How to treat cracked heels for sandal season
Here’s our guide to getting your feet looking smooth.
Here’s our guide to getting your feet looking smooth.
Cracked heels are often caused by the very thing we want to get our feet looking smooth for – open shoes.
Waikato podiatrist Rachael Harper explained wearing jandals, sandals and going barefoot more often puts extra pressure on the heels. Open shoes also don’t hold moisture in the skin like shoes and socks do. With skin also likely to be dry from hot weather, heels are more likely to crack.
If you set out to solve the problem yourself, you’ll likely find a mind-boggling array of options at your pharmacy and supermarket. Rachael said the best option is buying one you’re likely to use. If you’re allowed to test them, look for one with a smell and texture you like.
The best creams do three things:
Ingredients you see a lot in foot creams are urea, salicylic acid and hyaluronic acid. Wellington podiatrist Bronwyn Easterbrook-Smith said all three were humectants.
“This can have different effects – in healthy, normal thickness skin it helps to keep the skin moisturised and more supple; and in thickened, dry or callused skin it has a keratolytic effect, which means it helps the dead skin to flake off more easily – which helps to treat the cracking or splitting which people might get around their heels,” Bronwyn said.
Alpha hydroxy acids (AHA), which are now commonly used in beauty treatments to help with fine lines and age spots, can also be found in heel creams. AHAs are keratolytic so help the surface skin cells shed.
When asked to pick a cream she’d regard as the best choice, Bronwyn said there wasn’t a “magic cure-all".
“Ideally I would recommend something which contains a humectant or keratolytic – often urea, as it is generally well tolerated. And some type of occlusive agent, such as a fat or oil, which serves to seal in the moisture present in the skin and prevent further moisture loss,” she said.
Rachael recommended people try a fatty or aqueous cream on prescription first to see if it was enough to help. It’s a soap substitute that puts a layer of oil on the skin to trap water. It’s cheap at the pharmacy but even cheaper on prescription, she said.
If you want to then try one of the creams off the shelf, she recommends talking to your pharmacist.
“It’s a hard question as what works for some may not work for others,” she said.
If you want to keep your feet crack-free, the important thing is to work out why they’re cracking.
“Cracked heels are a build-up of hyperkeratosis, or calloused hard skin, on the edges of the heels,” Rachael said.
“The cracking occurs because the hard skin has no give or flexibility. Where there is excess pressure on the area, the cracks form as a way for the area to have some give.”
Once the cracking is under control, she said there were three things people can do to keep heels in tip-top condition:
If you’re taking these measures and still getting cracked heels, a podiatrist can help you find if there’s a medical reason.
Like foot creams, there are plenty of foot files to choose from. However, one of the best options is free if you live somewhere volcanic. Pumice is plentiful around Lake Taupo but can also be found on North Island beaches as it floats down rivers.
“You can get man-made pumice or foot files with wet and dry sandpaper attached, which work well and are safe,” Rachael said.
But Brownwyn said people often made the mistake of using them in the shower. She said it was better to use them on dry feet before you shower as dead skin comes off more easily.
“The ‘cheese grater’ type files I would recommend caution with – it’s very easy to remove too much skin with something this aggressive, and that will remain painful until the skin heals and thickens up enough to offer enough protection again,” Bronwyn said.
“The battery-operated ones are fine. They obviously don’t allow you to apply too much force, so can prevent over-aggressive filing, which can be quite useful if you don’t have a large amount of callus or dry skin to remove.”
If you’re resorting to anything more than a foot file (Rachael has heard of angle grinders being used for the job!) it’s time to google local podiatrists and make an appointment.
Just use sand paper to file the hard skin off your heals. It works a treat! Not fine sandpaper but rather the coarser grade for wood working. I’ve suffered from cracked heals since a kid. The problem is I go barefoot and wear jandals. That’s life! Sandpaper followed by moisturiser is best. Cheap and effective.
For years I have used a 40mm by 400mm strip of 80 grit abrasive cloth which I pull back and forth across my cracked heels when dry. Very effective at producing a pile of white powder which the ants carry of with gusto. I then follow up with 10% urea cream. Agree that regular treatment is helpful and I usually wear socks with my sandals.
Mike C
I have had some success/relief from cracked heels after using Scholl Eulactol Heel Balm GOLD. I rub it in and wear socks for a couple of hours. 3-4 doses usually solves the immediate problem. I also moisturise with Cetomacrogol & Glycerol C ream recommended by my doctor for dry skin. All that seems to work but you do have to keep doing it regularly.
A small item in New Scientist 16.4.19 said "one cause can be sodium lauryl sulphate, an ionic surfactant in many hygiene products which is removes oils from the skin. Most shampoos and conditioners also contain SLS and this could contribute to cracked heels in those who stand in the shower while washing their hair." That writer switched from shower gel to normal soap with noticeable improvement. I swapped to an eco-shampoo, as well as always pumicing my heels in the shower, and it's been much better since. Though right now I do have a small crack after 10 hot days in barefeet and jandals. But that's cultural, eh.
From someone who can suffer from painful foot cracks in the summer, mostly big toe cracks but also heels.
Fatty cream from the chemist. Cheap as chips, $4-$5 for half a kilo. Apply generously before bed and then sleep with socks on. I wear sandals/jandals half the time and then when my feet get dry and start to crack I wear shoes and socks (cream on first) for a couple of days. Works well. Podiatrist 3 monthly if you can afford it.
I can't use soap and for years have been prescribed 'Getomacrogol & Glycerol Cream' (Sorbolene). It's an excellent moisturiser - no dry heels or peeling after spending too long in the sun. Note: it is NOT a sun protection cream.
I don't spend a lot of money on expensive face and body creams.
So far as I'm aware it can be bought across the counter at a pharmacist.
I use sandpaper for removing all the dry skin (on feet and thumbs too).
When that's done and there are no edges, then apply lip balm.
What grade paper do you use?
Usually finer sandpaper. The trick is to take off all the edges even down to pink skin on both sides of the crack. Then soften it with lip balm. Counter intuitively, I've found the main challenge is to get rid of the crack's hard sides since these will not allow for any healing. So, make the skin as soft and pliable as possible.
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