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Hard skin

Does anyone have any effective methods/treatments for getting rid of hard skin on the ball of the foot. Have tried rubbing with a pumice stone type thing and moisturising with Vaseline, but not made much difference.

Thank you
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Comments

  • Kandipandi
    Kandipandi Posts: 1,656 Forumite
    I would honestly go to a chiropodist / podiatrist and have it removed properly, last time i went it was about £16.

    I have done it myself with the blades and it is so easy to go into the good skin underneath and it hurts like bu&%ery!
    You can also pumice it and use one of those grater things and lather on thick cream (vasaline extra dry cream) before bed and put socks on overnight (not ver sexy) and it should soften for the morning and you can try to rub at it again.
    You can stand there and agonize........
    Till your agony's your heaviest load. (Emily Saliers)
  • onetomany
    onetomany Posts: 2,170 Forumite
    i use hemp hand cream from the body shop then sleep in socks
  • webitha
    webitha Posts: 4,799 Forumite
    i use that ped egg, the johnson baby lotion and sleep in cotton, and its got to be 100 % cotton, socks, things should improve after a few days
    If we can put a man on the moon...how come we cant put them all there?

  • libra10
    libra10 Posts: 19,312 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Thanks everyone for the great advice. I will try a few of the remedies over the next week or so, and if all else fails, it looks like a trip to the chiropodist.

    Have been doing a fair bit of walking today and it's caused the hard skin to become really painful.

    Thanks very much, much appreciated.
  • These are not money-saving recommendations, except that the initial outlay will give you quite a few treatments so it's cheaper than a chiropodist or beauty salon.

    The Ped Egg or the similar product made by the cheese-grater firm Microplane are very good on dry feet (don't pre-soak). Lots of fake Ped Eggs are available for peanuts on eBay, I'm told - but I don't know if they're any good.

    (The only thing I'm concerned about is the position of the hard skin on ball of your foot - if it's a pad in the very centre it might be difficult to get at in isolation from the rest of the area, I'm more accustomed to dealing with hard skin around the edge of the heel and on the outside edge of the ball of the foot.)

    Here's one I just found - it claims it's real Ped Egg:

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-X-PED-EGG-PROFESSIONAL-FOOT-FILE-BLACK-EDITION_W0QQitemZ160311108991QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Health_Beauty_Nails_Manicure_Pedicure_CA?hash=item160311108991&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318

    After you've filed off the bulk of the hard skin, Pedikur from QVC:

    http://www.qvcuk.com/ukqic/qvcapp.aspx/app.detail/params.item.215653/walk.yah.UKHB-U072

    (and a similar, differently named one that Ideal World does) are excellent for removing the remaining - you place a very thin layer of cotton wool on the area and then tip on the watery substance so that it's soaked, then wrap cling film around your foot to keep it on, and leave it on for 20 minutes plus (but read the instructions, I can't remember exactly). Then use the scraper to take of the "melted" skin. It has no effect whatsoever on 'non-hard' skin. It's excellent. The cream that comes with the Pedikur has a lovely herbal smell but I'm not sure that it's better than any other cream.

    You can use Pedikur liquid on your cuticles as well, but I'm squeamish about that, you have to protect the nails themselves.

    The above combo should leave you with nice soft tootsies, but at a price I'm afraid, unless you can get the stuff cheap on eBay.

    If you happen to have a Microplane fine cheese grater, you could try that instead of buying the foot version - I did, it worked to some extent :eek:

    veronarona :o
  • McKneff
    McKneff Posts: 38,857 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    The hard skin is naure's protection for joints etc inside the foot itself.
    If you take it off, it will naturally come back again in time to protect itself again so its on ongoing process i'm afraid. Dont walk about barefoot,
    and wear sponge/microsponge insoles.
    make the most of it, we are only here for the weekend.
    and we will never, ever return.
  • Too right, Annie - I meant to ask OP what shoes she wears. High, even slightly high, heels with thin soles are deadly for that area of the foot particularly.

    veronarona
  • blaque*angel
    blaque*angel Posts: 1,177 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    heel balm works great :)
  • libra10
    libra10 Posts: 19,312 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Thanks everyone. Veronarona, I watched the QVC video for Pedikur and it looks to be amazing stuff, although, like you said, expensive.

    If it will do the trick though, it will be certainly worth it.

    The hard skin is just under the second toe (next to big toe) so, unfortunately, it's in a slightly tricky place.

    The shoes I wear are generally wedge type sandals or slip-ons, Flyflots, or similar. They're very comfy with quite a thick soul and I rarely wear heels. My OH seems to think the hard skin is caused by the toes gripping the soul of the sandal when walking.

    I have a micro grater (which I never use) and will try rubbing at the hard skin with that, and order the Pedikur from QVC. If the micro grater doesn't work, will order the ped egg from Ebay.

    Thanks everyone, lots of food for thought, you've been absolutely brilliant.
  • hethmar
    hethmar Posts: 10,678 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker Car Insurance Carver!
    I got some of Boots stuff - its CC something or other, if you ask for it they will know. I had really thick skin that was cracking on my heels and within a couple of days it was smooth.
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