Happy Holiday Hand Tips

Many of us in the Ottawa region may be experiencing dry, cracked hands and maybe a few paper cuts from wrapping all those gifts and cooking endless meals. What to do to rescue our handy friends? They are as important as your feet!

Here 5 tips on saving your hands this winter:

1: Stick to lukewarm water when hand washing, hot water makes the natural oil of your skin evaporate and promptly moisturize your hands.

2: Liquid soaps are less drying on your skin.  If using a soap bar, trying using one that contains a moisturizer.

3: Use rubber gloves when your using cleaning products or washing the dishes.

4: Moisturize them with a good hand cream. If there's a cream I would recommend at the pharmacy, it would Neutrogena's Norwegian Formula Hand Cream. Even your most rugged construction worker would appreciate it in their stocking at this time of year. Winter is a rough one for everyone!

5: A moisturizer that contains urea will draw hydration in the deeper levels of your skin. I work with Gehwol when I provide footcare, they also have a line for hands. I've had some great results on myself with this cream, my hand washing is beyond frequent. It's one that I prefer since it's always on hand for me and it contains no perfumes either.

Gerlan Hand Cream

Another little skin saver of mine is in my kitchen. Olive oil and kosher salt, they make a great exfoliant for your hands after a long day of checking your list twice.  Adding 1 to 2 drops of lemon juice or essential oils in the mixture goes a long way. I like to add lavender, it's one of my favorites. The ratio should be half and half, that means 1 teaspoon of salt to 1 teaspoon of oil. I use olive oil often since it's what I have on hand, you can use grape seed oil or even sunflower oil if that's what you have in your pantry. Make sure your oil is not rancid either.

Olive oil, salt and lavender essential oil

Mix the ingredients together, apply the salt scrub in your dry hands, massage the scrub on the inside and outside of your hands, in between the fingers and right up to your nails. Making little circular movements around the cuticles will help smooth away the dryness and don't forget your wrists while your at it.

Rinse your hands under lukewarm water, dry and apply a moisturizer if needed. And voilà!!!! It's a mini hand spa in your kitchen that's quick and easy.

Meanwhile, the holidays are almost upon our doorsteps, I'm ready to greet friends and family with soft hands and putting my best foot forward in the New Year. Hopefully you will too and enjoy the season!

Ode to the mature foot....

Today is a homage to a dear client that has recently passed away, he was an outstanding man, a leader in his community, punctual, organized, hard working, beloved family man and friend to many. The type of man that doesn't leave the house without his hat, always had a well intended piece of advice, loved politics, arts and music too. He was 88. It was a pleasure and a privilege to serve him.

His passing reminded me of why I love footcare but to whom I provide it for. A large portion of my clientele is the elderly, not only do I get to provide them with an essential health service but I hear some pretty interesting stories on how it used to be back in the day. Some of them make me realize how sometimes, we have it easy, don't really appreciate what we do have and to slow down in our fast paced lives. They are the reason we are here, they have lived through what most of us couldn't endure in this day and age. I have learned so many lessons without living them because they took the time to share the lessons they have learnt.

Why do the elderly need footcare?

The ability to cut one's own toenails diminishes as we get older, the nails become thicker and harder to cut, we can't see them very well, arthritis makes it more difficult to handle a nail clipper, less flexibility and lost of eyesight is another factor. Those are the habitual things that will happen to all of us as we get older.  Breaking a hip, suffering from a stroke, Parkinson's and eye operations are some of the other conditions that could happen later on in life too.

Fact is, many of our older generations will not be talking about the condition of their feet. I've heard of many going into the hospital for other emergencies and not being able to even put some shoes on to get there. Over grown nails that make it impossible to put any type of footwear on except for slippers. Needless to say, some elderly are left to fend on their own sometimes, some have never married and some never had children to look after them.

Providing accessible footcare services with dignity and compassion to those in need is most important to me, it's gratifying to feel I make a difference in one's own quality of life through footcare.

Have you seen your parent's feet lately?

Sincerely putting my best foot forward,
Nadine @Toes2U

Is that a bulge in your shoe?

Not to be vulgar but is that bulge painful?  Is your big toe deviating towards the second toe? If yes, chances are you might be developing a bunion. A bunion, also known as Hallux Valgus, is quite painful and once you start having them, they can make your path through life quite painful. 

Bunions

I wanted to tackle the next question by Anonymous:


Hello, 
I want to know if braces for bunions works and does it help to diminish the size of it.Thank your help. Great blog.


