Odilon Ozare, who set his first record in 2018 when his 15-foot, 9-inch tall hat was recognised as the world's tallest, said his attempt to set the nail extension record was inspired by the talons on his pet bird, a cockatiel named Song Bird.

"One morning her nails were really digging into my skin and I shouted 'Songbird, your nails are so long! They are the longest nails ever!' And as I said it, something clicked. Longest nails ever," he said.

Ozare said he came up against several obstacles, including the discovery that the acrylic would break under its own weight when he tried to surpass the previous record of just over 3 feet.

"So, I purchased a tremendous amount of acrylic powder and put on around 30 layers to finally achieve the extra length I needed to achieve the record," he said. "At the end I sanded the nails down to be smooth and painted them with an airbrush. It took hundreds of hours to paint that much acrylic on the nails."

UPI