As soon as the weather starts to get a little warmer, we want to spend our evenings down the pub, under a patio heater, savouring that sweet glass of rosè. And definitely not whiling away the evening shifting dry skin on your feet with a foot file.
We won’t sugarcoat it (although, that might come in handy for a foot scrub), getting rid of pesky dry skin on the feet can be a laborious task, but it doesn’t have to be. There are tips and tricks to give our hoofs a good seeing to, without spending hours at work – and there are things we can all do to prevent dry skin on our feet in the first place.
Whilst not the most glamorous of topics, dry skin on feet is a common affliction given foot care is usually last on the pecking order behind skincare, hair care and general body care. Therefore it’s unsurprising that our poor soles are in desperate need of some love.
We enlisted the expert advice of top podiatrist Dr Bharti Rajput and Simone Paul, senior podiatrist and CEO of The Footlift London Soho & Liverpool Street Clinic, based at UNTIL, the home of London’s top health and wellness professionals.
Here, our experts explain exactly why we get dry feet, what the best at-home remedies are and how we can swap scaly skin for soft soles — so you don’t have to worry when it comes to swapping your boots for your sandals.
What causes dry skin on feet?
The skin on our heels cracks for various reasons but Dr Rajput explains it’s mainly due to “a mixture of dryness and pressure.”
“Sometimes if people have put on a bit of weight or if they’re spending a lot of time indoors and the heating is on, the skin texture can become a little bit dryer and that can often lead to cracks, she explains.
“Wearing open-back shoes in the summer time may cause the skin to crack as your bare heels are always hitting the back of the shoe which can cause a lot of pressure.” This can also be caused by lack of vitamins in your diet, such as iron and zinc. “The hair and the skin are very much made up of the same chemical components and iron and zinc playing important roles in hair and skin regeneration and repair.”
What are your best tips for treating dry skin on your feet?
The good news is, it’s pretty easy to help care for your feet but it does take a bit of consistency. “You can get rid of dry skin on your feet by using a foot file but always use it on a dry foot, never on a wet foot. When the skin is wet, it tends to become more rubbery,” Dr Rajput explains.
“On a dry foot, you can actually buff the skin down.” She recommends laying a piece of kitchen towel or newspaper down on the floor to catch the hard skin when buffing. “You’ll get great pleasure in seeing white powdery hard skin getting rubbed off your feet,” she confesses. Once you’ve done this, you can pretend you’re at a spa and give your feet a soak.
What are the best creams for dry feet?
Believe it or not, the skin on your feet is actually six times stronger than anywhere else on your body. That’s exactly why Dr Rajput says that to get the best results, you need a specialist cream that can penetrate into the skin layers. “Just as you wouldn’t just use any cream on your face, you need to make sure you’re applying the right kind of cream to your feet.”