Dear Anonymous:


There's a lot of factors that comes into mind when you ask me this very pertinent question. First, is it just your big toe that is deviating or if it's a bunion already. Since I usually see this foot problem more frequently in the elderly, they usually had the operation done by now and sometimes, the bunions have come back.


At this point to give you my best response and not to mislead anyone, I went to one of my teachers for a correct response since she has 25 yrs of experience in nursing footcare. I have heard of the bunion braces/splints but have never seen them on my clients yet.


Her response to your question:
"Depends on whether or not you are trying to correct a “bunion” or deviation of the great toe. A splint is only effective in alignment of the toe.  They are effective however require wearing several hours of the day every day.  If this is done then there is effectiveness.  However the problem lies in lengthy adherence as they are not comfortable.  In these cases, I usually try to refer for orthotics."

Definition of a bunion:


The big toe is deviating towards the second toe, making the joint of the big toe protrude in the other direction. Intense pain, inflammation and build up of callous may occurs.


Even though there is many factors to bunion, here are 3 of the main causes:


1: Hereditary, meaning some members of your family already have them and most likely you will too. 


2: Rheumatoid arthritis is another factor and last but not least.....


3: Footwear, by that I mean high heels with a toe box that is narrow and pointy. The toe box is not providing enough space to accommodate your toes comfortably. Because the heel is high, your whole body weight is being concentrated on the joint of your big toe.


If you are going to try a bunion brace, make sure to talk to your doctor before you do, follow the instructions thoroughly, remember not to overdo it either because everything in moderation is a wise rule. Making sure your footwear is a quarter inch wider than the widest part of your foot is a another thing to remember when looking for new shoes.


Always talk to your physician if you are diabetic and if your health is compromised. The bunion braces/splints are usually not recommended for the diabetics.


I hope you liked the information I provided, I hope it helps making a better decision and thank you for reading my blog. 

How to fix dry, cracked heels?

After 15 years  of esthetics, I've been asked just about everything.  Estheticians and hairstylists are like barbers and bartenders. Everyone wants to talk to you about something, sometimes not always pertaining to esthetics.   I'll do my best to answer them with integrity and try to educate you at the same time when it comes to esthetics and footcare.


Why does hair grow there?  What causes bunions? Why do I have yellow nails? What's the difference between a corn and a callous? Why do my boyfriend's work boots smell like 10 year old cheese? What is that?! Why?! So many questions!


The fact is, I usually have more questions about your problem to give you the best solution and if I feel it's not in my scope of practice, I'll direct you to someone else. The more information you provide me with, the better I can answer you. 


Today I will be covering a question from a friend in Los Angeles, as she wrote: 

Q:"My feet are super dry, especially my heels...Dry, cracking....disaster....super dry feet...what's the best product after I use the Credo* and scrapper to remove corns and dead skin??"

First she is asking me about the best product. There's many out footcare products on the market, I work with a line called Gehwol, established over a century ago. Other products might be a bit unconventional but they do the trick and might become staples in your home for other stuff, like Bag Balm, Epsom salts and white vinegar.

Second, at this point she is almost done with her home pedicure and she has already removed the excess dry and dead skin, the last step is moisturizing the foot. The skin is more receptive to the cream you'll apply at this time because the cream doesn't have a barrier of dead skin cells to be absorbed through the skin. 



The best solution for cracked heels is to moisturize with a foot cream, apply a thick salve, an ointment that seals the moisturizer into the skin, put white cotton socks on and go to bed with them.  The white cotton sock has many purposes, first it's a natural material, second it will prevent losing the product everywhere else but your feet and third you won't be slipping and sliding everywhere. Do this for a couple of nights in a row and you will see a major difference and I highly recommend doing it till the cracks of your heels seal. 


I've kept this answer as simple as I could, there's so many factors to discuss in this question itself. Let me know if you have any questions or comments, next I think I will cover how to make a simple home pedicure. 


....what's a Credo?

Credo

*Last but not least, the Credo, if you don't know how to use it, put it down. Ask a professional to show you the proper way of using this tool. The difference between someone that knows how to use it, one will inflict pain and the other relieve it.  I'm not too fond of having this tool sold to the general public either.  It is a double sided blade and they are not meant to be used more than once a session. The duller they get, the more prone you are to injure yourself with this type of instrument.  I will cover tools of the trade in another article, for now this is what a Credo knife is all about.  Be careful ladies and gents! 

If your health is compromised or you have diabetes, this tool should not be used by yourself. Consult your doctor about getting regular footcare by a certified footcare nurse. I strongly advise it. Diabetes is not to be taken lightly.