Pedicures are an absolute scam?

[purrrge]

I've suffered from cracked heels for all my adult life, previously no amount of creams etc would solve it. I used to go for pedicures, wherein my feet would be soaked in water for a length of time, and then depending on the place filed, scrubbed or even razored to remove hard skin. I assumed this was how you were supposed to solve this problem, short of seeing a podiatrist, and duly trotted off every few months to have one of these pedicures. Each time apologising for my dry feet.

This year, at the grand old age of 42 and thanks to an informative thread on here I finally discovered that in fact you should be filing your feet DRY. £6 glass foot file later, and my feet are sorted and better condition than at any point in my adult life.

Why are we forking out £60 in some areas for spa pedicures, which make the condition of your feet worse rather than better and in some cases cause actual damage to the skin.

I'm not debating that nicely polished and tended for toe nails are worth the money, and generally a third party professional seems to get a much better result than I can manage. So a file and polish is not a scam.

A pedicure isn’t for a skin condition of cracked feet. It’s to remove dead skin and paint your nails as a beauty treatment.

It doesn't remove dead skin effectively though, that is my point! Why are they soaking our feet as if it is a luxury offering when feet should be filed dry?

From ChatGPT:

✅ Bottom line:

• For the most effective and safe removal of dead skin, file feet dry or barely damp, not after prolonged soaking.
• Spa soaks feel great and help soften superficial layers, but they don’t inherently make dead skin removal more effective — and can even increase the chance of overdoing it if you’re not careful.

Oooh I have horrendously cracked heels. I’ll look up this glass file. Thank you.

(Also, I do absolutely love a pedicure)

Haven't heard of the filing dry method. But pedicures absolutely saved my toe nails. They were grey and scaly and my pinky toe was gnarled and hooked like a dead witch's toe. A couple of pedicures and they started looking vaguely human. I do them regularly now and my feet are softer and toenails beautiful. I don't think twice about wearing open toed sandals.

I subjected my toes to the passing glance of a colleague (pre-pedicure) and I promise you she was scarred for life!

It's two different procedures.

By which I mean I would dry file my own feet as a matter of course, and if I were unable to do so would have a podiatrist do it.

A pedicure in a salon is a pampering/beautifying session, not a foot care session.

A pedicure is a cosmetic treatment.

You need a podiatrist.

I had this conversation with my nail lady recently. She said the amount of people coming for a pedicure expecting treatment for actual foot conditions has increased as people see it as a cheaper alternative.

You shouldn’t be expecting a nail tech to deal with excessive dry skin- that’s gross.

I go to a podiatrist. They use an electric descaler. Marvellous.

Or a pedicure where they put some kind of chemical on the heels for ten mins then scrape off the dead skin. Also marvellous.

I understand the difference, I don't always have actual cracks in my heels, more often just dry/dead skin, but I am 100% sure that the pedicures that I have had over the years have made the condition of my heels worse rather than better, and therefore I deem them a scam.

A pedicure is a beauty treatment, not a treatment for foot care. Honestly OP I'm a bit surprised it's taken you so long to realise this!

I get a lot of hard skin-most things I've tried don't work. So I go to a chiropodist every couple of months. In between, I use a Newton's chiropody sponge. They last forever.https://www.chemistconnect.com/pharmacy-health-c1/foot-care-c25/newtons-chiropody-sponge-p4709

Maybe stop having them then? Or just skip the soaking.

Sorry but another coming on to say a pedicure is a beauty treatment and a podiatrist deals with foot conditions such as cracked heals.

Where I am there’s a podiatrist that will do all the dry skin removal first and as an option paint your toes afterwards. Perfect.

If I go to the beauty salon for a luxury pedicure they really don’t deal properly with the dry skin removal but I’m aware of that.

I have always dealt with any dry skin at home and don't take dry, cracked feet to the beautician. When I have had problems, I have visited a chripodist/podiatrist but have never let me feet get to a state where layers of dry skin need to be filed or razored off. Why would anyone do that?

Is that not just a pan scrub masquerading as something else @sueelleker ?

Pedicures are worthwhile in my experience (not that I ever get them - but they do look nicer than doing it myself). Manicures with regular polish aren't.

Pedicures are worthwhile in my experience (not that I ever get them - but they do look nicer than doing it myself). Manicures with regular polish aren't.

I use an electric roller file followed by cracked heel cream.

I’m amazed you never tried dry filing them at home before, you can get a foot file for 99p in savers! I get horribly dry skin on my feet but I wouldn’t consider going to a beauty parlour for that! A pedicure is just a fancy nail polish application.

I've never had a pedicure. That's right, never but I'm not the only one I reckon.

I'm 67 and blessed with reasonably decent feet and toenails. I don't do anything special, and I only have small patches of hard skin, but no bunions, corns or anything like that. The only thing is I can't reach down very well to file and trim my toenails now that I'm much older! 😊

What would I get at a pedicure, would it be trimming and filing and painting nails? I might treat myself if so, but honestly the thought of baring my feet for a stranger makes me feel very odd!

'From ChatGPT'

chatgpt isn't a reliable source, it's not a search engine, it's a mechanism which scours the internet/its training materials for words that sound like what you've asked it and regurgitates a nice sounding answer. The future of AI training is threatened by the complete nonsense generative AI is filling the internet with. I know this isn't the point of the thread but I like to make people aware of this because increasingly people are asking chatgpt things as if it's an oracle, or even a competent search engine, and it's neither. It just seems like it.

CCS cracked heel cream works a treat. I put it on at night and haven't had cracked heels since I've been using it, which is a few years ago.

It's around £8 in Boots or Superdrug, and lasts ages.

They're not a scam. I have monthly pedicures and don't have any dry skin,so they never even get a file out. I have them so that my cuticles and nails get trimmed and polished better than I can do myself.

Or book in for one in Europe whilst on holiday, where you get the two in one. In Italy they do a full service manicure, pedicure, in the same way you would have to pay a podiatrist in the UK. They go full on for all the skin removal, unlike here where they aren't allowed. Zero point having a pedicure in UK.

This is as stupid as if you went to a salon asking for a perm and came home moaning it had made your hair dry and told people to use a hair mask from Aldi to moisturise their hair instead. 😵‍💫