Hair and fingernails absolutely do not continue to grow after a person dies, completely destroying a popular and highly creepy urban legend that has persisted for centuries; the…

Hair and fingernails absolutely do not continue to grow after a person dies, completely destroying a popular and highly creepy urban legend that has persisted for centuries; the illusion of post-mortem nail growth is entirely caused by the surrounding soft tissue dehydrating and retracting, making the existing keratin structures appear significantly longer as the skin shrinks away from the cuticles; biological growth requires a complex, energy-intensive process of cellular division, which permanently stops the exact second your heart stops pumping oxygen and glucose to your extremities, forcing morticians to often apply heavy moisturizing creams to corpses just to prevent this disturbing optical illusion from terrifying grieving family members at an open-casket funeral; it is almost disappointing to learn that your body does not secretly keep working on its manicure long after your consciousness has faded into the eternal void!