Yes. As you age, you become even more susceptible to ingrown toenails. You’re probably less agile than you once were, and that means you’re more likely to trip and stub your toe. Also, nails tend to thicken as you age, and thicker nails are more forceful when they nudge their way into your skin. Older people are also more likely to get bunions and hammertoes, foot conditions that make your toes rub together, and with more friction, the skin surrounding your nails can become irritated. http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/18/80.cfm Toenail Fungus If your toenail is discolored and thickened, a fungus infection may be the cause. It is very common, particularly among women who get pedicures, because the infection is transmitted easily and pedicure instruments are generally not sterilized. http://www.alicemccarthy.com/Articles/Common%20Foot%20Problems.htm

I'll say they do, and I aint even old, compared to the hills. Unlike Ala , who has nails as soft as rose petals, I have evolved the nail which will truly hammer her toes.I used to use simple cheap clippers. I have progressed way beyond scizzwoires, kitchen deboneing shears, and machetes;my Bowie knife has been relegated to fighting off combative Commanches, malicious Mexican bandits and skinning catfish. These days I use bolt cutters. And stand back, cause that shrapnel will take an eye out. Whoa! that one hit the ceiling! When the ceiling fan is on the fambly dives under the sofa. Best tool now is a dremel tool, the plug in kind, cause just one of my big toes will run down the battery on a cordless one. My nails also take strange downward right angle turns at the edges requiring geometrically perplexed attacks. But then maybe that's just me. Them fun guys under my nails just don't want me disrupting their party. Ya mighta been told to never look a gift horse in the mouth, but a savvy horse trader will look at the thickness of the hooves, and a hoof is just a toe nail once removed, well maybe four removed. Not only do they get thicker they turn all kindsa colors, which I at least, never 'spected to see on any of my body parts. They also start growing thick ridges, both longitudinal and crosstitudunal which make um even harder and dangerous to cut. I blame it all on the Knox Gelatin advertising campaign to drink a hot cup of their mix to strengthen nails, I never drank none of that but Mom was always giving us Jell-O as a desert. ( She s'cribed to Good House Keeping magazine.) Some folks demand citations or at least site-ations for answers, especially here recently, Answer 101 has rated a half dozen or so of my answers as 'useful' but requested documentation, so, Answer, look at my feet. I said 'look ' not 'smell,' that was tragic what with the writhing and convulsions and all, at least I won't have to try to post citations for Y101 anymore. But for other documentation aficionados, and in case 101 reincarnates "nails tend to thicken with age" http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/DS/00111.html "About 40 percent to 50 percent of people over age 50 have a fungal nail infection that causes their toenails to be thick, crumbly and ragged, .." http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:N5aAZRxU2eYJ:www.hon.ch/News/HSN/512142.html+toe+nails+thicken+with+age&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5&ie=UTF-8 (Yumm, crunchy nails...)