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.

Did you ever change the shoes you wore or the length of time you spent wearing them after a pedicure? If not, you were putting your feet straight back into the conditions that led to friction and pressure that causes callusing and cracks.

You'll never stop them forming if you don't change the environment that causes it.

I am a podiatrist.
I run my own business.
The idea of a pedicure removing dead skin sounds horrific to me, they aren’t trained or qualified in this, they have no medical training whatsoever, and its cheaper to see me (at £30) and get it done by a professional, than by a beauty therapist who cares about your toes looking pretty more than health of your feet!
Anyone who claims to be a pedicurist or a nail tech and attempts a medical procedure should have their licence revoked.
I don’t just remove the hard skin, I cut the toenails appropriately (not like a beauty therapist who doesn’t know what their correct lengths are and often cut an ingrowing toenail in) remove ingrowing toenails, Verrucaes, warts, corns etc.
Seriously, get a good Foot Person to do your feet every 6/8 weeks and you will feel like a new person!

Oh and anyone using chemical foot peels? Just check the ingredients! I’m fairly certain most of them contain salicylic acid, which has no care for your feet and will just burn through fresh, new skin as easily as it does the older, dryer skin. (Hence they say to only use for a certain amount of time)

I was thinking just that @ToffeePennie . I'm a non-medical person who thinks laissez-faire and time can work wonders.

ToffeePennie; my chiropodist does everything you do She also agrees with you about not using foot peels. I've always suffered from hard skin on my heels, and it seems to be worse in the summer; when I'm wearing sandals.

I love a pedicure in the summer but I’ve never expected it to achieve the results a chiropodist does. A pedicure is a beauty treatment to make my feet look nice.

I wouldn’t expect a beautician to go anywhere near anyone’s feet without soaking them first, purely from a hygiene perspective.

Ha ha, no they are rough sandstone, not shiny tiles!

For all those suggesting creams, as long as it contains urea, it works. The pound shop do a Urea cream. Aldi sometimes has them on the middle aisles too.

What have you previously been using at home to get rid of your dead skin OP?

I dry file with an electric file one a week, then shower, then stick on a layer of high urea foot cream after the shower.
It doesn’t take long and does the trick.
In addition, I probably do overnight foot cream with socks once or twice more during the week.

That’s because you have a sensible person who works in the industry.

This is the only file worth having. It's made of diamonds and it is absolutely brilliant. I only found out about it after having it recommened by someeone else.
#11 Foot Callus Buffer-Medium

It's amazing.

https://diamancel.fr/

@kangeeto delayed reaction here sorry! It's very expensive! Is it really worth so much more than a cheapy one and how did you know you need the buffer not the file, medium vs fine etc?

I find them great and they don't burn off new skin. I'm in my 70s no hard skin, nice smooth feet with just the occasional bit of cream rubbed in.