Before the invention of the modern nail clipper, people would use small knives to trim or pare their nails. Descriptions of nail trimming in literature date as far back as the 8th century BC.
Originally Answered: How did the early man trim his fingernails? In prehistoric times, manicures were not required. Having fingernails long enough helps for scraping and scratching and all of the other useful things fingernails can do. Such use would naturally wear them down or break them.
They cut them with a small sharp knife; file them with a piece of hard pumice; polish them with fine clay rubbing compound. They didn't cut the cuticle, they pushed it back with a piece of wood after soaking. Natural paints were used, and had to be touched up pretty often.
Early man used his fingernails as a tool, so they were probably worn down from use. Following that period, once man had tools at his disposal (even those made of stone) he would have bitten his nails or possibly filed them on a rough stone or pumice.
The nail-scraper remains in use up to the Viking period; Vikings believed that one should not cut one's nails, as nail clippings would add to the ship made of the fingernails of the dead which plays a role in Ragnarok.
If their nails did need trimming, I suppose they either bit them off or trimmed them with a small, sharp stone tool. As for abscessed teeth, Native Americans had all sorts of herbal remedies that probably varied depending on the local flora.
They could theoretically have used a flint edge to trim them, or a rough stone to file them down. However, we don't have any firm evidence of 'cavemanicure' at all, since no fingernails or toenails survive from any Stone Age burial sites.
Women soaked their nails in a combination of egg whites, gelatine, beeswax and dyes from flower petals; roses and orchids were the most popular. The result was shiny nails tinted reddish pink.
Ancient Egyptian women used henna, a leafy green plant native to Egypt, to tint their nails. Henna leaves can be ground into powder and mixed with hot water to form a liquid dye. Though the plant leaves are green, once applied to the nail, the henna dye can range from light orange to crimson.
Arguably one of the most iconic accessories of the Qing royals, the nail guard had purposes beyond accessorizing. It also served as an effective tool for concubines to subtly punish their maids and eunuchs.
Lips, nails and teeth
The only evidence for painting nails comes from a red dye they imported that was produced from an Indian insect. Generally only the wealthy cut their nails, as they used barbers to clip their nails short, following the contemporary practice for good hygiene.
Hygiene was all the rage during the Victorian era, so clean nails were a must. The most popular type of manicure was simply buffing and trimming nails, and even tinting them with red oil. Fingernail maintenance was originally considered a medical industry.
Egyptians started colouring their nails with henna. Cleopatra used plant extracts to die her nails a deep blood red, and other mummified Pharaohs were found with henna stained nails. It was popular for women across India and Africa to dye their fingertips with henna as an adornment.
Only once farming was invented did life become less hard and so nails needed cutting. Besides wear from use, prehistoric people undoubtedly chewed their toenails. For much of my life so far I have managed quite well without needing any tool to cut my toenails.
Long fingernails were a mark of high status indicating that one did not have to engage in manual labor, and in order to protect the nails from breaking Qing noblewomen wore metal guards. The guards were very often worn in pairs, one on the little finger and another on the ring finger.
c. 30,000 BC: Ancient cave paintings often depict men without beards, and suggest that people shaved or removed unwanted hair with clamshells, which were used like tweezers, or with blades made of flint. c. 3000 BC: Copper razors arrived in India and Egypt.
The short answer is we have evolved to have nails because they help us pick things up (like food), pick things off (like bugs), and hold tightly onto things. Early humans who had these type of nails (instead of claws) tended to live long enough to have babies and pass on the fingernails gene to their kids.
The History
Let's go back to 3000 BC china where aristocratic Chinese women had a habit of decorating their nails. With the help of a mixture of beeswax, egg whites, gelatin and gum Arabic, they would soak their nails overnight inside the mixture, roses and colored dyes from their gardens were also added.
It it believed that Cleopatra would dip each of her fingers into henna, covering the nail, rocking a blood-red hue. It was possible to tell commoners from rulers in ancient Egypt from their nail polish alone, as only the latter could wear bright hues.
In 1975, actress Tippi Hedren (standing, left) brought her personal manicurist, Dusty Coots, to teach her trade to a group of 20 Vietnamese women in a California refugee camp.
Ironically, although polished nails—from intricate designs to simple one- shade manicures—have long been seen as feminine, nail polish has actually been around since 3200 BCE, and back then, it was used by men. Babylonian warriors would paint their nails with kohl to intimidate their enemies.
Origins of the Nail
It's unknown when exactly nails were invented. With that said, archeologists have found nails in Egypt dating back to around 3,400 B.C. Made of all bronze, they featured the same characteristic shape and design as those manufactured today.
Before the invention of the modern nail clipper, people would use small knives to trim or pare their nails. Descriptions of nail trimming in literature date as far back as the 8th century BC.
There is research that suggests that there are health benefits for the baby from letting the umbilical cord detach on its own. If prehistoric humans did cut the umbilical cord, they did so with sharp rocks, such as obsidian, that archeological evidence suggests early homo sapiens widely used.
Fingernails are essentially flattened versions of claws, and they evolved in all primates — including humans — to support broad fingertips, says UW–Madison anthropology professor John Hawks.