Pedicure in the UK - Was that all?

[Fridaybliss]

I am not British, I am Italian.

In Italy when you have a standard pedi the following process is followed:

1. they first soak your feet in water/soap, then get it dry and then start scrubbing heel and feet and remove insanely much dead skin.
2. then file nails to bring them to right length
3. then start cutting cuticles, remove debris underneath all toe nails and remove dead/trapped skin at the side of the toe nails, including the two big toe nails. Great emphasis is given to clean this area thoroughly that ingrown nails are prevented
4. then use the electric brush to remove more dead skin around the toe nails
5. finish with either gel or whatever

I had a standard pedi here and they started rubbing heel without first soaking it. What?! Why?!

Then, filed nails. Then, just cuticles removal like a manicure. There was zero emphasis in removing debris underneath and all around nails, including sides of big toe nails and removal of hard, trapped dead skin.

Then, finish.

Is this normal? In all honesty I paid £50 for this! Basic hygienic care is not medical. I didn't have any ingrown nails, but I had trapped debris/dead skin at the sides of my big toe nails, which I then had to remove when back at home.

YABU - This is not happening in the UK
YANBU - Change salon

Obviously for anyone who can't reach their feet, they may have "debris" under and around their toenails.
Anyone else should be ashamed of presenting such to someone else to clean. I do a weekly pedicure at home and there's no debris. The whole thing takes 15 minutes max. Soak, use an orange stick around cuticles, file soles, then nails. Polish takes a little longer.
I understand some get hard skin and need help removing it, but muck under and around toe nails isn't acceptable any more than it would be on finger nails.

For me it’s not muck like you call it, it’s skin down the side of your toenails
the podiatrist told me the name of it but it’s incredibly painful and acts like an ingrowing toenail. It’s not that I can’t reach it, I can’t remove it myself. My dad has the same thing

That sounds terrible and not like my local Thai place here in south London, it’s the same process as your Italian one but with a massage chair, any colour varnish with full fancy Japanese blossom style decor.

I pay £35 for a spa pedi and it includes everything you list in your Italian description including gel toes and a massage chair. £40 if you want French

I too find the uk ones in nail bars rubbish, with a quick skim over of a nail file, and not much else!

I had a full on pedicure about 10 years ago exactly as you describe with a Vietnamese man giving my feet the going over of their life. It was absolutely brilliant, if uncomfortable and I had pretty feet for the first time in my life. But I then read about trafficked staff in nail bars and have never gone back in the UK. I've had a stratospherically expensive pedicure in San Francisco which was also wonderful - I assume I just have to pay a lot for a real pedicure. Maybe ask around for recommendations?

This is one reason we don’t holiday in the states. We can afford it but find the topping thing pretty stressful to navigate.

tipping*

You can’t be so desperate for someone to clean under your toenails, that you would use trafficked people, working in forced circumstanced, for very little ( if any) money.

I pay £30 for the same as emmatherhino. I’m in the SW, where are you OP?

So called beauty salons in UK have overpriced treatments & substandard services/staff; I got a voucher for a local one as a gift (would never go usually) & the mess she made of my nails was shocking, 2 fingers bled because she hacked away so hard. I repeatedly told her to stop calling me hun & my lovely. I would have complained if I were you but too late now

I pay £30 for what you've described you getting Italy, in the UK.

I pay £30 for my pedi. Feet in foot bath first, then antibacterial spray, foot scrub, cuticle softener., back in foot bath. Then foot scrub, hard skin removed, nails trimmed, massage, moisturiser, nails painted. 👌

There’s not so much emphasis on removing dead skin and debris from under the nails 🥴 - that’s more a hygiene thing for people to do themselves or for a podiatrist/chiropodist to do?

”remove debris under all toenails”

Genuinely, do you have a physical disability preventing you from reaching or cleaning your feet? Because if not, why do you have “debris” under all your toenails, that is separate to any ingrown toenail/skin issues on your big toes.

No, don’t go to a salon where you have a high chance of being treated by someone who has been trafficked! 🙄

Don’t be so cheap. Sort out your dirty nails.

And next time, check out the recommendations before you book a treatment!

I have in the UK what you have described in Italy. Some salons though, you have to ask for a ‘spa/luxury’ pedicure otherwise you get just a ‘dry’ one; usually nails trimmed and shaped and painted and that’s it.

Are the British happy with them? 😂

Most of us don't get them love.

I don’t know where all these people are going but I agree with you.

I always come away from pedicures thinking what a waste of money so I don’t bother now.

I go to a Vietnamese nail bar 15 minutes away from me (in London) and the pedicures I've had there are no different to the OP's Italian pedicures. I always book the same nail technician for consistency (she's Vietnamese but has an English accent so unlikely to have been trafficked, I reckon)

The worst offenders here are the fancy ones in expensive hotels - avoid!

What you described in Italy is called a Luxury Pedi round here, a standard is what you got. I'm in South West Scotland.

It’s not difficult. Just add 20% mentally to any price unless the service is stratospherically bad.

tip : restaurants, hair + beauty salons + tour guides

dont tip : shop check outs, fast food restaurant counters, medical services.

Remember to have $5-10 in hand for bell hops or valet parking attendants. leave cash at the end of your stay for hotel cleaners (I do 5-10 / night)

enjoy your next holiday!

That sounds like a standard pedicure. You need a spa pedicure. There’s a difference IME

That's what I get when I have one.

It's a locsl salon owned by two lovely local women.

It's about £30 where I live and they do the soaking and dead skin removal etc.

Gotta ask about your debris OP. I'm picturing demolition rubble.