With the onset of warm, fine days, women change their shoes in summer shoes – sandals, clogs, panties.
The director of the Moscow Image Studio Larisa SHARIN tells how to provide foot care.
– Larisa, what does foot care begin with?
– The first step in foot care is to wash them. Healthy feet should be washed with warm water and soap. First wash your feet. Then thoroughly washed between the fingers. To get to each area between the fingers, you can use a natural bristle brush. This is a kind of massage that improves blood circulation. After re-soaping the feet, it is useful to carefully rub the foot, especially the heel, with a pumice stone, a brush with stiff bristles, and a scrub to remove dead cells. After rinsing your feet, wipe them dry with a towel. It’s better not to wipe the delicate interdigital areas, but gently pat them dry with a dry towel. The rest of the feet can be wiped quite energetically. This is also a kind of massage. Proper drying of the legs is an important procedure. Otherwise, fungal diseases, such as epidermophytosis, can easily occur on warm, moist skin. At the end of the procedure, you need to rub foot cream, which will soften the skin. In diabetes, legs are washed in soapy water, adding any vegetable oil to it. After washing, they are not wiped, but soaked in a clean waffle or other towel that quickly absorbs moisture and smeared with a baby cream – domestic production or Baby Jonson.
– Are there special cleansing procedures?
– Flaxseed infusion well cleanses the skin of the feet (2 tablespoons per 1 liter of boiling water). It works effectively with daily use. You can do cleaning baths. For example, soda. Even more useful cleansing and tonic bath with soda and sea salt. Dissolve a handful of sea salt and 1 tablespoon of baking soda in 3 l of warm water (pour hot water to maintain temperature). The duration of the procedure is 15-20 minutes. And a very simple recipe: with a lemon peel, wipe the skin between the toes and soles.
The acidic environment is held in the skin for 5 hours, thereby maintaining its health.
– How to care for dry and roughened skin of the legs?
– Very dry skin of the feet should be greased with oily cream. It’s better to do it at night. It is useful, having lubricated the feet, fingers and interdigital folds with fat cream, to sleep in cotton socks so that the cream is well absorbed into the skin. Keratinized areas can be wiped with tomato puree. The skin of the squeezed lemon can be applied to the roughened skin and a compress is applied. Hot soapy-soda baths clean well the rough skin on the feet. Dissolve 1-2 teaspoons of baking soda in 1 liter of warm water, add 1 tablespoon of soap shavings or soap cream, whip the soap foam. Dip your feet in a basin, adding hot water. Allow time for the legs to steam out, and with the help of pumice in a circular motion, peel the coarsened skin. The duration of the bath is 15-20 minutes. After this, a cream is rubbed into wet skin.
– Sometimes cracks and abrasions appear on the heels. What to do in this case?
– If you have cracks in the heels, make a bath with starch. You can make a potato peel bath. Rinse them well and add a handful of flaxseed, pour water and boil until thick porridge. In this thick, hold your feet for about 20 minutes, then rinse them with water and carefully cut the skin around the cracks. Lubricate the cracks with iodine, feet and fingers with cream, rubbing it until it is absorbed. If abrasions and cracks form on the soles of the feet, you can wash the inflamed area with a solution of potassium permanganate or 2% solution of boric acid. After drying the skin, sprinkle it with oily powder, talc, zinc oxide or grease with a cream, it is better for children.
For scuffs and cracks in the soles of the feet, baths are recommended: prepare a tincture of St. John’s wort herb (2 tablespoons) mixed with marigold inflorescences (1 tablespoon) per 1 liter of water.
You can make a bath without St. John’s wort, only with calendula flowers. Keep your feet in the bath for 15-20 minutes. It can also be used for sweating feet.
Nettle and plantain infusions are prepared from the calculation: 2 tablespoons of crushed plant leaves per 1 liter of water. The duration of the bath is 10-15 minutes. A decoction of chamomile for a bath is prepared from 1 tablespoon of dry chamomile, which is filled with 0.5-1 l of boiling water and boiled for 10 minutes. A strained and slightly cooled broth is used.
After baths, it is recommended to make a bandage on the legs, lubricating them with emollient cream or fat, making a light massage. At least once a month and a half, do a pedicure, which includes not only the care of the toes, feet, cleaning and polishing of nails, but also the removal of corns, skin growths on the foot and around the fingers.