Here is a thread you might be interested in: How did people cut their nails before the nail clipper was invented?

Fashion in inscrutable, but there are indications that the Romans, at least, liked neatly trimmed nails. If you look at this sculpture of Constantine's hand , you can see that the nails are fairly short and neatly trimmed. They would not at all be out of place on a man today.

Ovid, in The Art of Love, advises men

See also that your nails are clean and nicely filed...

...and women

If your fingers are stumpy and your nails unsightly, don't gesticulate when you are talking.

So nice nails must have been desirable on both sexes.