Feet

[Anordinarymum]

This may have been covered before so apologies in advance.

I have always looked after my feet. I give myself pedicures paying attention to hard skin. I apply creams and keep my nails neat.

Some years ago I visited a friend in London. She took me to her local nail salon for a manicure and pedicure.

I sat in a chair and my feet were soaked. Then the girl came and scrubbed them with a brush. Then she scraped at them with something which I later realised was a blade.

She removed loads of skin. I had never had anything like this done before.

After that my feet were dried and nails painted and we left the salon.

We went out for the evening. When I got back to my hotel and removed my boots and tights, the dye from the tights had leaked onto my feet. I had a bath and tried to get them clean but the dye had gone right into my skin which was feeling sore.

Long story short. Since then I have always had a horrible build up of hard skin on my feet which I have to work very hard at to keep down, and the skin under my feet is dark and dense.

I saw someone for a pedicure and she told me the woman in the salon had damaged the core of my feet and I would always have a problem with hard skin which I do.

If only one person reads this and benefits from my disaster I will feel better

I saw someone for a pedicure and she told me the woman in the salon had damaged the core of my feet and I would always have a problem with hard skin which I do.

This is a load of nonsense. There is no scientific basis for this.

@PurpleDaisies

I saw someone for a pedicure and she told me the woman in the salon had damaged the core of my feet and I would always have a problem with hard skin which I do.

This is a load of nonsense. There is no scientific basis for this.

Well thanks for your comments.

Feet don’t have a core.

Apply doublebase gel to your feet daily, one or two pumps. Do not rub it in, smooth it over and leave to soak in. It doesn’t mark bedding so you can apply before bed.

Go to a podiatrist rather than a salon. They are experts.

Have you tried Flexitol? It’s the best foot cream for hard skin.

With the greatest respect, she made that up. There is no such thing as the core of your feet. Skin doesn't have a core either

A podiatrist appt sounds like a good idea.

Hi OP, I would also go to a podiatrist. I have a build up of hard skin on one foot. An occasional Lamasil once and Boots medicated foot cream keep my feet looking normal.

Fact is -the skin on your feet is the toughest skin on your entire body . It has to be , it carries your bodyweight all day and has to be flexible enough to withstand the biomechanic movement and flexure of your gait cycle .
Basically ( very basically - I don't do Biomechanics ) Your heel hits the floor and takes all your bodyweight , you walk up the ateral side of your foot , across the ball of your foot and you 'spring off' onto your big toe . Your foot goes from flexible to 'locked' throughout thos .
Every . Step . You . Take .

So you do 6000-10 000 steps a day .
Then you take these complex , hard working structures and put them into the most ridiculous restricting shoes , high heels force your fet forward . Narrow toe box cramps the toes and stops them functioning properly .

Your skin forms callouses as a response to pressure and friction.
So along the edges of the heel, the ball of the foot , the toe joints .

You take it off - fine as long as you then remove the source of the pressure/friction.
Otherwise the skin responds by going to overdrive to create more protective hard skin.

Normal skin turnver is 28 days . It can reduce to 7 days . The shortening doesn't allow the bonds between cells to break, so you get areas of hyperkeratotic skin.

The tights might have stained your skin, but that is long gone . Unless you had an allergic reaction to the dye , it won;t have done long term damage (some patients have allergies to dye in shoes )

The person who told you about the "core" will most likely say corns have "roots" (like teeth- they don't) and that your nail is "dead" ( nail tissue is all 'dead' keratin, like hair , only the nail bed and under the eponychium /cuticle is living tissue ) or that your nails are hard because " there's too much calcium in them " (again they're keratin like hair .)

Keep up with you regular filing and cream. Get a flat broad file , use it dry , then soak and apply your cream to damp skin, you can wear socks to provide warmth for absorbtion.
Possibly the reduction wasn't as even as it should be , leaving you ridges ?

NHS Podiatrist .
30+ years .

I don't start every senstence with "So" IRL
And I can actually spell ...................honest !

Check out Nadine Baggots recent YouTube video - something like Beauty Tricks Learned in lockdown. She describes this exact scenario and said that the blading actually encouraged more hard skin to develop.
She cured herself with flexitol cream and said she would never allow anyone with a blade near her hard skin again.

Thank you one and all for your comments. I do believe the blading caused the hard skin to develop. It was simply not there before I had this procedure. In fact I was quite proud of the way my feet looked.

Nowadays I fight my feet all the time but if I just leave them alone the hard skin develops leaving ridges on my heels which I have to file all of the time.

It was done in one of those Vietnamese salons and I do believe that using a blade is now not common practice as it can cause all sorts of problems with infection.

I will have a look at flexitol cream online now.

Onwards and upwards ladies :)

@70isaLimitNotaTarget

I don't start every senstence with "So" IRL And I can actually spell ...................honest !

Thanks for the advice. It's appreciated

Using a blade doesn’t encourage hard skin.

Maybe Nadine needs to guest lecture for a podiatry degree so they can learn from her.

Thanks for all positive comments. I ordered some flexitol cream last night. Hopefully it will help.

If you look around you can buy footmasks. They're like footner but with moisturiser instead. I bought a couple from Poundland and left my feet so soft

I regularly (not too often, every month or so on my heels) use a little blade I bought in Boots. In between I use a standard foot file and plenty of cheap foot cream (about £1 in Savers), once or twice a week, socks to let the cream absorb. This regime has resulted in my feet looking (and feeling) the best they ever have. No problems with the blade use, in fact it makes the other treatments more effective.

I go to a podiatrist every six months. She uses a scalpel. There are no problems. Also use flexible which is excellent.

I suffer with dry feet terribly and I use 25% urea CSS cream. You can buy it on Amazon.
Urea is the ingredient you are looking for if u want soft skin on your feet x