missing or ragged cuticles, and injured nail folds.

Environmental Factors

Some research shows your environment may influence nail growth. For instance, warm weather has been associated with increased nail growth and cold environments with slower nail growth.

Your nails grow from a deep groove under your skin called the nail matrix and start at the nail’s base. In the nail matrix, specialized cells that make up your nail plate are formed. These cells are pushed forward as new cells form behind them, causing your nails to grow.

Your nail plate is made of a hard substance called keratin, which is about half a millimeter thick and slightly curved. Approximately 80% of the nail plate is hard keratin and 20% is soft keratin.

Your nail plate is attached to the nail bed, which supplies the nail with the nutrients it needs under normal conditions. When the cells at the front of your nail plate (tip of your nail) lose contact with the nail bed and die, they will turn white.

The thickness of your nails comes largely from the nail matrix and partly from the nail bed.

Regrowth After Loss

The rate at which your nail will grow back after it is lost depends on the reason it fell off in the first place and the type of treatment you receive. Research shows that an average fingernail grows out completely in about six months. Toenails, which grow one-third to half the rate of fingernails, will take 12-18 months to grow out completely.

Nail regrowth is slower in people with certain medical conditions. If you are immunocompromised, paralyzed, malnourished, have an infection, or are undergoing certain drug therapies, your nail growth will be much slower.

Evidence supporting home remedies and treatments to promote nail growth is limited. However, taking steps to care for your nails could help promote nail growth and keep your nails from becoming brittle or breaking.

For instance, eating a nutritious, well-balanced diet and practicing good nail hygiene can support nail health. Nail hygiene includes keeping your nails clean and dry, trimming them regularly, and avoiding biting your nails or clipping them too short.

Below are additional tips for promoting nail growth. Make sure to talk with a healthcare provider before taking any supplements.

Take a biotin supplement: Biotin, a type of B vitamin, has been linked to healthy hair and nails. Supplementing with this nutrient may strengthen your nails, helping to promote growth. One study in people with brittle nails found biotin increased nail thickness by 25%.
Consider a collagen supplement: One study found that people who took collagen peptides had a 12% increase in nail growth and a 42% decrease in the frequency of broken nails. However, research on collagen and nail health is still limited.
Experiment with nail strengtheners: One study found that a water-based nail strengthener that contained hyaluronic acid was helpful in promoting nail growth. However, overusing nail strengtheners can damage your nails, so use them sparingly.
Use nail cosmetics sparingly: Regularly applying glue-on nails and other nail cosmetics can weaken your nails, causing them to become brittle and break. When this happens, it impedes nail growth.
Talk to a healthcare provider about minoxidil: Sometimes, nail growth is slowed because of poor blood flow to the area. Researchers have found that applying a 5% minoxidil solution to the nails stimulates blood flow and promotes nail growth. However, it’s important to talk to a dermatologist before trying this at home.

Nail growth is impacted by your overall health as well as the health of your nails. On average, your fingernails grow 3.47 millimeters a month, and your toenails grow 1.62 millimeters per month. This growth is different for each person and can be affected by your age, hormone fluctuations, and certain health conditions.

To promote nail growth, eat a nutritious diet and practice good nail hygiene. If you notice changes in your nails’ health or structure, see a healthcare provider for evaluation.