Springtime means you’ll soon be wearing sandals and walking around barefoot. After a long winter in heavy shoes and thick socks, your feet can be dried out and have unattractive callused skin. Here’s how to turn feet with dry skin and callused areas back into soft and healthy and ready to be shown off.

Dry skin

The skin holds a certain amount of moisture which is needed to keep the skin supple and able to withstand the different types of pressure and external influences that it is placed under.

 

Not unusual: dry skin on feet

The hydration of the skin can decrease, causing the skin on your feet to become dry, and, in combination with pressure or friction, to build up callous areas. Causes vary: Some people just have a skin that is drier than others. Reason might also be a genetic predisposition to develop dry skin, or diabetes, in which dry skin occurs as a side effect. Skin tends to become drier with age as well. Long, hot baths and showers can also make your skin drier.

 Callous

A callus (Latin, medical noun) is an extended area of thickened skin mainly on the soles and heels of the feet. Callous skin (the corresponding English adjective) forms wherever the skin is exposed to pressure and friction over a longer period of time. The outer layer of the skin, the epidermis, reacts by building up and forming callous skin in layers. (medical term: hyperkeratosis).

 

Foot with a typical callus patch

 

Hyperkeratosis: increased thickness of horny layer

 It is mainly seen on the sole of the foot (palms of the hand and fingers can also be affected) and appears as a yellowish thickening. In most cases, it is painless. Once exposed  to excessive and constant pressure, it can also get worse and crack. Little to moderate callus formation is nothing but a cosmetic or aesthetic problem; especially when wearing open shoes. Yet thickening of the affected areas can lead to painful and incommoding callus formation.

 „It‘s a thin line between an aesthetic issue and an incommodity“

 Medical background: The stratum corneum (cornea = horny skin/Lat.) is the uppermost layer of the epidermis. Between the cornified cells (corneocytes) lie the epidermal lipids. The horny layer - especially the bottom third - forms the permeability barrier, which is the skin‘s true barrier against exogenous factors and endogenous water loss.

 Soften your feet

The thickening of the skin is part of the skin‘s normal protection against rubbing, pressure and other forms of local irritation, but it can also cause callus and corns on hands and feet.

 A foot bath is the perfect way to provide intensive care to feet. A temperature of no more than 36 °C for 10–15 minutes is the best start to get your feet ready for the care programme. During this time, the skin should soften feet .

 

Now, corns and calluses must be properly processed pumice or pedicure special tools. The effect can be enhanced by using the scrub . Scrub suit anyone can do it yourself in the same sea salt .

 

Take a nail clipper or wire cutter, cut the protruding part of the nail in a straight line. Form toenails must be square to prevent ingrown nail into the skin. With nail files Trim cut and rough nail tip in the direction from the edges to the center.

    

 Gently push back cuticles using manicure scapula or orange stick. To facilitate the implementation of a pedicure on the cuticle can cause a special drug that softens and removes excess skin, then after 5 minutes, remove the remnants. Using a spatula, try to clean the nail plate from adhering particles of the cuticle. Spend a stick under the nail to clean accumulated dirt and there are dry skin cells.

 

When you are happy with the results, rinse and dry your feet thoroughly.

 

 Then, generously apply a layer of foot cream or lotion. To add some extra care, cover your feet with cotton socks to seal off the moisture and let the cream soak in over night. This way, you can let the foot cream work for hours while you sleep. Repeat it over a few nights for maximum effect. Your feet should feel much softer and smoother as a result.

 

And do not forget that the best treatment - is prevention!

In order to prevent the appearance of calluses when walking in new shoes, or when changing from winter shoes on a narrower shoe model - you need to follow a few simple rules