I need help toughening my skin

Hi,

I’m a dancer – we use Meths to soak our feet in to toughen them up and stop blisters forming with the stupid amount of new shoes we go through. It shouldn’t give you too bad callouses and stuff, but should toughen the skin up somewhat. I should point out though – go easy to start with. It can dry feet out too much if you go soak too much too quickly, try just wiping over your heel to start with a soaked pad twice a day and see how you go – if you just go soaking straight off it can cause cracking as it dries it out too quickly. When you’ve already got ‘dancers feet’ (eg – nasty, dry things anyway lol), its not as epic a difference. 🙂

Although seeing a foot doc probably is a good idea as well, just in case there is an underlying reason for it. Hope you sort it 🙂

Thanks for advice guys!

I don’t actually do ballet myself – that was my mother when she was a kid. It’s really any kind of shoe that causes a problem. I’m not sure that it’s heel spurs either, as they’ve always been like this.

But I will take the advice and go to see a podiatrist to see what they can suggest.

With respect EC465, I really think given the severity of the issue that a medical consult is the way to go. Ugly Ducklings advice makes a lot of sense to me.

Have you thought about going to a podiatrist (if you don’t have private medical you can actually get a Medicare-based referral from your GP that entitles you to up to five subsidised podiatrist sessions per year; catch is you have to nominate a podiatrist by name) or seen a specialist ballet store? – The best ballet stores to go to in Aus are Bloch for pointe to demi pointe for all ages. They would also be able to help you with regards to a podiatrist.

I didn’t know there was a product around to toughen your feet for pointe shoes. I used to coat my toes in metho from memory! I know what you mean about your heels. I think they might be heel spurs. I have the same problem, but to a lesser degree that you. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if it’s caused by ballet training during the time when our feet were still developing. I don’t have a solution, but I wonder if you would ever consider seeing a specialist. Perhaps you could have an operation to have the bone shaved down. That sounds drastic, but it might be worth it in your case.