by Kimberly Flanagan
“I was never very good with either my hands or feet. It always seemed to me they’d just been stuck on as an afterthought” – Steve Rasnic Tem
Last night I decided that I’m going to give my two small feet a bit of TLC, something I haven’t done in a long time. I feel like feet is something we all take for granted, it’s attached to your legs and you just assume that it should be there and get you from point a to b and you never really think about them until you put shoes on but then in that instance its more about the shoes than it is about the feet. But during this mini pampering session for my feet I realised, I have really been neglecting them.
First thing you should know is that I’m extremely insecure about my toes; they are small and my toenails are also small to accommodate my small feet. I usually struggle to find shoes because I’m a size 3 (queue the “aww, so cute” that I’ve heard so many times) and when I do find shoes in my size, it still sometimes feels one size too small or I have that little gap at the back of my shoe, which I really hate.
I’ve been wearing sandals lately when the weather was nice and warm and I would walk up and down and find myself staring down and my toes and I would think to myself; I really need to something about my toes but then as quick as the thought comes, it would soon disappear and I would again forget to do anything about it. Or there would be other days if I’m wearing closed shoes, I’d tell myself “Whatever, they’re just feet, I’m hiding them in closed shoes anyway”
Other times I would just think my feet are beyond repair; my hard heels and funny looking toes with their small toenails and I would just be grateful that I have them.
Truth is, as much as we care about how our face and make-up need to be on point and hair looking great and staying in shape, that’s how much we should care about our feet and I know society has a way of making you feel insecure about your feet for some reason. I remember once upon a time there was a phase guys went through where they would ask girls for pictures of their feet and judge girls solely on that. On whether or not those girls had “nice” feet or not, according to them.
Let me just say ladies, that you should never give a man so much power over you. Your beauty is never defined by the opinion of a man.
Anyway, while I was washing my feet, I felt my heels, they were so hard and I hated the feeling of it (read further if you want to find out what causes your heels to become hard and what you can do about it)
We walk or stand on our feet all day every day and we neglect the fact that we are actually damn lucky to be able to walk, the least we can do is make sure our toes look cute and our feet are soft.
I painted my tiny toenails and I rubbed some foot cream on it and it felt so great, I turned out doing my fingernails as well.
Just that little nice thing I did for myself made me feel so much better about everything else and it made me realise that my feet are pretty damn cute!
I personally feel much more confident about my feet and my toes now that I’ve given them some love. Just once a week try and look after the parts of yourself that you feel you neglect.
Below are some tips on what you can do for hard or cracked heels and some foot creams for healthy and soft skin around your feet.
The nice thing about looking after your feet is that it doesn’t cost you a lot of money. A wash, some cream, and a pretty colour nail polish and you’re sorted.
You can buy various foot creams at your local Clicks or Dischem for less than R100.
When it comes to your heels, I know many people struggle with cracked heels or even dry skin around the heel area that makes it feel like it’s hard, a problem that I personally struggle with. Some of the reasons for this are:
- Lack of moisture
- The skin underneath your feet becomes thick and that causes it to crack.
- Eczema
- Dirty feet and feet that are not well-taken care off tend to have cracked or dry heels.
- Also, open shoes like sandals can cause the heel to expand the lead to cracked heels.
The solution to this is to moisturize your feet and use a cream that adds that extra moisture. Also, try and wear shoes that are comfortable and are closed around the heel area.
Try and soak your feet at least twice a day and Vaseline guys, you can put that on anything! After you have soaked and moisturized, put on soft socks and relax.
Remember, it’s pointless wearing great shoes when your feet look like you’ve walked barefoot all your life.
