Now I’m going to start with flowers, bear with me on this.
When the Spring flowers start to flourish we never think about the time they’ve taken to prepare before they push their bright colourful blooms above the fresh green blades, do we?
We just expect!
When the weather starts warming up do you start to dust off the open-toed shoes, see if they’ll get you through another summer? Start looking around for the holiday footwear to make those pinkies look all pretty? Of course, and we expect our feet to look fab.
But, for some strange reason, we assume our feet will come out of winter boots, into summer footwear and voila, soft silky-smooth skin and lovely conditioned nails.
But, there may be, some hard-cracked skin on the heels, slightly thicker skin on the balls of the foot, especially if you’re up on your feet all day. Maybe the odd corn and a possible mis shaped nail with some thick cuticles.
Let me explain some of the hurdles you may need to address. What they are and how you can overcome them and avoid them in future.
Horizontal Ridges on the nail
These can be caused by footwear that is too small or too tight. Which sounds crazy right. Who buys shoes that are too small?
But when our feet get hot they swell, and this can occur in our trainers when we exercise or just being on our feet all day in work shoes. The toes, usually the big toe, gets pushed up against the inside of the shoe acting like a buffer, which in turn puts pressure at the back of the nail, causing the ridges to form.
If the shoes are tight, the nail can rub against the top of the shoe causing friction, which can give the same outcome.
Remedy – File over the top of the nail with a soft type nail file (see nail file section in the eBook). Work gently and only for a few strokes with the file, we don’t want the nail to become too thin. If they don’t disappear completely you can use a ridge filler base coat before painting nails. Check your foot wear and file the nails gently every few weeks.
Hard skin
Believe it or not its there for a reason and that’s protection. Babies never have hard skin on their feet because they don’t use them like adults do.
Our feet move around in our shoes, rub and cause friction. Which can cause cuts, blisters, corns and hard skin.
You would have noticed that once a blister on the foot has healed the skin in that area is slightly thicker for a period, due to it acting to protect from future damage. You make find hard skin appears more when you wear flip flops, again due to friction caused by feet sliding on the surface of the material.
Remedy – Firstly we should never remove all the hard skin completely, just aim to make it smooth. Apply moisturiser which penetrates easily into the skin and do this often. Removing too much hard skin will only leave the foot susceptible to injury or infection.
Our skin renews itself over a six-week period. File gently and often to keep it smooth. Do not use heavy downward pressure when using the pumice or foot file as this then becomes more of a friction movement. Just go gentle.
Corns
They normally appear on the top of the toes or the side of the foot. It’s a small hard, usually round patch of skin more whiteish in colour. Again, caused by friction and pressure. Although there are several types of corns, depending where they are on the foot. The Hard Corn is the one I’m discussing here.
They can become painful when pressure is applied, and they have a hard core in the centre.
Remedy – Removal of the top part of the hard skin by using a pumice or file, then plenty of moisture usually does the trick. A GP may need to assist if the skin is very thick. You can also buy over the counter treatments. Some may contain Salic Acid, but I wouldn’t recommend this as it maybe too strong for you and can cause damage.
Again, it helps to have correct fitting shoes.
Stained nails
This is more than likely caused due to not applying a base coat before polish is applied to the nail. Especially if you’ve used a dark colour. It can also occur if you are taking medication or have an illness. You would be aware of this though as your GP would have told you the side effects of medication etc.
So, let’s go with the assumption its not wearing base coat.
Remedy – Start wearing base coat always not matter what colour polish you’re wearing. You can help lighten with soaking your nails in fresh lemon juice or wiping over the nails regularly with a fresh slice of lemon or lime.
Now you can go and dust off the sandals and have the know how to get those feet in tip top condition for the warm of Spring.
BUT start prepping and care for them now. Remember the flowers, it doesn’t happen overnight.
Start your TLC now and they’ll look and feel fab.
HAPPY FEET
