system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Are our fingernails attached to the skin under it? If so, how do they grow without slowly and painfully ripping our skin off?

The question came to me after a sharp pain from cutting my nail too short. Anyone out there know about this?

EDIT: Okay, so the general consensus is that nails a basically composed of keratin. Apparently there is a layer of some sort of nail matrix in between the epidermis and the actual nail. This material is what actually moves but  is so miniscule that it doesn't hurt and is not noticeable.

Another argument is that the skin under our nail is pulled off by our nail so slowly that the pain receptors are not set off and we feel nothing. This is also what people on this thread think is true with hairs, the process is so slow that our body either can't or chooses not to set off pain receptors; otherwise we'd be in constant pain.

Thank you to all the commenters, i bet my and many others' curiosities are satisfied.
gpt
Yes, they are atached to the skin under it. If you've ever lost a fingernail, you can see the skin underneath is frayed where it was loosely attached. It doesn't grow out painfully precisely because it is so slow.