I am a normal dude with normal feet. I have a fine array of calluses on these aforementioned feet. Although I have never tried a pedicure (did I mention I was a normal dude?) to remove them, occasional rubbing with a callus remover thingy (looks like a small cheesegrater) has had little if no effect. I was considering having them surgically removed for a more-refined-footy appearance. (Normal dudes do this, right?)
I recently bought a pair of frou-frou absurdly-priced high-end flip-flops. (My normalcy has its limits. Hey: The quality is breathtakingly stupendous!) They have their fancy-pants monogram pattern carved deeply in relief all over the footbed. This has had some unexpected consequences....
On the first day of wearing them, kicking them off at my desk, I notice darker areas on the footbed in the outline of my foot. Closer inspection revealed this to be DEAD SKIN embedded in the nooks and crannies! (Gross, I know.) But after a mere 2 days of wearing these puppies, my feet were nigh as soft as a baby's bottom! The texture of the pattern combined with regular-dude footsweat sloughed off nearly all the unsightly callusing. Needless to say, I was delighted. But like the normal feet of many people, there are still calluses on other, upper parts of the foot. (Geez, this is more intimate detail than I generally perfer to reveal....)
So the idea is to make some loose-fitting, comfortable slip-on shoes with a similar texture not just on the insole but all over the inside. Merely walking around wearing these for a short time can remove unwanted skin thickening from any part of the foot, leaving your pods as soft and silky as mine are (well, as the *soles* of mine are, anyway).
You will want to spray these out periodically to keep all that dead skin and sweat from accumulating in there and getting too revolting.-- nihilo, Jun 29 2006 Callus http://dictionary.r...e.com/browse/callus [nihilo, Jun 29 2006] Callous http://dictionary.r....com/browse/callous [nihilo, Jun 29 2006] The sandal in question http://i4.tinypic.com/168wsrb.jpgThanks, eBay. [nihilo, Jun 30 2006] adidas http://www.amazon.c...mg=14#more-pictureswith massaging fingers [oxen crossing, Jul 01 2006] pumice stone and water works fairly well for this purpose as well.-- tcarson, Jun 29 2006 But it requires effort on your part. These shoes would do the work for you, just by your simply wearing them about.-- nihilo, Jun 29 2006 the effort is just distributed differently. pumice is cleaner, fairly simple, and is cheaper than this would probably be.-- tcarson, Jun 29 2006 Well, whether pumice stone or callus grater, either I have not been able to muster the amount of discipline required to utilize them with sufficient frequency to make a dent in my feet calli, or they just don't work all that well. Surely I'm not the only one with disappointment with these methods. Perhaps you have had more success? Perhaps you dilligently scrub your feet for 30 minutes 4 times a week? Perhaps your feet are less callused than my own? It's hard to say. I'm not going to do it that often for that long. It's just not going to happen.
Now, I can definitely attest that these lovely flip-flops have practically solved my sole problem in 2 days without a joule of extra effort on my part. I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds delightful the prospect of simple footwear automatically removing calli (rather than actually causing them).-- nihilo, Jun 29 2006 I know you would think that, [p]. I would have thought so, too. But my feet are SOFT. They are! Feel them. See? No, you can't see. Take my word for it.
I believe the difference is that they are comfortable, loose fitting, not abrasive. The insoles are made of rubber, not something rough or hard. They don't hurt; as a matter of fact, the texture feels quite nice. They are everything a pumice stone isn't. [tcarson] uses pumice stones -- presumably with "heavy friction" -- to remove *his* calluses... shouldn't pumice actually be *causing* them? (Hmm, maybe that's why pumice hasn't worked for me.) I have no doubt that if you made shoes of pumice, you eventually would develop more than calluses on your feet -- you would develop bloody stumps on the ends of your legs.
BTW, "callus" is the noun, "callous" is the adjective.-- nihilo, Jun 29 2006 i don't actually use pumice [nihilo]. i just gather seemingly useful information that is useless for me. i don't worry about calluses on my feet because i have to worry about more important things. things like how many fingers i have after a turning and the origin of the metal filings imbeded in my fingers.-- tcarson, Jun 29 2006 [link] 1: Callus : A localized thickening and enlargement of the horny layer of the skin.
You just stay right the hell away from the locale of my enlarged and thickening horny layer with anything that even resembles Pumice stone!-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 29 2006 i'd suggest granite to remedy that situation [2fries]. hit yourself in the groin with it and the problem's solved. pumice isn't dense enough for the application you mention.-- tcarson, Jun 29 2006 Wow. Put me right off my stew, that did, [nihilo].-- m_Al_com, Jun 29 2006 Well, as much as I hate bringing things back on topic... are you sure that the treads above the sole portion would work so well? On the sole, the downward force of your own weight keeps the feet rubbing against the bottom. I dunno if the sides would work. I guess we'll just have to beta test the idea.-- ye_river_xiv, Jun 29 2006 <logic nazi> //little if no effect// So 'no effect' => 'little effect'. But 'little effect' => /'no effect'. Therefore /'no effect' and /'little effect'. So occasional rubbing with a callus remover thingy has had a large effect?-- spidermother, Jun 30 2006 //are you sure that the treads above the sole portion would work so well? //
Isn't it the regular shoes that put the callus there in the first place? In that case, a similar shoe, with this purportedly improved callus removing design, should remove the upper calluses as easlily as normal shoe creates them, and at the same pace as the lower calluses are removed, as the uppers appear, at least on my feet, to be proportionally less thick than the lowers.
By the way, which type of flip -flop was this, [nihilo]? I'm partial to the adidas with all the little rubber fingers sticking up. Always keen to try new and greater flip-flops.-- oxen crossing, Jun 30 2006 //I guess we'll just have to beta test the idea// ... and until then, it's halfbaked.
Interesting proposal. What sort of footwear did you wear before, that caused such spectacular (and strangely easily removed) calluses (callii?)
I have one friend who would tell you that all footwear is evil as it goes against millenia of evolution, and that your calluses are the body's only proper footwear... but he's weird.-- moomintroll, Jun 30 2006 </logic nazi> No idea what you're getting at, [spider].
[ox] (& [moom]): I'm not sure which of my regular shoes created the calluses. Presumably it was the cumulative effect of all of them over time.
The flip-flop was a LV number with the flower logo all over the foot bed (see link). Worked like a dream! Now I just have a couple more calli that need erasing on some toes and my feet will be truly lovely.-- nihilo, Jun 30 2006 It's a trade-off.
You can have hearty Hobbit feet, with a thick, unsightly layer of callus protecting them, or beautifully baby-soft feet that may require constant pampering -- cashmere socks and the like -- but be a pedestal fit for pedephiles (podophiles? pedolaters? pesamists?) to lavish with adoration. Not that I actually WANT them to, of course... I'm a normal dude! ...who happens to want manly-sissy feet.-- nihilo, Jun 30 2006 I don't believe for a minute that those flops took off anything but a chunk of your wallet.
These are the ones: (link)-- oxen crossing, Jul 01 2006 Well those nubbins SURE aren't going to do anything aesthetic for your peds, [ox], though I'm sure they feel nice. Anyway I have no reason to fib about it. They worked so serendipitously well that they gave me the idea.-- nihilo, Jul 01 2006 random, halfbakery