Today I focus on a topic which is rare on beauty blogs. After all, it’s nicer to write about hair, skin or hands than hard, cracked skin on the heels. I am not ashamed to say it used to be my problem. Thankfully, I found a few ways to fix it. Of course I’m happy to share them with you. Hopefully, my remedies will help those of you bothered by the same problem. Your comment or sharing the post will surely make my day!
Cracked heels
This skin condition affects lots of people. Both women and men. Most men don’t care but most women of course do… We struggle to get back the smooth, baby-like skin. Unfortunately, we often fail to improve its condition. It’s very difficult to stop heel cracking if we don’t provide the foot skin with full care.
Why should we heal cracked heels? First of all, they don’t look nice so you can forget fancy high-heel sandals. This isn’t just a beauty flaw, though. Cracked heels may be a symptom of a disease e.g. fungus. If you don’t heal cracked skin, the heels become sore, coarse and very dry so you surely don’t feel comfortable. Minor cuts occur in extreme cases.
Why does skin on heels crack?
Before we take action and test the best remedies for cracked heels, let’s think about the cause of the problem. What makes skin crack and can you eliminate the causes?
The most common causes of cracked heels:
- extremely dry skin on feet.
- deficiency of vitamin A which is essential for healthy skin.
- wearing ill-fitting shoes.
- overweight and staying in a standing position for too long (overburdening the feet).
- genetic predispositions.
How can you reduce the problem with cracked heels and very dry skin?
There are lots of remedies to soften skin on feet but I’d like to share ones that gave me the best results. Detecting and eliminating the cause is the easiest thing to start with. Let’s get to the bottom line!
1. Moisturizing the skin on feet is the key thing to do.
If your heels crack because the skin is extremely dry, you can easily fix it by simply moisturizing it. A good cream, for example based on urea (strong humectant), should heal the skin. At the same time you must keep the body hydrated. If you still think that water doesn’t matter, you’re wrong. Take up a challenge: hydrate the body and see the results.
2. Exfoliate the skin on a regular basis.
Of course exfoliating epidermis matters as well. You just need to do it carefully. Foot pumice stone and other physical tools may cause a lot of harm because they make the old cells build up faster. A mild exfoliant or exfoliating socks that enhance the removal of dead cells with acids are way better.
3. Baking soda foot scrub.
Speaking of foot exfoliants, I do a scrub myself. There’s not much to do actually. I simply rub baking soda on the damp feet after a bath. Massaging for a few minutes lets me get rid of dead cells and make skin smoother. Next, I wash the product off, dry the feet and apply my favorite cream.
4. Foot soak based on salt, herbs, etc.
Foot soaks are great to treat cracked, dry, coarse heels. You can try various blends; my favorite is based on water and salt (e.g. Dead Sea salt). I also love herb-based soaks and my fave is made up of a spoon of fenugreek, flax seeds, chamomile, yarrows, birch leaf, marigold and comfrey root (of course you can skip some herbs if you haven’t got them). I soak the feet in the cooled blend.
5. Retinol (vitamin A) therapy.
Last but not least, if you’re seeking a way to heal cracked heels, try home treatment based on vitamin A. Retinol is famous for its ability to exfoliate dead skin cells and rejuvenate the skin so it’s good to look for it in foot creams. You can also rub vitamin A drops into the heels, apply a cream once the vitamin is absorbed and secure the feet with cotton socks. In the morning your skin will look and feel brand new.
I’ve rounded up my favorite remedies for cracked heels. If you’ve got some trusted treatments that I haven’t mentioned, leave a comment! 🙂
